Cyprus is currently at a transitional point of its societal history, due to rapid demographic alterations alongside other economical and political changes that inexorably affect the country's educational system. Simultaneously, education and schooling are currently undertaking major reform as they struggle for balance between discourses of monoculturalism and monolingualism, nationalism and ethnocentrism as opposed to multiculturalism, Europeanization and globalisation. All these complex processes of resistance and acceptance, interchange and transformation between society and education bring to the fore discussions about culture and tradition and how they influence the construction of contemporary, individual and relational values and identities. Grounded in primary education and influenced by the field of Cultural Studies, the present research is concerned to understand how Cypriot teachers and their pupils manifest their cultural values through the discipline of art education and whether they relate their teaching and learning processes accordingly, to tradition, multiculturalism and the current circumstances which occur in their nation state. This research is in agreement with Vygotsky's (1978) notion that thinking is social in origin and that culture and history are inevitably involved in this 'social' perspective of thinking and learning that takes place within institutional education environments. By incorporating an interpretative methodological framework, influenced by visual semiotics and hermeneutics, I provide an analysis of 'learning instances' that occur during three diverse art practices, focusing on the ways that cultural values are reproduced, negotiated and transformed according to related discourses. To do so, I draw on the theoretical work of Barthes (1972), Foucault (1984) and Bourdieu and Passeron (1990) as well as on the work of contemporary theorists such as Atkinson (2002; 2011) and Kress (2011) and their concepts of 'pedagogised identities' and 'recognition' respectively. _ The findings of this research underline the urgent need for implementing an intercultural approach to art education, aiming to develop Cypriot teachers' and children's awareness and understanding regarding their own and others' cultural identities, thus enabling them to become not only critical and creative learners but also equitable democratic citizens.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:572970 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Markidou, Tereza |
| Publisher | University College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10020658/ |
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