Christina Hajisoteriou

• Phd (University of Cambridge)
• Professor (Associate) at University of Nicosia

Introduction In our globalised world, the goal of cultivating a rigid national identity through school history should be replaced by the goals of developing global citizenship and safeguarding democracy. School history should thus balance the feeling of belonging to the state with the feeling of being a global citizen by building students’ intercul...

This article discusses the results of a qualitative study examining the ways civil society organisations (CSOs) may better support grass‐roots initiatives for everyday peacebuilding via education in conflict‐affected societies, where official state processes have failed. Our research is set in the Cyprus context, where the conflict between the Gree...

This paper highlights students’ role as informal leaders and their efforts to take on active roles in decision-making processes. Students’ involvement in such roles entails an imperative process for the development of school inclusion. Literature has repeatedly focused on the multiple roles student voices play in, and the ways they impact on, the p...

Η σύγχρονη βιβλιογραφία έχει επανειλημμένα εστιάσει στον ποικίλο ρόλο των μαθητικών φωνών και στον τρόπο επίδρασής τους στις διαδικασίες της αλλαγής και της σχολικής βελτίωσης. Ωστόσο, δεν έχουν διερευνηθεί οι τρόποι με τους οποίους τα ίδια τα παιδιά ερμηνεύουν τους ρόλους τους ως ηγέτες, ιδιαίτερα σε περιβάλλοντα που χαρακτηρίζονται από πολιτισμικ...

Καθώς τα σύγχρονα σχολεία χαρακτηρίζονται από συνθήκες πλουραλισμού εθνοτήτων, ιδιαίτερων χαρακτηριστικών και ικανοτήτων, τα εκπαιδευτικά συστήματα καλούνται να αναπροσαρμόζουν τις προτεραιότητές τους ώστε να παρέχουν υψηλής ποιότητας εκπαιδευτικές υπηρεσίες εξασφαλίζοντας ταυτόχρονα τις προϋποθέσεις ισότιμης και κοινωνικά δίκαιης συμμετοχής. Από α...

Modern school education consists of a mosaic of over-pluralism of cultures, languages, ethnicities, abilities and other characteristics. Under these circumstances, educational systems face the challenge of providing high-quality educational services in order to maintain and sustain social justice. In this respect, inclusive and intercultural educat...

This article focuses on the importance of highlighting students’ role as informal leaders and their efforts to take on active roles in decision-making processes. Students’ involvement in such roles entails an imperative process for the development of school inclusion. Contemporary literature has repeatedly focused on the multiple roles student voic...

In this paper, we set out to examine children’s voices on inclusion through a systematic review of empirical studies carried out in Cyprus over the past 20 years. Specifically, it focuses on research related to this field and investigates the ways in which these studies illustrate the importance of children’s perspectives as a means for promoting i...

Over the last decade, various organisations, scholars and educators across the globe have been arguing for the need to foster dialogue between and with children regarding the world they want to have, in terms of both justice and sustainability. Research has shown that stories and storytelling have a world‐making and world‐changing character that ma...

Nowadays, educational systems across the world are called to respond to the challenges of globalization that have changed the dynamics of global mobility, and thus social structures. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to become inclusive of diversity in order to achieve or improve a sustainable philosophy of change, exerting a broader socia...

This paper reports the results of a document analysis study examining the policies, trends, and conceptions developed by the OECD in the last 15 years regarding the development and mainstreaming of globalised policies of migrant education. From the process of the analysis, three thematic categories emerged: (i) Socioeconomic aspects of education: I...

This research study focuses on how teachers experience, negotiate and resolve tensions through the collaboration with other teachers and members of staff and the factors which may influence, support or undermine their role as inclusive teachers. For the purposes of this study, we drew upon Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework to examine th...

The main purpose of this paper is to offer important insights into both immigrant and native students’ experiences on interculturalism as well as identifying their inputs regarding the ways in which intercultural school development could occur. Interviews were carried out with 48 children; 24 Cypriots and 24 immigrants from 4 primary schools in Cyp...

The challenge teachers and schools face nowadays is twofold: adopting an intercultural education framework and introducing high-quality teaching that will provide an equal opportunity for learning to all students, regardless of their ethnic origin or other characteristics. In this context, after we introduce the framework of Interculturally Differe...

Educational systems face various challenges: globalisation, the fourth industrial revolution, a global recession, and global mobility. As a result they have to become inclusive of diversity to bring about a sustainable philosophy of social change. It is therefore necessary to overcome the dichotomy between intercultural and inclusive education and...

Στο άρθρο αυτό παρουσιάζονται οι βασικές αρχές της Διαπολιτισμικής Εκπαίδευσης και της Διαφοροποίησης της Διδασκαλίας, αναλύονται τα σημεία σύγκλισης τους και προτείνεται μια συνδυαστική, εκλεκτικιστική προσέγγιση. Το πλαίσιο σύζευξης των δύο προσεγγίσεων, όπως συζητείται στο άρθρο, μπορεί να αναζητηθεί μέσα από τη θεωρία της Πολιτισμικά Ευαισθητοπ...

This research examines teachers’ conceptualisations of diversity and intercultural education. It also investigates the teaching approaches adopted by teachers within their culturally diverse classrooms. More specifically, the current project investigates the following research questions: how do teachers define and understand the concept of intercul...

“Post-Truth” is becoming an increasingly notorious notion, being even designated as the “word of the year 2016” by Oxford Dictionaries. It can be described as a cultural phenomenon where people increasingly believe their eyes, opinions and “gut feelings” to a much greater extent than cogent argumentation backed with data. Thus media reportage, popu...

Our goal in this article is to examine the nexus of globalisation and intercultural education through macro-micro integration. We, thus, aim to enrich the debate on globalisation by theorising the macro-micro integration process. To better explain issues regarding macro-micro integration we examine examples stemming from the phases of the developme...

Emotions have a great impact upon teachers’ daily practices and especially on the ways in which they understand and interpret educational policies. Teachers are the agents of social change; hence, their voices, views and emotions should not be ignored. This article investigates the ways in which teachers experience, negotiate and enact on the inter...

The literature portrays globalisation as a ‘Janus-like phenomenon’, implying that it has two ‘heads’ like the mythical giant Janus; beyond the rise of hyber-liberalism, xenophobia and socio-economic inequity, globalisation has also humanistic and democratic elements. In this context, a global agenda of social justice and equity of educational oppor...

Nowadays, teachers are called to address the needs of all students in their culturally-diverse and mixed-ability classrooms. Despite the widespread concern about the underachievement and marginalisationof students with disabilities and students from diverse cultural backgrounds; the reasons for this have, for too long, been attributed to the studen...

This research study focuses on the ways in which teachers’ professional identity is being shaped and influenced in ‘super-diverse’ school settings. For the purposes of this research, we used the Cyprus educational system as our case study to investigate how teachers experience the enactment of intercultural education at the school level. To this en...

Globalisation, migration and super diversity have urged teachers to cultivate their intercultural competence so as to work more successfully in their culturally diverse schools. Previous literature argues that teacher professional development for building intercultural competence plays a pivotal role in improving the intercultural school. For teach...

Despite the fact that both intercultural education and differentiated instruction are based on the premises of inclusion, equality, and equity, most research and publications have focused on one in isolation of the other. Scholars from each tradition often use the same argumentation, propose similar strategies and reach similar conclusions. Neverth...

Although the area of intercultural education, in general, has been widely researched, there is a shortage of published research examining the intersection of globalisation and intercultural education. In this paper, we try to answer the following question: What are implications of the global debate for intercultural education at the national level?...

This project focuses on the design and implementation of an online professional development platform tailored to teachers’ needs to improve and promote their intercultural knowledge. Drawing upon the framework of virtual communities of practice, the project escapes from traditional professional development programmes. Although a total of 103 teache...

Contemporary phenomena, including modernization, globalization, and migration, have altered the sociopolitical and cultural conditions of schooling. Schools are called upon to respond to such change through improvement efforts fostering intercultural education. To this end, this research examines school actors’ perceptions of the successful compone...

This research examines children's conceptualisations of cultural diversity. In particular, this project examines the following two research questions: how do children define and understand the concept of cultural diversity; and what do they perceive as the implications of cultural diversity on their daily lives? To this end, interviews were carried...

Postmodernity has created an era of change, within which adult education is called to respond to a wide range of new socio-cultural, political, and economic phenomena (Hajisoteriou & Angelides, 2016). Following this observation, we might argue that the epochal dimensions of this new era, such as globalisation, wide scale human migration, and global...

Globalisation has heavily influenced the terrain of intercultural education policy development and implementation in multiple countries around the world. To this end, in this article, we seek to introduce a broader focus of analysis encompassing not only the development of globalised policies of intercultural education, but also the adoption, imple...

The main goal of this study is to examine the barriers and prospects of intercultural education in Cypriot schools of the southern part of the island with regard to not only learning the language of the reception country, but also the language of origin. Taking this as the point of departure, this study aims to explore the content and goals of Cypr...

The overarching purpose of this paper is to provide a number of important insights into immigrant parents’ school involvement in Cyprus. Therefore, it examines the perspectives of all actors involved in the school–family partnership – namely head-teachers, teachers, immigrant and native parents, and immigrant and native children – through a multipl...

The main goal of this study is to examine how teachers and students experienced the implementation of educational activities, materials and related pedagogical strategies of collaborative art-making. The activities were designed to strengthen intercultural education and inclusion practices, reduce social and academic marginalisation and increase th...

The state no longer represents a cohesive legal space imposed upon a particular geographical territory that forms a homogenous cultural unit (Parekh 2000). The exposure of the modern state to external influences has led to the gradual disintegration of territory, sovereignty and culture, the very elements that previously expressed its solidity. Alt...

It is a common observation that educational matters are addressed in a global context usually to the extent they serve a neo-liberal agenda. Grant and Brueck (2011), for example, assert that the globalisation of education has implied the examination of the ways schools may produce versatile workers able to meet the challenges of the international m...

Globalisation has led to the emergence of common trends among education policies around the world. Nonetheless, Verger et al. (2012: 21) caution against what they call ‘hyperbolic arguments’ about globalisation leading to ‘absolute world convergence of policy and practice in education’. Locating the debate in the field of intercultural education, P...

Purpose The overarching purpose of this paper is to explore the transformation of intercultural education in Cyprus in the context of European integration. More specifically, it indicates the ways in which intercultural policy has been formed by complex and often counteractive influences. The analysis draws upon policy documents collected from the...

Over the last 30 years, the notion of intercultural education has appeared in educational discourses worldwide. Globally, most research in the field has focused on clarifying pertinent concepts, mapping cultural diversity, and developing appropriate curricula and educational strategies. However, the flourishing of neo-liberal discourses, along with...

This chapter includes an extensive review of prior literature on policy analysis and policy sociology with regards to intercultural education. The review of prior international research on conceptualising policy attempts to theorise the processes of policy development and implementation (and their interrelationship); examine the influences of the s...

We are today faced with unprecedented challenges due to the financial and economic difficulties of different countries around the world. These challenges threaten to tear the fabric of society in many countries. Addressing the situation and its related problems cannot be limited to financial measures. Instead, we have to deal with the real problems...

One of the biggest challenges schools face today is how to function equitably for all learners. The previous chapter presented some arguments of neo-liberal theorists regarding education. Neo-liberals believe that all people act in ways that maximise their own personal benefit. The world is in essence a ‘vast supermarket’ and ‘consumer choice is th...

The effects of globalisation can be felt in every aspect of society as well as in school life. These effects are reflected in the roles and practices of school leaders in today’s schools. The literature points out that the role of leaders is a crucial factor for improving schools. Some particular leadership practices appear to be more successful th...

The social changes associated with globalisation demand the introduction of new ways of thinking in educational systems across the world and the shouldering of new, more complicated roles for teachers. These roles are needed in order to respond to the needs of the contemporary times. Teachers should always take into consideration the conditions of...

Over the last few decades, social scientists have placed great emphasis upon issues related to the phenomenon of globalisation. Globalisation, as an ongoing process, has an important impact on all aspects of human activity from economy and trade to socio-cultural policies (Razak 2011). Such effects have become increasingly apparent due to advances...

This book examines the intersection of globalisation and intercultural education by focusing on the trajectory of education policy: from development to adoption and implementation.The centrality of the nation-state has been constrained by a wide range of new socio-cultural, political and economic phenomena over the past decade such as globalisation...

The overarching purpose of this research is to investigate native and immigrant children’s experiences of intercultural pedagogical practices in Cyprus schools. It also explores their suggestions for the improvement of policies and practices for intercultural education. Last but not least, it examines whether Cypriot and immigrant students share si...

Since 2004, the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus has launched an educational reform. The Ministry highlighted Cyprus’ participation in the European context and, by extension, the turning-into-multicultural character of the Cypriot society as the most important reasons, which necessitated such a reform. This paper seeks to examine the per...

As policies for social justice are authoritative allocations of values, educational researchers should link the micropolitics of actors’ agency and personal relations to a systemic analysis of power structures. To this end, this chapter examines (a) the influence of policy-makers’ and school actors’ values upon the development of educational polici...

This article examines (a) the official policy for social justice as developed by the Ministry of Education and Culture and its policy-makers, (b) the ways in which school leaders (head teachers) and school actors (teachers) understand education policy for social justice, and (c) the impact of this process on school leaders’ and actors’ action or in...

European societies have become increasingly diverse as a result of legal and illegal migration flows, and educationists are facing the challenge of how to address the presence of migrant students. In recent years, there has been increasing activity at European level in the field of intercultural education despite the principle of subsidiarity. This...

Το βιβλίο αποτελεί έναν συλλογικό τόμο επιμελημένο από τους Χριστίνα Χατζησωτηρίου και Κωνσταντίνο Ξενοφώντος, που πραγματεύεται σύγχρονα θέματα της διαπολιτισμικής εκπαίδευσης. Αποτελείται από 13 συνολικά κεφάλαια νέων ερευνητών, με το καθένα να εξετάζει τη διαπολιτισμική εκπαίδευση υπό το πρίσμα του γνωστικού τομέα του συγγραφέα του. Είναι, πιστε...

European societies rely on different models to address cultural and religious diversity in education, with different potential consequences for the experiences youth have in schools. Some prefer the term intercultural education emphasising dialogue and interaction while others have historically followed the idea of multicultural education. In recen...

The overarching purpose of this study is to examine the prospects of school leadership for the development of intercultural education. The article focuses on the ways in which Greek-Cypriot headteachers conceptualize: diversity and intercultural education; and their school leadership roles in culturally diverse settings. To this extent, interviews...

The main goal of this study is to examine the politics of the development of intercultural education policy in Cyprus. More specifically, it examines the content of intercultural policies developed by the state and particularly the Ministry of Education and Culture. In addition, the study focuses on the challenges that may impede the development an...

In the context of Cyprus’s accession to the European Union and a huge wave of immigration towards the country, teachers are called upon to teach within more diverse educational settings. In consideration of the substantial role teachers play in implementing intercultural education, this study explores their perceptions of the reform of intercultura...

Background: In the context of Cyprus’ accession to the European Union (2004) and a noteworthy increase in immigration towards Cyprus, the Cypriot state was called upon to build more complete and coherent policies addressing culturally diverse educational settings. Cypriot education has historically enforced the nation-building project. However, sin...

This article explores the values, goals and operational strategies that guided the development of intercultural school policies in eight Greek-Cypriot primary schools, which differed in terms of the diversity of the student population. Interviews were carried out with the school-inspectors and head-teachers of the participant schools. Where appropr...

In 2010, the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) in Cyprus introduced a ‘new’ national curriculum for all public schools of the Cypriot republic. The overarching purpose of this study is to examine how the ongoing educational reform in Cyprus could set a different ideological framework, within which intercultural education may be developed and...

Teachers in Cyprus are being called upon for the first time to teach within culturally diverse educational settings. Given the substantial role, teachers play in the implementation of intercultural education, this paper explores the intercultural strategies and procedures adopted by primary school teachers in Cyprus. Interviews were carried out wit...

In the context of Cyprus’ accession to the European Union and a huge wave of immigration towards the country, Cypriot teachers are called upon to teach within constantly more diverse educational settings. In consideration of the increased attention paid to intercultural education within the Cypriot socio-political environment, teachers are called u...

This paper explores the significance of special teachers' leadership roles that guided the development of inclusive education in two Cypriot primary schools. It thus examines not only the roles that special teachers adopted in order to promote inclusive education but also the barriers that hindered their efforts. Interviews were carried out with th...

The development and implementation of inclusive practices can potentially enhance intercultural education. Through the case study of a primary school in Cyprus, we investigated the practices that were developed and applied by the school itself, which aimed to reduce the marginalisation of students who came from abroad. The practices relate to the p...

Europeanisation has played an important role in the transformation of Cypriot intercultural education. This paper reports on a review of policy- related documents and semi-structured interviews carried out with Cypriot policy-makers. Influenced by European developments intercultural education became an important part of the Cypriot state’s rhetoric...

The socio-historical context of Cyprus entails various consequences for Greek-Cypriot education. However, the distinctive character of Greek-Cypriot education does not only have historical credentials, but it is also bound to the contemporary situation that includes Cyprus' accession to the EU. This paper explores the ways in which history influenc...

Historically, education policy making has been interwoven with the nation-building project. However, the centrality of the nation state in education policy making has been constrained by a wide range of new socio-political and economic phenomena that relate to European integration. This article explores the ways in which European education policies...

Europeanisation has played an important role in the transformation of Cypriot multicultural education. This paper reports on a review of policy-related documents and semi-structured interviews carried out with Cypriot policy-makers. Theoretical insights from policy sociology and theories of Europeanisation are used to examine this research endeavou...