Greek Primary School Teachers Research Articles

Greek Primary School Teachers’ Narratives about their Role Negotiation during the Covid-19 Pandemic

No one can dispute the fact that the teaching profession seemed to be tested during the coronavirus pandemic. Teachers were called upon to perform a difficult and multifaced role, without help and support from the state. The issues that teachers had to respond to and solve are related to their autonomy, their digital literacy competences and their relationships/cooperation with students. The new working conditions terrified teachers, who had to manage their digital classroom through a violent readjustment. Under these circumstances, Greek primary school teachers’ narratives offer us their phenomenological perspective on how they coped with their teaching duties during this period of health and educational emergency. An initial attempt is made to empathetically approach the ‘world’ of four teachers, while the subsequent interpretive and critical analysis serves as a means to illuminate ‘hidden’ beliefs of their professional role, the reshaping of their identity, and their adaptation to the online teaching context. Through their narratives, the teachers reflect on the issue of the lack of support from the state. They also note that they found it difficult to manage their e-classes in such a short time. Finally, there is a need for more effective preparation of teachers in times of uncertainty and crisis.

DIALOGUE AS A TOOL FOR INTERCULTURAL COEXISTENCE IN THE MULTICULTURAL CLASSROOM: TEACHERS’ VIEWS

In the context of the present study, we attempted to explore teachers’ views on the role of dialogue and intersubjective communication, both in the public sphere and in the ecology of the classroom. The theoretical framework of the research was the theory of communicative action of Habermas. The research was conducted in the framework of the qualitative research method with semi-structured interviews as a methodological tool for data collection. The sample of the research was fifteen (15) Greek primary school teachers and the questionnaire consisted of thirteen (13) questions. The findings of the research show that teachers: praised the role of dialogue, recognizing its value in the effort to peaceful coexistence between different cultures; appeared to attach great importance to the role of dialogue in the classroom, recognizing its importance and value; stressed the value of getting to know new cultures, which can enrich the “native culture” with new elements; stated that social change can come about through dialogue.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0014/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

‘Why am I involved in environmental education?’ Using narrative inquiry to explore the identity and practice of teachers committed to environmental education

Based on self-reflective narratives, our study focuses on the lived experience of four Greek primary school teachers who are acknowledged for their personal commitment to environmental education. Their experience was narratively explored through recurrent conversations with them to bring out aspects of their identity and practice. The study was based on Connelly & Clandinin’s ontological and epistemological tenets of Narrative Inquiry, which we adopted as our approach and methodology to look into the teachers’ reflections on ‘why they became involved in environmental education’. We discuss how engaging teachers in generative reflective processes contributes to gaining insights to environmental education ‘from within’ and ‘bottom up’, while allowing us to re-think and re-imagine research in the field. We argue that research can thus act as a means of supporting learning for sustainability in terms of the personal and professional development and empowerment of teachers.

The Training of Greek Primary Education Teachers in Learning Difficulties

<p style="text-align:justify">Most Greek primary teachers, not having enough training in learning difficulties, cannot effectively help these students, nor easily include them in the school context. An exploratory methodological approach has been used and an ad hoc questionnaire with four dimensions and 44 items has been designed. In this work we focus on dimension IV: Teacher training. 205 Greek primary school teachers have participated. One of the main results has been that most of the participants consider training in learning difficulties to be important and believe that the lack of training greatly affects the inclusion of students with learning difficulties. Equally important is that the majority of participants consider that training affects their attitudes. It was also found that Greek teachers do not believe they have enough training in learning difficulties, due to lack of time, the cost of training as well as the absence of frequent training activities in this field.</p>

Stress and Well-Being of Greek Primary School Educators: A Cross-Sectional Study

The teaching profession has always been challenging, while for various reasons the magnitude of observed stress in teachers has been continually growing over time. This study was conducted to demonstrate the relevance of stress in this professional group and to generate evidence for the benefit of primary school teachers and, indirectly, their pupils. To this end, we examined a large number of school teachers in a descriptive cross-sectional study. The survey comprised 786 primary school instructors aged 21 to 65 years, 646 women (82.2%) and 140 males (17.8%), and was performed from March to October 2022. Participants were asked about their gender, age, marital status, place of domicile, satisfaction with their income, whether their income met their needs, number of children, whether they cared for a person with a disability, work experience, alcohol use, eating patterns, and their height and weight for computation of their Body Mass Index (BMI). The survey included the Teacher Subjective Well-being Questionnaire (TSWQ), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), the Healthy Lifestyle and Personal Control Questionnaire (HLPCQ), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The results showed that there were significant differences between the two sexes in age, marital status, work experience, smoking, alcohol use, and eating breakfast. Furthermore, there were significant differences between the two sexes in BMI, PSS Total, Dietary Health Choice, Harm Avoidance and Total HLPCQ. The variance of PSS Total was predicted by Sex, Teacher Efficacy, Total PSQI, Dietary Health Choice, organized physical exercise, social support and mental control, and Total HLPCQ. Between teacher efficacy, school connectedness, teacher well-being, organized physical exercise, social support and mental control, Total HLPCQ and PSS Total, the correlation coefficients were negative and significant at the <0.05 level. Between Total PSQI and PSS Total, the correlation coefficient was positive and significant at the <0.05 level. Between teacher efficacy, school connectedness and teacher well-being, organized physical exercise, social support and mental control, Total HLPCQ and Total PSQI, the correlation coefficients were negative and significant at the <0.05 level. In summary, we demonstrated that Greek primary school teachers experience significant stress, which is intertwined with their way of life, and reflected in significant decreases in their sense of well-being, quality of sleep, and overall life satisfaction, as well as in their standards of teaching.

Greek Primary School Teachers' Professional Experience as Digital Actors

The present study investigates teachers’ views on their experience as digital actors in the context of Greek educational policy. The interview was used as a tool for data collection. Findings revealed that the teachers in our survey highlighted the shortcomings of the Greek educational approach in terms of material and technical infrastructure and the training of teachers regarding ICT. Through this new digital context of education, teachers conceptualize their competence and self-efficacy, their self-perception, and their emotional response to integrating new digital tools into teaching practice.

Self-concept of Greek primary school teachers and their conceptions of force and weight among their years of service

This paper describes an empirical study (n=352) into Greek in-service primary school teachers’ conceptions of concepts of force and weight. A closed multiple-choice questionnaire is given to primary school teachers as a tool to explore conceptions, which has been used in previous research. The study population consisted of teachers at primary schools who work in the Greek education directorate. The research data is related to the teachers’ years of service, from where it is studied whether their teaching experience changes/reduces the alternative conceptions. The research data investigated whether the teachers’ teaching experience alters or reduces alternative conceptions based on their years of service. Years of service correlate statistically significantly with most questions. In particular, our results indicate that the alternative conceptions of teachers, reflecting misconceptions and preconceptions, reduce as the years of professional experience increase. Our study can be employed in science teaching, the design of Curricula, and teachers’ professional development.

A Study of Primary School Teachers’ Tendencies Regarding the Usefulness of Dramatization in the Educational Process

In this article, we attempt to examine the general teachers’ attitudes towards dramatization and the differences that arise according to their major demographic elements, using inferential statistics methodology. Our sample consists of 60 (sixty) Greek teachers, of which 15 (fifteen) are male and 45 (forty-five) are female respondents. The teachers completed all questionnaire’s statements correctly (without missing values), allowing us to draw valuable conclusions on both their knowledge and their perspectives regarding the usefulness of dramatization in a school environment and the necessity of its inclusion in the educational process. The analysis focuses both on the general teachers’ tendencies and the existing differences that are caused according to the respondents’ sex, age, years of experience and their willingness of working with immigrant students. Our analysis is carried out via the Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square statistical tests. These statistical methods are ideal for the comparison of data resulting from questionnaires based on the Likert scale, providing trustworthy and valuable conclusions about the attitudes towards the inclusion of drama in the educational procedure. This paper reveals important existing differentiations in the viewpoints of Greek primary school teachers in terms of dramatization in education, while it brings out a quite positive attitude towards the benefits of including drama in the teaching process of primary schools.

Resilient Users and Emerging Infrastructural Relations: The Making of Digital Resilience

Exogenous shocks propel organizations to pursue resilience to absorb strain, adapt to disruption, and continue performing their work. While prior research has offered insights into how resilience is activated to bounce back in the light of a shock, we turn our attention to digital resilience: the sociotechnical processes through which organizations cope with adversity, maintain operations, and ultimately pursue transformative activities by deploying and engaging with digital technologies. The absence of significant prior digital transformations leaves many organizations scrambling to build resilience during a shock, such as the pandemic, and opens an opportunity for theorizing the process and implications for digital infrastructure. Through a 2-years longitudinal qualitative study of how Greek primary school teachers practiced digital resilience in the face of COVID-19, we identify three distinct mechanisms of digital resilience and develop a grounded model on how these mechanisms cultivate the emergence of settled or contested infrastructural relations. Our study extends theory on the emerging field of digital resilience by highlighting its processual, sociotechnical, and generative nature and offers a relational view on digital infrastructure evolution.

THE ROLE OF CRITICAL PEDAGOGY IN EDUCATION: EXPLORING THE VIEWS OF GREEK TEACHERS

The purpose of this research is to investigate the views of Greek primary school teachers on Critical Pedagogy. Specifically, by applying the qualitative research methodology of semi-structured interviews, we tried to explore the teachers' views on Critical Pedagogy, on the role that Critical Pedagogy attributes to teachers as reforming intellectuals, on the duties that the teacher bears, both inside and outside the classroom, as well as on the teacher's "obligations" towards their students and society. The findings indicate that: a) most teachers were not aware of Critical Pedagogy; b) about half of the teachers did not agree with the role of the teacher as an intellectual; and c) teachers placed particular emphasis on the educative role of teachers, which, in addition to knowledge, should impart values and attitudes towards life.&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt; Article visualizations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0967/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Teachers’ Views of Children With Developmental Language Disorder in Greek Mainstream Schools

Within a modern school that follows the international rules of inclusive education is very important for teachers to be able to understand and meet the needs of children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The present study explores for the first time in Greece, the views of 122 Greek Kindergarten Teachers (KTs) and Primary school teachers (PSTs) about DLD, through an online survey that elaborated both categorical and Likert scale responses. According to the results half of the participants were not familiar with the term. Both groups of professionals reported that children with DLD have many vocabulary and syntactic difficulties in the receptive language. In the expressive language KTs identified more articulation and phonological difficulties, while PSTs referred mainly vocabulary and grammatical difficulties. The majority of professionals mentioned additional difficulties such as emotional and behavioral problems. Both groups identified a variety of challenges while working with children with DLD. KTs focused mostly on children’s emotional difficulties, while PSTs reported mostly their learning difficulties. The participants also recognized their own limitations regarding background knowledge and the need for further training. Furthermore, the educators mentioned that it is difficult for them to identify and support a child with DLD while, at the same time they acknowledged the need to collaborate with other professionals in order to meet children’s needs. The results are discussed in terms of their importance for raising awareness for DLD as well as for teachers’ better training, in order to efficiently identify and support children with DLD.

Factorial Validity and Measurement Invariance of the Principal Leadership Questionnaire in Greek Educational Context.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the applicability of the Principal Leadership Questionnaire (PLQ) to Greek educational context and to present the most important aspects describing educational leadership in a centralized educational context. It was sought to examine; a) the factorial structure of PLQ b) its invariance across teachers' levels of education and c) its concurrent validity. Data were collected from 730 Greek primary and secondary school teachers of 77 schools. Teachers were asked to fill in the PLQ and Teacher's Satisfaction Inventory (TSI). A bi-factor model was selected as the most tenable among five completive PLQ structures to describe teachers' responses. Moreover, PLQ was found to be invariant across primary and secondary school teachers. Multiple-group analysis results indicate that primary, compared to secondary school teachers, reported more often that their principals behave as a transformational leader. On the contrary, secondary school teachers' perceptions revealed that their principal implemented practices related to factor "intellectual; stimulation" more often than primary school teachers. Structural equation modeling showed that the general factor of the PLQ significantly and substantially predicted the "principal" facet of teachers' job satisfaction, providing evidence of concurrent validity of the Greek version of the PLQ. Implications and suggestions for future research and policy are discussed.

Principal’s individualized support and teacher’s self-efficacy: An empirical research

The purpose of this study is to provide evidence whether principals’ individual mentoring and coaching to support teachers could influence teachers’ self-efficacy. Data were collected from 843 Greek primary and secondary school teachers of 110 schools. Teachers were asked to fill in the PLQ to measure principal’s individualized support and TSES to measure teacher’s self-efficacy. CFA was conducted to identify the factor structure of TSES model. Consequently, results shown a first-order two-factor model fits best the data of TSES. TSES subscale, “Efficacy in Instructional Strategies” was excluded from the analysis. Findings of path analysis (Structural Equation Modelling analysis) showed that principal’s individualized support creating a culture of trust and respect could influence efficacy of teachers related only to student engagement. On the other hand, principal’s individualized support to teachers may not affect teacher’s efficacy related to classroom management. Implications and suggestions for future research and policy are discussed.

THE EFFECT OF TEACHERS’ COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS ON INNOVATIVE SCHOOL CLIMATE AND THEIR INDIVIDUAL INNOVATIVENESS

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the possible effect of school teachers’ collaborative networks on their individual innovativeness and the innovative school climate. In addition, 174 Greek primary school teachers’ views were explored about their collaboration networks (three collaboration types), their perceived individual innovativeness, the possible existence of innovative school climate, and the support they received in order to promote and/or produce new ideas and practices. Results showed that most of the participant school teachers belong to two categories of the five in the individual innovativeness scale, the early adopters and the early majority, although 20% belongs to innovators. Teachers’ collaboration network types affect innovative school climate and their individual innovativeness, but there were not found correlation between innovative school climate and perceived teachers’ innovativeness. However, collaborative networks within school have a higher effect on teachers’ innovativeness, and innovative school climate can be predicted by the network within school and among schools, as well as by the support that school teachers receive.&#x0D; &#x0D; &lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt; Article visualizations:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0671/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

A questionnaire-based survey for the evaluation of the knowledge level of primary school teachers on first-aid management of traumatic dental injuries in Athens, Greece.

School teachers can play an important role in improving the prognosis of traumatized teeth of school children through immediate onsite management or on time referral to healthcare providers. In Greece where the research in the field of dental traumatology is very limited, this issue is of utmost importance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge level of Greek primary school teachers and their attitude with regard to emergency first-aid management of traumatic dental injuries (TDI) occurring in schools. A cross-sectional descriptive study among 276 school teachers was undertaken in Athens, Greece. This was done through a two-part questionnaire-based survey including demographic characteristics, attitude, and knowledge of first-aid management of TDI. Data were analyzed using non-parametric tests for differences. Log Poisson regression analysis was used to estimate relative risks of low or high knowledge of first-aid management. The risk of lower knowledge score was almost double in teachers with <10years of teaching experience and almost threefold higher in those reporting that they are not interested in being informed about dental trauma. In the case of luxation injury, 69.9% of the participants would not take any immediate action and would refer the child to a dentist. In case of permanent tooth avulsion, 52.2% knew that the tooth can be replanted in the socket, whereas only 17% believed that this should be performed within 30minutes. Most of the participants would send the child to their own/family dentist, whereas only 4.7% would refer to an Endodontist. The knowledge of primary school teachers in Greece about first-aid management of TDI is limited. However, a clear positive association was found between knowledge of first-aid management and teaching experience. Reliable information about dental trauma may result in improving the knowledge level of Greek primary school teachers.

Greek Primary School Teachers’ Reported Practices Concerning the Implementation of Culturally Responsive Teaching: The Culturally Responsive Practices Questionnaire (CRPQ)

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The purpose of this study was to examine Greek primary school teachers’ reported practices regarding culturally responsive teaching. A questionnaire with 29 items was constructed, based on a number of relevant international research tools. Participants were 187 primary school teachers, in Northern Greece. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three psychometrically robust factors, Utilization of students’ cultural capital, Development of culturally responsive learning environments and Collaboration with parents and differentiated teaching. Items with the highest mean score seemed to focus on the promotion of trust and respect among students, while those with the lowest score regarded mainly the use of students’ diverse cultural heritage in the classroom. Relevant training, experience with students from diverse cultural backgrounds and urbanity were the background variables that seemed to have some relation to certain aspects of culturally responsive teaching reported practices. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Greek primary school teachers’ awareness of the special features of scientific language: implications for science curricula and teachers’ professional development

ABSTRACTThis exploratory study aims at investigating first the extent to which Greek primary school teachers recognize the features of scientific language (an archetype for the academic language employed in all school disciplines), and second and most importantly the functional role they attribute to these features in the construction of scientific discourse. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 30 teachers. Two versions of a one‐page extract, varying in linguistic specialization, were used as stimuli‐materials. Teachers correctly recognized the linguistically highly specialized version, but they were less able to spontaneously mention specific features (mainly syntactic complexity and terminology) contributing to this specialization. Worse still, they failed to recognize syntactic complexity as a feature of the specialized extract even after they were explicitly probed to do so. Moreover, teachers were found to only be partially aware of the functional role these features play in constructing the scientific world‐view. Specifically, teachers seem to put emphasis on the communicative rather than the epistemological role of the corresponding linguistic features. These findings stress the need for certain interventions both at initial and in‐service level of teacher education as well as at the level of science curricula.

Greek Teachers’ Perceptions about Citizenship and Its Functionality as Educational Tool in the Classroom

We are moving into an era of intense economic, social and political crisis, where the need of active and critically thinking citizens is imperative. Teachers play a key role in the transmission of knowledge, values and skills which are essential for students to become effective citizens. The aim of the study is to investigate teachers’ perceptions about citizenship and its functionality as educational tool in the classroom. Specifically I investigated their views on citizenship, on citizenship education and on ways of teaching citizenship, as well as, on the objectives of citizenship education that they consider as important. Finally, I examined the frequency with which they perform certain actions in their classroom. The survey was conducted in the spring of 2016 using a questionnaire with closed questions. In our research took part 183 Greek primary school teachers.

Comparative perspectives on professionalism and professional development: An exploratory case study of Greek primary school teachers’ perceptions

This paper, which is of comparative interest in professionalism and professional development, reports on Greek primary school teachers’ views on specific aspects of the aforementioned issues. A total of 234 participants provided survey data, using anonymously filled-in questionnaires during the school year 2011–2012. More specifically, by examining teachers’ responses to five parameters of each case, we found out that, regarding professionalism, most teachers tended to score highly the importance of collaboration with their colleagues, parents and students, as well as their pedagogical concern for the students and their achievement. Regarding professional development, the demand for lifelong education and training, and for studying specific educational topics, was underlined. The teachers of our sample highlighted the great contribution of professionalism and professional development in their school routine. Moreover, they were aware of the complexities of professionalism and professional development and they closely related them with their personal development and the quality of their work at school. This survey confirmed that teachers’ professionalism and professional development is a universal phenomenon.

Teachers’ views about pupil diversity in the primary school classroom

The present study explores Greek primary school teachers’ perceptions and views on pupil diversity in the classroom environment. A large-scale survey was carried out in order to examine teachers’ perceptions about pupil diversity and to identify personal and/or educational characteristics that can influence or predict these perceptions. The outcomes of the study reveal that Greek primary school teachers view diversity as a challenge more than as a barrier in teaching and learning, they can recognise at a high level the key elements of differentiated instruction as part of managing pupil diversity in their class and hold a negative-to-neutral stance on traditional curriculum implementation practices. The most influential factors and predictors of these perceptions and views are also presented and discussed.