Dissertation committee:
Γεώργιος Παπακωνσταντίνου, Ομότιμος Καθηγητής, ΠΑΙΤΔΕ, ΕΚΠΑ
Αθανάσιος Βέρδης, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, ΠΑΙΤΔΕ, ΕΚΠΑ
Μαριλού Ιωακειμίδη, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, ΤΔΕΟ, ΕΚΠΑ
Δημήτριος Φωτεινός, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, ΠΑΙΤΔΕ, ΕΚΠΑ
Σοφία Αναστασίου, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια, ΤΑΦΠΠΗ, ΠΑΝΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΙΟ ΙΩΑΝΝΙΝΩΝ
Αντιγόνη-Άλμπα Παπακωνσταντίνου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, ΠΑΙΤΔΕ, ΕΚΠΑ
Ιωάννης Ρουσσάκης, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, ΠΑΙΤΔΕ, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
This dissertation focuses on the effectiveness and sustainability of the Greek State Secondary
Art-based schools. This special type of schools within the Greek educational system is
dedicated to the arts, the development of creativity and critical thinking as well as the
unfolding of the students’ talent.
There are a relatively small number of schools which have never before [from the time of their
establishment in 2004 until now] been the subject of research. This element combined with
the ever-growing global interest in the integration of the Art in the curricula makes this
dissertation original and necessary. In addition, the necessity of the present research is
reinforced by the fact that research on respective schools in educational systems of the
Western world is minimal.
The aim of the dissertation is to explore the organizational effectiveness factors of Art-based
schools and to put forward those ones affecting their sustainability in the future. Management
and leadership are examined as pivotal factors of organizational effectiveness at the school
level; thus, the dissertation contributes to the general research regarding the management
and leadership in education within the Greek context.
The research questions pertain to the two areas of the dissertation, efficiency and
sustainability, which are tested either independently with questions concerning the forms and
factors of effectiveness and operational sustainability, or they are intertwined and re-checked
with the adoption of individual organizational elements playing a decisive role in the smooth
operation of these schools. The research questions are summarized in two major categories:
1. General research questions
A. What are the external factors of effectiveness in Greek schools?
B. What affects the effectiveness of State Secondary Art-based Schools and why?
C. What are the internal organizational effectiveness factors of State Secondary Art-based
Schools? [ Art teachers, Principals, Students’ parents]
D. What are the sustainability factors of State Secondary Art-based Schools?
E. How do the effectiveness factors affect the sustainability of State Secondary Art-based
Schools?
2. Special research questions
A. What are the legislative and administrative particularities of State Secondary Art-based
Schools and what do they serve?
B. How do particularities affect the effectiveness of the educational process?
C. Who undertakes management responsibilities and leadership roles in State Secondary Artbased Schools?
D. How does the management staff affect the effectiveness and sustainability of these
schools?
E. What elements contribute to the form the school climate and culture of State Secondary
Art-based Schools [viewed as educational organizations]?
F. How these elements affect the effectiveness and sustainability of State Secondary Artbased Schools?
The literature review on school effectiveness highlights teachers, principals, parents and
students as key participants in research related to the effectiveness and sustainability of
schools as educational organizations. In this dissertation, three distinct groups, i.e. the school
Principals, the Art teachers and the students’ parents, were included as participantsinformants. Separate research tools were used for each of these groups.
A mixed methodology research design was adopted with the aim of exploring the areas of
effectiveness and consequent sustainability that emerged from the study of both the
literature and the structural particularities of the Greek educational context. This mixedmethod design aims to reduce the disadvantages of both the quantitative and qualitative
approach. Effort was made to obtain all the data [quantitative and qualitative] from all three
samples almost at the same time or with a small-time difference. The aim of the researcher
was to thoroughly explore issues concerning these specific schools by examining and
crosschecking participants’ perceptions and opinions.
The analysis of the rich findings of this dissertation provides a variety of results:
a. interested parties are informed in detail about the organizational structure, operation,
regulatory framework and problems faced by these schools; in this way, the dissertation contributes to the comprehensive study of organization, management and leadership within
the Greek educational system,
b. concluding remarks on Art-based schools’ effectiveness and sustainability factors help them
continue their operation in the future; these elements serve as a platform for other
researchers to understand the costs and benefits of their operation,
c. implications are drawn for the central authority decision-makers to take into consideration
when they design policy/ies intending to treat operational problems of these schools,
d. enrichment of international literature on Art-based Secondary Schools supports and
fortifies the exchange of opinions, interaction, formation and adoption of good practices for
the complete integration of Art in education.
The main results of the dissertation are summarized as follows:
The lack of a targeted and documented educational policy and the consequent lack of a
structured legislative and administrative framework (now containing gaps, ambiguities,
multiple interpretations) is the main factor in the ineffective operation of State Secondary Artbased Schools. Both the educational policy and the legislative-administrative framework
belong to the external or exogenous factors influencing the organizational - internal -
effectiveness of the State Secondary Art-based School. Moreover, the sustainability of these
schools is primarily related to their acceptance by the community, and it is associated with
the general societal appreciation of the art and the artists.
More explicitly, the effectiveness of the educational process and the sustainability of Artbased schools depend primarily on political decisions and the subsequent legislative
framework, both at the level of centralized educational authorities and at the decentralized
level of the art-based schools as well as at the level of local communities. Parents in this
research represent partly the local communities and serve as a basis of exploring diffusion and
acceptance of the Art at the decentralized communal level which is designated as important
prerequisite for the sustainability of these schools. The legislative-regulatory framework
governing these schools has a catalytic effect on their organizational structure and their
operationality. However, this framework in its current form is ineffective as far as it concerns
the main operating procedures of State Secondary Art-based Schools. The vertical top-down
management structure of the Greek educational system does not allow the Art-based schools
to take autonomous measures and implement policies and/or good practices to improve their
effectiveness and align their operation with the purpose for which they were created.
Consequently, these schools are treated as conventional schools both by the centralized
authorities (Ministry of Education) and local educational authorities (LEAs) who seem not to
consider their specific characteristics; thus, they jeopardize the existing schools' sustainability
and their acceptance by the community. Such political attitudes do not encourage
sustainability and, at the same time, discourage the creation of new State Secondary Artbased Schools in areas where they do not exist; as a result, students and local communities
are deprived of the benefits of Art Education.
Structure
The dissertation is structured in two parts: The first part includes the theoretical
documentation of the research and the literature review; it consists of seven chapters. The
second part includes the research, the data analysis and the research results; it consists of
four chapters.
The total of eleven chapters includes the following:
In the first chapter, the terms effectiveness and sustainability and their use in education are
clarified conceptually and theoretically. In the second chapter, effectiveness and sustainability
are explored within the context of the Greek educational system by adopting an extensive and
thorough systematic literature review. In the third chapter, the factors influencing the
organizational effectiveness of school units in the Greek reality are presented, analyzed,
documented and explained. The fourth chapter is devoted to art as a subject of education and
the related policies in the post-modern Western world. In the fifth chapter, extensive
reference is made to the State Secondary Art-based Schools in Greece, their identity,
organizational structure and particularities. The sixth chapter includes the discussion of the
epistemological background of this dissertation and the theoretical approaches regarding
perceptions and the acquisition of experiences. The seventh chapter concludes the first part;
it contains the evaluating remarks of the theory and literature and serves as a bridge to the
research, the second part of the dissertation.
The eighth chapter informs the reader about the “research identity”, that is, the purpose,
objectives, necessity, originality, major research areas and research questions and the
methodology design of the thesis. In the ninth chapter, the three samples, the tools used, and
the analysis results are presented. This is the longest chapter of the dissertation, since it
gathers a large amount of qualitative and quantitative data. In the tenth chapter, the main
results of the individual tools are collected, commented on as a whole and associated to the
research questions. The eleventh –and final-chapter includes the research limitations of this dissertation and offers proposals for further research and [re]shaping of the educational
policy regarding the State Secondary Art-based Schools and the teaching of Art, so that these
schools can continue to be sustainable in the future.
Keywords:
Art-based schools, State Secondary Education, Organization, Management and Leadership in Education, Effectiveness, Organizational Effectiveness, Sustainability
