The perceptions of high-level officers in Cyprus about intercultural education and their underlying assumptions

Abstract

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.