Listening to the winds of change: school leaders realizing intercultural education in Greek-Cypriot schools?

Abstract

This article explores the values, goals and operational strategies that guided the development of intercultural school policies in eight Greek-Cypriot primary schools, which differed in terms of the diversity of the student population. Interviews were carried out with the school-inspectors and head-teachers of the participant schools. Where appropriate, the findings were triangulated with data collected by means of teacher interviews. Interviewees argued that they aimed at immigrant students’ inclusion by creating collaborative school cultures, mobilizing the community and supporting their teaching personnel. Nonetheless, their underlying assumptions were bounded by primitive values and goals favouring assimilation. Such assumptions informed group-blind approaches that were fostered in their schools. Conclusively, the development and implementation intercultural school strategies were merely rhetoric reflecting socially desirable roles that were remote from actual school practice.