School empowerment discourse and the politics of the Federation of Secondary School Teachers in Greece

Abstract

This paper explores the position of the Federation of Secondary School Teachers in Greece about school empowerment in the period 1975-2009, in an attempt to examine its politics on specific issues related to teachers’ training, school administration and management and parental involvement in the school work. The research material was collected from fifty one (51) issues of the official Bulletin of the Union published in the period under consideration. A qualitative content analysis was then carried out on the basis of three categories concerned with the aforementioned issues about school empowerment; each category was classified into three chronological periods. Research data revealed that, over the last three decades, the Federation highlighted the professional development of teachers through their lifelong training, their active participation in the school administration system and their cooperation with parents at school as important aspects of school empowerment. Despite these advocacies, the Federation is still expected to formulate specific suggestions for the achievement of this goal. Key words: Empowerment, politics, secondary school teachers, Federation, Greece.