Reflections on Policy and Practice in Multicultural Education in Cyprus.

Abstract

Abstract: Contemporary Cyprus society is no longer homoge-neous. Increasingly, Cypriots have contact with people of different cultures. The same happens in schools in Cyprus. In this article, through an ethnographic study, we investigate what happens today in Cyprus regarding the education of international and repatriated students. Analyzing the case study of a primary school class and two vignettes we try to clarify the status quo in the first part of the article. In the second part we attempt to answer the question: ‘Is our educational system a melting pot of every alien civilization and a kettle of cultural assimilation that perpetuates biases, clichés, racist behaviors and cultivates the idea that the different has no place among us? ’ Using naturalistic models of research, we developed the case of a girl from Iran who studies in a primary school in Cyprus. Through the analysis of two other vignettes, we attempt to answer the above question and at the same time to present a critical view of the situation of multicultural education in Cyprus presenting its prospects for the future. Our article, it is hoped, will give stimulus for possible changes and reforms within the Cyprus educational system. In such a way, the Multicultural Education in Cyprus62 Cypriot system will be able to initiate progressive international developments in the area of multicultural education.

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