European Dimension Aspects in Greek Schools. The Students’ «Voice»

Abstract

This cursive presentation reports on the preliminary findings from a pilot study investigating “European Union related issues” as perceived by a small sample of Greek secondary school students. On the whole, students seem to be in favour of pursuing European integration at both personal and collective (national) level, but several reservations are also recorded. The Greek school of today does not offer opportunities for students to learn about Europe, whereas educational developments in Greece are directly affected by the overall developments in the EU. The participants believe that the school should and could provide information and knowledge about the EU. The vast majority of the subject’s state that they have a very limited knowledge about the European Union and all related issues/developments. Something that the Greek school should “rectify” via formal and informal teaching. On the basis of these purely indicative results, several important parameters of the rather elusive “European dimension” issue and today’s school in the framework of the EU are further elaborated.