The Proliferation of Agricultural Schools: A Practical Education in Greece (1922–1932)

Abstract

Abstract This study analyzes the proliferation of agricultural schools in Greece from 1922 to 1932 from a social, economic, and cultural perspective. It examines the role of the Greek vernacular language—demotic—and vernacular education as tools for national and social integration. It investigates the links between the establishment of agricultural schools, the teaching of demotic in elementary school, and the integration in the labor market not only of thousands of unemployed Greek citizens, but also of approximately 1.2 million Asia Minor refugees who fled to Greece after 1922. The article examines whether limiting the Greek vernacular language to primary schools, with the continuation of both the dominant classical model of education and the use of "purist" (katharevousa) Greek in secondary education, created the prerequisites for upward mobility through education or reproduced the existing social and financial inequalities in Greek society.