Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


osu1126036336.pdf (11.46 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Constructing historical consciousness in Greece: cultural syncretism in the context of European unification

Giampapa, Robin M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1126036336

Abstract Details

2005, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Educational Policy and Leadership.
The purpose of this study is to explore high school students’ negotiation of historical knowledge in the modern Greek educational system. Both a theoretical and empirical inquiry into Greek students’ attitudes about history, the project is situated within the political context of a currently expanding European Union. Utilizing an ethnographic case study approach, data is collected in a mixed methods manner through history classroom observations, in-depth interviews, a detailed student questionnaire and photographic representations with lyceum students, teachers and administrators at Anatolia College, a private, college-preparatory school located in northern Greece. The data is analyzed using the constant comparative method and the results are considered in relation to the Greek national and International Baccalaureate teaching programs. This comparison is used to describe the ways students negotiate official and critical knowledge and how these forms of negotiation influence young Greeks’ historical consciousness. Generally, the study explores the relationship between education and identity. It is suggested that the latter be understood as engagements in various discourses, the former as a major participant in the process. Specifically, the study has been concerned with two distinct history education programs offered at the school, one constructed around a national curriculum and the other around a non-national curriculum, and how each participates in and influence students’ development of historical consciousness. The outcomes of the research reveal five discourses utilized by students in constructing historical consciousness. These discourses: common cultural heritage, burden of the past, autochthonous Hellenism, the mobiles and occidentalism, combine in complex, syncretic ways to form a collective identity among Anatolia youth that is comfortable with coexisting tensions and mixture. This analysis suggests that it is the ways in which students choose to negotiate the types of knowledge presented to them that they choose to engage in specific discourses. This implies that identities are not passive constructions of the educational process, but rather they are active choices and actively changing to suit certain conditions. Additionally, it suggests that Greek students’ cultural identity is one by which national identities are cast not as alternatives to a European identity, but as compatible with it.
Robert Lawson (Advisor)
270 p.
Greece; history education; historical consciousness; cultural identity; syncretic discouses; national curriculum; International Baccalaureate Program; European Union; constant comparative method

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Giampapa, R. M. (2005). Constructing historical consciousness in Greece: cultural syncretism in the context of European unification [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1126036336

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Giampapa, Robin. Constructing historical consciousness in Greece: cultural syncretism in the context of European unification. 2005. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1126036336.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Giampapa, Robin. "Constructing historical consciousness in Greece: cultural syncretism in the context of European unification." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1126036336

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1126036336
1,499
© 2005, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.