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Drawing on data from the Republic of Cyprus, this paper uncovers elementary teachers' epistemological beliefs about mathematics. Twenty-two experienced teachers were invited to individual semi-structured interviews. Thematic data-driven analyses identified three themes and eight sub-themes, which I discuss, taking their socio-cultural context into consideration. This study suggests that applying predetermined frameworks directly taken from the literature when examining teachers’ epistemological beliefs in mathematics can be problematic, as they might hinder other culturally specific beliefs from emerging. In closing, this paper presents some implications for the results on teacher education and professional development, as well as ideas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the results of an exploratory study focusing on the perceptions of elementary school principals who espouse a critical multicultural approach and show signs of a social justice leadership style. The study has taken place in an ethnically divided society (Cyprus) in which the political situation seems to influence the ways in which school leaders perceive issues of justice and multiculturalism. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 principals who espoused a critical multicultural approach and subscribed to values of social justice leadership. The analysis of these principals’ interviews reveals two important findings—one concerning the conceptualization of critical multiculturalism in a society that suffers from ethnic division and the other concerning the contextualization of social justice leadership in this setting. The paper discusses the implications for leadership preparation programmes and for future research on social justice leadership and critical multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two case studies of elementary school teachers in the Republic of Cyprus are constructed to discuss how curriculum making relates to teacher biographies and sense of professionalism, as those are shaped at the intersection of their professional history and projections for the future, informed by and informing their constitution as professionals in local institutional and broader social contexts. Drawing on the ecological model of teacher agency, the two cases are utilised to examine how teachers’ narrated professional experiences in past and current schools were at interplay with their general sense of professional role and purpose as teachers. This complex interplay is simultaneously connected to the ways they perceived and constituted their pupils as well as to the ways they themselves were constituted by others as professionals. The examination of the two cases foregrounds the notions of teacher agency and of curriculum making as contingent, negotiated and negotiable, and opens up the space to consider the politics of both as those are permeated by micro-processes of subjection and subjectivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines children's conceptualisations of cultural diversity. In particular, this project examines the following two research questions: how do children define and understand the concept of cultural diversity; and what do they perceive as the implications of cultural diversity on their daily lives? To this end, interviews were carried out with 40 (immigrant and native) students, aged 11 to 12, at five primary schools in Cyprus, which presented high concentrations of immigrants. On the basis of our analysis of the data, the participant children appeared to perceive cultural diversity in terms of two contrasting perspectives. On the one hand, they viewed cultural diversity in terms of the cultural-deficiency perspective. Such perceptions stemmed from the model of monoculturalism implying the need to assimilate the culturally 'different' in order to counteract the negative consequences of cultural diversity. On the other hand, the same children also perceived cultural diversity in terms of cultural celebration. To this end, some children drew upon the model of multiculturalism to define cultural diversity as a culture-enriching and culture-celebrating process, pointing to folkloristic activities including traditional music, dance and food. Nonetheless, few of the participant children-both Cypriot and immigrant-defined cultural diversity in terms of the model of interculturalism, pointing to the intercultural exchange that stems from 'real' friendship development between natives and immigrants, equality of rights and inclusion. As the participant children appeared to confuse the meanings and languages of cultural diversity, this paper concludes with suggestions on teacher practices to 'crystallise' children's views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2004, the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus has launched an educational reform. The Ministry highlighted Cyprus’ participation in the European context and, by extension, the turning-into-multicultural character of the Cypriot society as the most important reasons, which necessitated such a reform. This paper seeks to examine the perceived curriculum of intercultural education in Cyprus. To this end, we explore how the conceptual and theoretical framework of the ‘new’ national curriculum influences key stakeholders’ understandings of intercultural education. Do they share similar understandings? Do they use the same terminologies? How consistent is their knowledge with the contemporary literature on Intercultural Education? All these questions will help us establish an understanding about the next level of curriculum development – the implementation level – and illuminate their possible tacit assumptions concerning the role of the teachers in carrying out of the declared policy on Intercultural Education. Most importantly, we will discuss the tacit assumptions that come to light through their expressed perceptions, addressing not only to the practises but also the essence of the term intercultural education and its originating interest in terms of human agency. Within this context we will deliberate how a broadly accepted policy, namely intercultural educational policy, becomes a vehicle that can be used to control, interact with or empower people and in particular those delegated with its implementation-in our case the teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For the past few years, the Republic of Cyprus has been pursuing a major educational reform across all levels of mandatory education, focusing especially on curriculum change, for the implementation of which in-service teachers have undergone a series of professional development seminars. Individual and focus group interviews with in-service elementary teachers, regarding their sense of professionalism within this curriculum change process, revealed that teachers positioned themselves largely onto different points on a continuum. These are conceptualized as positions veering between teachers’ sense of minimum and maximum autonomy over their participation in the development and introduction of the new official curriculum. Framed by a traditionally centralized context, these positions were discursively negotiated in contradictory ways which allowed multiple positionings by each teacher. The paper concludes with the implications of these findings for understanding teacher professionalism and positioning, as well as for considering how this might relate to curriculum change and implementation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]