2005 SIETAR Europa Congress

“Your Culture, My Culture, Our Opportunity: Intercultural Theories, Tools and Best Practices for Education, Society and Business in a Polarized World”

Proposal for paper presentation

1. Title of presentation Secondary-school teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards cultural diversity in the classroom: The case of Cyprus.

2. Abstract This research project has received funding by the Research Promotion Foundation in Cyprus and it falls within the areas of intercultural studies and education with a specific culture view of human behavior and communication as applied to education. Given that the number of students of diverse origins in the public school system in Cyprus has increased, there has been a pressing need for the public school system to develop mechanisms to help both the host and the guest populations to adapt and benefit from multicultural interaction. Specifically, the objective of this study was to examine the extent to which secondary school educators were ready to prepare students for the imminent multicultural society Cyprus is evolving into and to assist them in raising their cultural awareness and enriching their professional knowledge in this area through training seminars.

The study of cultural awareness is a new field in the Cypriot context with very limited completed work, and no study focusing on secondary educators’ attitudes towards culturally diverse student groups has ever been performed. Data were collected through questionnaires which were distributed to both educators and students of public secondary schools islandwide as well as through interviews which were conducted with educators. Through their responses and the feedback from the students’ questionnaires, it has been concluded that a significant percentage of the teacher population would like to enrich their personal and professional knowledge on intercultural education so as to positively promote diversity, tolerance, respect and cooperation amongst their students.

3. Presenters’ information Ms Sophia Charalambous-Philippides Department of Foreign Languages School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Intercollege [email protected] +357 25 381180 92 Ayias Phylaxeos Street 3507 Limassol, Cyprus

1 Ms Anna Nicolaou Department of Foreign Languages School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Intercollege [email protected] +357 25 381180 92 Ayias Phylaxeos Street 3507 Limassol, Cyprus

Dr Chrisa Nitsiou Department of Social Sciences School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Intercollege [email protected] +357 25 381180 92 Ayias Phylaxeos Street 3507 Limassol, Cyprus

4. Session length and format Formal Paper/Research Presentation: 50 minutes

5. A 150 word biographical note about each presenter Sophia Charalambous is Senior Lecturer of English at the Department of Languages of the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law at Intercollege, Cyprus. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science with a Minor in Imaginative Writing in 1990 and her Master’s Degree in English Literature in 1993 both from Bucknell University in the USA. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Cyprus. Her research interests involve cultural and gender issues in education and she has participated in conferences with papers on cultural diversity in the classroom. She is currently the coordinator of a research project which aims at investigating the attitudes of public school educators in Cyprus towards students of diverse origin.

Anna Nicolaou is Lecturer of English at the Department of Languages, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law at Intercollege, Cyprus. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Athens in Greece in 1995 and her Master’s Degree in English Language Studies and Methods at the University of Warwick, UK in 1996. Her Master’s dissertation focused on the Communicative Approach in language teaching and examined the reasons for resistance to the implementation of methodological changes in public secondary schools in Cyprus. She has recently conducted a project which aimed at assessing secondary school teachers’ distribution of feedback to students’ oral performance. The results of this project were presented in conferences in Cyprus, Greece and Spain. Currently, she is involved in a research study the objective of which is the identification of the attitudes of educators of public secondary schools in Cyprus towards culturally diverse students.

2 Chrisa Nitsiou is Senior Lecturer of Educational Psychology at the Department of Social Sciences at Intercollege, Cyprus. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education, at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, in Greece in 1995. She continued with her graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, in the U.S.A. where she received her Master’s and Doctorate Degrees in Educational Psychology, with a Minor in Early Childhood Special Education in 1997 and 2000 respectively. During her doctorate studies, she participated and conducted various research projects regarding the development of assessment procedures for measuring children’s growth in all areas of development. Her dissertation research study evaluated the effectiveness of the use of a language assessment task, to measure the language development of monolingual and bilingual kindergartners. Currently, her research interests involve the identification of the attitudes of educators of the Cypriot public school system towards culturally distinct students, as well as the development of their cultural awareness.

6. Target audience: Who will most benefit from attending our session: All

Areas of professional interest:

Education, Research, Culture/country specific

7. Equipment & audio visual requirements

Overhead projector

LCD projector

Screen

Laptop Computer

8. Room size and set-up

Number of participants for our session:

Desired number of participants: 40

Maximum number of participants: 50

Preferred room set-up: Theatre Style

3 9. Session Description

In a world where there is a co-dependence of diversification and globalization, and where different types of mobility (of the individual or group, of labor or culture) all take place at the same time, the need to allow difference to exist against the scenery of standardization and homogenization is becoming more and more evident. That is why culture, which consists of the inherited ideas, values, beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge, that constitute the shared basis of a social action of a group of people, is being reformed as a tool of resistance against different dominant forces and as a domain of self-creation (Sangari, 1999). That is possible since, on the one hand, culture is both a structuring and structured category of human identity as it shapes and is shaped by ideological filters, feelings and political resistances, and on the other, it is a structuring and structured category of ideological state apparatuses. Therefore, differences in power, privilege and positionality that determine and are determined by culture are reproduced on all levels of human existence and human interaction and find expression in societal schemata.

4 In turn, multiculturalism as a concept was born as a tool of resistance against the social, economic and political conditions of minorities and dominated groups in diverse societies and found its way into the field of education. According to Sangari (1999), “there seem to be two major tendencies [of multiculturalisms]: those that recognize diversity only to contain or repress it, and those that wish to mobilize diversity for a radical notion of democracy”. Those multiculturalisms that are grouped under the first tendency have been critiqued as having politics that “revolve[s] around ‘incommensurable’ identities, reified ethnicities/cultures/nationalisms, [and] ‘harmonious’ assimilation” among others, while those grouped under the second tendency seem to focus on the development of intercultural communication, interaction and cooperation, oppose racism and denounce ethnocentrism and place an “emphasis on the unity and boundedness of cultures; they are cautious about essentializing group particularisms, and committed to a fluid dialogic, liminal heterogeneity” (Sangari, 1999). These two tendencies of multiculturalism are also evident in the multicultural education models that have been developed. Such multicultural education models include the assimilation model, the integration model and the intercultural education model.

5 Multicultural education models developed over time and they have constantly been challenged and revised. Recently, multicultural education has been redefined to include any set of processes by which educational institutions work and every aspect of a school’s operations: staffing, curriculum, testing, pedagogy, disciplinary policies, student involvement, and parent and community involvement (Nieto, 1992; Gay, 1994).

Nowadays, multicultural education takes many varied forms. However, multiculturalists agree that multicultural education is an idea, an educational reform movement and a process (Banks, 1997; Bennett, 1990). It incorporates the idea that all students regardless of their gender, social class, ethnicity, or race should have equal opportunities to learn in school. That is why multicultural education demands a school staff that is culturally competent, and to the greatest extent possible racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse. Teachers must be multiculturally literate and capable of including and embracing families and communities to create an environment that is supportive of multiple perspectives, experiences, and democracy .

Educational systems, however, have failed to address equitably the needs of all those they serve. Too often, minorities are not on an equal footing with their counterparts in school (Jacobson, 2000). Unfortunately, even teachers with the best of intentions sometimes inadvertently act in ways that devalue students in school. Classroom observation, students’ testimonies, student surveys, and assessment of students’ progress indicate that teachers often bring to the classroom biases and prejudices toward people different from themselves that influence interaction and communication in educational settings, determine students’ academic success or failure, build up or lower students self-esteem, increase or decrease their expectations.

6 Since schools are microcosms of mainstream society (LaBelle, 1976; Orieux, 1998), where culturally diverse and complex humane encounters occur daily, it is inevitable that society’s underlying values will be reflected in all educational activities and processes, such as the curriculum, the teaching strategies, as well as the assessment procedures. Teachers, students, administrators, policymakers are social beings who carry within them their individual, biological and psychological traits as well as the legacies of their ethnic groups’ historical background, collective heritage, and cultural experiences (Gay, 1994). Most educators, therefore, do not consciously or intentionally stereotype students or discriminate against them; they usually try to treat all students fairly and equitably. Still, teachers, like others in society, have learned attitudes and behaviors that are ageist, handicap biased, racist, sexist and ethnocentric. They have so internalized some biases that are not realized or recognized (Manning & Baruth, 1996).

In recent years, major demographic transformations have occurred in Cyprus, changing, thus, the demographic character of the island. According to data collected by the Cyprus Department of Statistics (2004), children from various ethnic and racial minority cultures make up a significant percentage of the student body in most large urban districts. This climate of diversity presents challenges for students and teachers alike. Educators who never before had to instruct these students are now finding they must meet this need and the public educational system found itself faced with the challenges of multiculturalism and was caught unprepared, mostly because all these changes took place in the span of a few years.

While there have been attempts in recent years to combat the problems created by the diversity of the population in order for both students and educators to benefit from difference, more emphasis has been placed on the development of programs at the elementary school level so that non-native students will be integrated smoothly in the public school system. In contrast, there is a lack of recent statistics concerning the number of non-native students attending secondary public schools. Indicative of the little emphasis that has been placed on the secondary educational level is that while a

7 number of studies has been carried out on the elementary school level, no such study has come to our attention to this day concerning secondary public school education. It was only this past academic year that an experiential multicultural education program on the secondary educational level was implemented on a trial basis in one high school in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus.

The aim of the present research study was to identify Cypriot teachers’ and students’ attitudes regarding multiculturalism in their classrooms. Data were collected through questionnaires which were distributed to 100 educators and 300 students of public secondary schools in the major urban centers of Cyprus, (Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca, and Paphos). Data were also collected through interviews which were conducted with 30 educators. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), as well as qualitative analysis methods. Through the teachers’ responses and the feedback from the students’ questionnaires, it has been concluded that a significant percentage of the teacher population would like to enrich their personal and professional knowledge on intercultural education so as to positively promote diversity, tolerance, respect and cooperation amongst their students.

8 10. Presenters’ biography or curriculum vitae

Curriculum Vitae

Name: Sophia Charalambous-Philippides

Education: Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science; minor in Imaginative Writing. Bucknell University, PA, USA. June 1990.

Master of Arts in English Literature. Bucknell University, PA, USA. June1993. Thesis Title: Laughter and Conception.

Positions Held: Senior Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages. Intercollege, Limassol, 2001-present.

Senior Lecturer, Department of Arts and Sciences. Cyprus College, Nicosia, 1996-2001.

Instructor of Communication, Officer Training Program. Police Academy, Nicosia, 2000, 2001.

Research Interests: My research falls within the area of cultural studies. My teaching of writing, communication and literature to culturally diverse groups of students for the past ten years has led me to formulate questions pertaining to the spaces opened up by the ways we produce ourselves narratologically, given our culturally diverse backgrounds. I am also examining how the categories of culture, gender, race and class interact to construct the post-modern subject at a time when the need to allow difference to exist against the scenery of standardization and abundance create a co-dependency between diversification and globalization.

Professional Member of: IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of Associations: English as a Foreign Language); CyTEA, TESOL; International Cultural Research Network (ICRN).

Awards: Burma-Bucknell Bowl Faculty and Staff Award for International and Intercultural Understanding. Bucknell University, USA, 1992. Received as a student.

Recipient of a Fullbright Scholarship. 1986-1990. Scholarship awarded for academic achievement; included full tuition and living expenses.

9 Funded Project: Identifying secondary school educators’ and students’ attitudes toward multiculturalism in the public school system and raising cultural awareness. Project funded by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation. October, 2004. (CyP 33,170)

Conference Cultural awareness in public secondary schools. Paper Presentations presented with A. Nicolaou and C. Nitsiou at the International Cultural Research Network Conference, “Exploring Cultural Perspectives”, Florence, Italy, July, 2004.

Dealing with Diversity in the Classroom. Paper presented at “Effective Language Learning.” Intercollege, Limassol, April 2002.

Grappling with Diversity. Paper presented with C. Georghiou at “Pedagogical Dialogues: Practical and Theoretical Issues in Tertiary Education.” Cyprus College. April 2000.

Publications: Charalambous, S., Nicolaou, A., & Nitsiou C. (2004). Cultural Awareness in Public Secondary Schools. International Cultural Research Network, ICRN Press (revised to be submitted).

Other Scholarly Activities: Panel Discussions "Teaching in a European Multicultural Cyprus”, Intercollege, Organized: Languages Department, Limassol, Cyprus, April 2004.

“Cypriot Women and the European Union.” Cyprus College. December 1998.

Editing Work: Editing Individual Articles for the Journal of Business and Society of Cyprus College. 1995-2000.

Experience: Administrative: Campus Program Coordinator, Department of Languages, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law. 2003-2004.

Research Project Coordinator. Project Title: “Identifying secondary school educator’s and students’ attitudes toward multiculturalism in the public school system and raising cultural awareness.” Project funded by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation as of January 2004.

Extra Curricular Participated in a Bi-communal Women’s Group on Conflict Activities: Resolution. Nicosia, 1996.

10 CURRICULUM VITAE Name: Anna Nicolaou

Present Position: Lecturer Department of Languages School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Qualifications: BA English Language and Literature , University of Athens, 1995 MA English Language Studies and Methods, University of Warwick, 1996

Dissertation Cypriot EFL teachers and the Communicative Approach in language teaching. Reasons for resistance to methodological change.

Professional Organization Memberships: IATEFL, CyTEA, TESOL International, The International Cultural Research Network.

Experience: Positions held: 1997-present Intercollege, Limassol Campus, Lecturer, Department of Languages, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Research Interests/Areas of Concentration Research Interests: Currently, my research interests fall within the area of intercultural studies and education with a specific culture view of human behavior and communication as applied to education. Recently, my co-researchers and I, Dr Chrisa Nitsiou and Ms Sophia Charalambous, have received funding from the Research Promotion Foundation in Cyprus so as to conduct research in this area of study.

I am also interested in conducting further research in the area of methodology in language teaching and classroom interaction, particularly exploring EFL teachers’ biases towards students whether these are related to students’ level of achievement, gender, socioeconomic status or ethnicity.

Funded Project Identifying secondary school educators’ and students’ attitudes toward multiculturalism in the public school system and raising cultural awareness. Project funded by the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation. October, 2004. (CyP 33,170)

11 Conference Presentations: July 2004 ‘Cultural awareness in public secondary schools.’ Paper co-presented at the International Cultural Research Network Conference, Exploring Cultural Perspectives with Charalambous, S.& Nitsiou C., Florence, Italy.

April 2002 ‘Uneven Distribution of Feedback in EFL Classrooms – Increasing Teacher Awareness.’ Paper presented at Intercollege Conference on Effective Language Learning. Limassol, Cyprus.

March 2001 ‘Unequal Distribution of Feedback on Learner Performance.’ Paper presented at TESOL-Spain 24th Annual National Convention. Seville, Spain.

Feb. 2000 ‘Feedback from English Language Teachers in Relation to Students’ Achievement.’ Paper presented at the 2nd Symposium of the Greek Educational Society on Educational Research. Athens, Greece.

Publications: Charalambous, S., Nicolaou, A., & Nitsiou C. (2004). Cultural Awareness in Public Secondary Schools. International Cultural Research Network, ICRN Press (revised to be submitted).

Other scholarly activities: Languages Department Coordinator, Limassol Campus, 2002-2003

Significant professional contributions or activities: Organization of the annual conference of the Languages Department on ‘Effective Language Learning’, Intercollege, Limassol, April 2002.

12 CURRICULUM VITAE

Name: Chrisa Nitsiou, Ph.D.

Education:

PhD in Educational Psychology, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MA in Educational Psychology, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BA in Early Childhood Education, ARISTOTELIAN UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI

Positions Held: Senior Lecturer, 2001-present: Department of Social Sciences, Intercollege, Cyprus.

Areas of Concentration/ Research Interests:

 Intercultural education  Bilingualism and assessment  Assessment of human development  Inclusionary educational practices

Professional Associations International Cultural Research Network, Council for Exceptional Children, National Association for the Education of Young Children

Funded Project

Charalambous, S., Nicolaou, A., & Nitsiou C. (October, 2004). The identification of teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward multiculturalism in the secondary public school system and the development of cultural awareness. Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (CYP 33,170).

Awards/Distinctions

1st Place Award Winner at the Competition for Young Researchers: “The Use of the Picture-Naming Individual Growth and Development Indicator with Young English Language Learners”. Poster presented at the Second International Conference of Clinical Psychology, Moscow State University, Moscow, 2002.

Research & Publications

Nitsiou, C. (2005). Assessing first and second language development in immigrant children (revised to be resubmitted).

13 Charalambous, S., Nicolaou, A., & Nitsiou C. (2004). Cultural Awareness in Public Secondary Schools. International Cultural Research Network, ICRN Press (revised to be submitted).

Nitsiou, C. (2000). The Use of the Picture-Naming Individual Growth and Development Indicator with Young English Language Learners. University of Minnesota, publication number AAT 9989139.

Conference Proceedings

Nitsiou, C. (2002). Assessing first and second language development in an English as a Second Language classroom. In “Bilingualism and education, from the family to the school”, Proceedings of the 2nd University of Vigo International Symposium on Bilingualism, Vigo, Galicia-Spain.

Nitsiou, C. (2002). The use of the picture-naming individual growth and development indicator with bilingual preschool children. In A. Gagatsis, L. Kyriakides, N. Tsagkaridou, E. Ftiaka, M. Koutsoulis (Eds.), Educational Research During Globalization, Proceedings of the 7th Pancyprian Conference of the pedagogical Association of Cyprus, Vol. A, 337-386, Nicosia.

Selected list of Conference Presentations

Charalambous, S., Nicolaou, A., & Nitsiou, C. (2004). Cultural awareness in public secondary schools. Paper presented at the International Cultural Research Network Conference “Exploring Cultural Perspectives”, Florence, Italy.

Nitsiou, C. (2004). The early identification of developmental difficulties in preschool- age children. Paper presented at the “Children’s Developmental and School Difficulties and Ways to Intervene”, Department of Education Conference, Intercollege, Limassol.

Nitsiou, C. (2002). Assessing first and second language development in an English as a Second Language classroom. Paper presented at the 2nd University of Vigo International Symposium on Bilingualism, Vigo, Galicia-Spain.

Nitsiou, C. (2002). The use of the picture-naming individual growth and development indicator with bilingual preschool children. Paper presented at 7th Pancyprian Conference of the Pedagogical Association of Cyprus, Educational Research During Globalization, Nicosia, Cyprus.