Abstracts

In the times of Greek economic recession, (youth) mobility has been a widespread phenomenon and has been manifested in multiple ways, such as the repatriation of economic immigrants coming to Greece in the 1990s, and the recent immigrant and refugee flows from Asia and Africa. On the other hand, thousands of −mainly young– highly educated and skilled Greeks migrate, a phenomenon broadly known as ‘brain drain’ (for other relevant terms, see Labrianidis 2011).
Mobility creates pluralistic and complex social identities and realities. At the same time, it is intrinsically related to processes of multiculturalism/ multilingualism. Although unfavorable educational policies have been generally exerted with respect to ‘folk multilingualism’ due to economic immigrants and refugees (e.g. for the Greek context, see Stamou & Griva 2014), the European Union promotes ‘elite multilingualism’, as it fosters the development of European citizens’ skills in mother tongue plus two other European languages as foreign languages (FL) (Commission of the European Communities 2003).
Against this backdrop, in the present study, I analyze Greek advertisements for the learning of German as FL by young people, as Germany, together with the UK, are the countries which have received the largest number of brain drain immigrants. The analysis shows that mobile youth is attached to several positive values, such as cosmopolitanism, cultural openness, career, intellect and research. Moreover, brain drain is represented as a form of lifestyle immigration (e.g. Benson 2011), while a passport discourse is drawn upon for the need of learning German as FL by mobile youth.

Presentation of the new National Strategy as a framework for the implementation of youth policies and the programs and initiatives developed by the General Secretariat of Youth Generation.

Presentation of Spanish experience in recent youth research.  Special focus will be shed upon the research programs: Transgang, Chief and AJOVE, all focuses on young people and orientated to non-formal and informal education.

Critical presentation of the current research on youth mobility, and challenging of the traditional notions of transition, suggesting a more flexible, non-linear, reversible and multilayered definition of this concept. Also, migration studies are critically questioned, and incorporated in the new conceptual framework of transnational mobile transitions.

The project has an empirical orientation consisting in the collection of qualitative data from different countries of southern Europe, such as Greece and Spain, in order to produce new findings about young people who live in precarity and are on the move (e.g. refugees, migrants, NEETS).

Researchers conducted fieldwork in these two countries selected as case studies in the project. Case studies are unique in terms of their geographical location, and people’s values, attitudes and practices. However, the transnational nature of the project requires the uncovering of tendencies regarding everyday-segmented practices of young people across the countries of the study. In this context, the ethnographic team of the project implemented several particular techniques in their fieldwork, including unstructured or semi-structured interviews with key participants; the creation of a detailed field diary to record observations, reflections and questions for further inquiry and information to support the interview material; and written records of informal conversations with individuals or groups. All of this material collected on English and in original languages. The transcribed interviews’ documents have been stored in a private database of the project.

A central aim of our interdisciplinary research project is to do ethnographic qualitative research in different parts of southern Europe, such as Greece and Spain, in order to envision similarities and differences concerning the life patterns of precarious young people on the move. The design and the content of the training the trainer’s manual and the empowerment of vulnerable young people through the cultivation of soft skills and competences (critical thinking, communication skills, language literacy, commons ethics) in the next steps of the project, will be based on our ethnographic findings.

The process of learning recognition is about making visible and valuing knowledge, skills, and competences that are still largely invisible. In the context of non-formal and informal learning, the term recognition has several different meanings. From the process of giving official status to competences (or learning outcomes) to social recognition in terms of the acknowledgement the value of skills and competences. Ultimately, it underlines the recognition that learning is a social activity and depends for its value on its embeddedness within a social framework.

This presentation initially describes the stages to be followed at the recognition process. We propose the realisation of the identification and documentation stages be made by using ePortfolios, the most widely accepted methodology. Additionally, we are describing the relationship between the purpose to use an ePortfolio and its design. By highlighting the relationship between purposes and design of an ePortfolio, we want to present a framework that provides information to use an ePortfolio in an educational context. At the end of the presentation, we explicate the concept of open badges as part of educational practice. Our effort is to pinpoint the potential to use them as an alternative credentialing system, providing recognition.

The project of the Festival and the Cafés of Plurilingualism of Thessaloniki is based on the academic issues of European universities programs, inserting the evolutionary model of training-research-action, innovative model. The model contributes to introduce the plurilingualism pedagogy of the Awakening on languages in the attitudes, skills and knowledge of the citizens, helping to create commons.

Our presentation refers to the annual Festival of Plurilingualism, a social event taking place in some cities of Greece, starting in Thessaloniki. The organization of the festival is an all year organization with open seminars, Cafés of Plurilingualism, open discussions once a month, broadcasts and projects inside/outside of the schools.

The Festival of Plurilingualism is organized by the Municipality of Thessaloniki’s Directorate for Education and Sport through its Programs and Lifelong Learning Department and the Municipal Company of Information, Spectacle, and Communication (DE.P.Th.E), with the support of Institutes and educational institutions from both within and outside of Greece.

The main aim of the Festival is to highlight the notion of pluralism and continuity as an experience of a society that actively participates in the efforts for collaboration, awakening the personality inside the human being, the solidarity, and the social action, both within and outside the city’s walls.

The Festival of Plurilingualism attempts also, to highlight the multiculturalism and multilingualism of Thessaloniki and general of the cities, to contribute to the universal understanding of the rich potential generated by the plexus of cultures, all the time searching to create new opportunities of meeting and collaboration, always looking for the best practices of inclusion, thus rendering Thessaloniki a polymorphic laboratory of art, thoughts and common action, a resilient city.

Mathematics tends to value, inscribe, symbolize and abstract patterns, categories or networks of concepts and relations that claim, at their best, to represent our human and non-human environment, its natural or social phenomena, the earth, the sea, the sky and, even, the minor particles of our material and immaterial reality. Mathematics creates algorithmic processes and offers machinic forces that normalize, organize, transform, control and govern life in the micro and macro sphere. In all these, one can easily recognize a dimension of mathematics as structuring and generating hierarchical relations. In opposition, a group of students in the department of early childhood education attempts to explore a transversal relation with mathematics performed out in the ‘public sphere’ of the city. Through creating offhand games, constructions and role-playing activity, a group of students explores how a tentative move of performing them in the ‘public sphere’ of the urban scape next to the university (i.e. the places of πεζούλια, άγαλμα, αχίλλειον, μεράκι) could result into a transformative and reconstructive regeneration not only of their own relations with mathematics but also of the ontic-epistemic status of the mathematical concepts themselves. The presentation will focus on discussing the creation of a video and a soundscape that stories the process of enacting the project ‘UnDo your Maths’ with student-teachers and adults as both a design and performative act in the noisy streets of the city.

Greece is confronted with the issue of refugee crisis in the past few years, which has shaped its social reality in another way. The education of refugee students has brought to light the demands of a multicultural classroom and the need for effective teacher response. The present study attempts to investigate and map out the views of primary and secondary school teachers working with refugee background students regarding the issue of bi/multilingualism, the presence of multilingual refugee students in their classroom and their relevant teaching strategies and methodological approaches. Our aim is to investigate and analyze the management of cultural diversity and bi/multilingualism in the state school classroom, the approach of culturally responsive teaching and the implementation of pedagogical strategies of intercultural approach in education as well as the synergy with educational authorities. The research findings of this study have emerged through the implementation of a qualitative method for data collection, such as semi-structured interviews with teachers of Chios Primary and Secondary Schools who teach in Reception Classes and DYEP and a Google Form questionnaire. Our findings suggest the need for ongoing teacher support in managing cultural diversity and bi/multilingualism.

It is estimated that more than 20,000 of the refugee and migrant population in Greece are children. The access to education is a key area of concern. According to national legislation, children are entitled to education irrespective of their legal status. Yet, access to education, including formal, non-formal and informal, remains challenging for many. Limited data on refugee and migrant children’s access to education in Greece currently exists, including on access rates and barriers to education. The Right of Education is a fundamental right that affects each child worldwide. This study initially refers to the Right of Education on the basis of the International Conventions. Secondly, it presents the official latest data about the Children on the Move in Greece. Subsequently, two formal national texts are examined through qualitative content analysis. The one is from Ombudsman in Greece (2017) and the other from the Scientific Committee on the Support of Children of Refugees of Greek Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs (2017) in order to highlight issues related to prevailing conditions on the Right of Education for these children. In discussion, suggestions are listed for the possible high-quality education of these children for as long as remain in Greece.

The aim of this study is to discuss the results of a qualitative study on Greek as a second language in non-formal educational settings. The research participants were refugees/immigrants and who were attending Greek lessons in Volos Immigrant Center (Steki Metanaston) and their instructors, volunteers teaching Greek as L2. The relationship between language learning and social inclusion was explored in the study. Social inclusion refers to ‘the process of [an] individual’s self-realisation within a society, acceptance and recognition of one’s potential by social institutions, integration (through study, employment, volunteer work or other forms of participation) in the web of social relations in a community (Kovacheva, 2014, p. 2). Through semi-structured interviews, the students and their instructors were asked about the reasons of learning Greek in the specific environment. Learning Greek was considered by the immigrants/refugees as a chance that could lead to greater job opportunities, empowerment and greater integration into the host society. Facilitating social inclusion was important for the volunteers too, who considered L2 learning as a vehicle for empowerment and social change. The study highlights the importance of second language learning for the social inclusion of vulnerable groups like immigrants/refugees.

In the context of recent European debt crisis thousands of young highly educated Greeks migrate for job opportunities, meritocracy or/and better conditions of life. This neo-migration (Bozatzis 2015), broadly known with the neologism ‘brain drain’, does not constitute a matter of debate only for the ‘serious’ media  texts, such as political newspapers, TV news, etc., but also for entertainment media texts, such as TV sitcoms, commercials and entertainment sites. Against this backdrop, drawing upon a combined analytical framework from sociocultural linguistics (Bucholtz & Hall 2005), ethnomethodology (Sacks 1992), interactional sociolinguistics (Gumperz 2001) and Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough 2003), our analysis focuses on extracts from popular Greek entertainment media which construct youth identities of Greek neo-immigrants. Focusing on ‘immigrant’ topics, such as the reasons for their immigration, the problems they faced in the reception countries, and the possibility of returning home, we revealed the patterns through which Greek neo-immigrants construct youth identities in their discourse.

The need to find efficient and sustainable ways to manage the large migratory waves coming into Greece highlighted the necessity to update and re-organize the local NGO sector according to international standards, hence invest, on high-skilled, competent youth workers and better conditions. Youth work and non-formal education had been for many years looked down upon and seen strictly as a voluntary or leisure activity. In this sense, youth work had been officially unrecognized and either unpaid or underpaid in Greece. The latest developments, however, highlighted the role of youth work in the social integration of refugees, hence, led to important developments in Greece, starting with the recognition of ‘youthwork’ and the establishment of the first trade union of youthworkers, claiming better working conditions and more opportunities inside Greece for vocational training and self-development.

Starting from this new reality, the study examines youth work from the perspective of youth workers and other practitioners working in the field and proposes a scheme on how to re-organize the inner structure and philosophy of NGOs and other relative bodies, in order to boost the motivation of youthworkers and peer employees. The study examines Motivational factors, including personal development opportunities and significance and expectations of new knowledge to current and potential employees. In this sense, it proposes a scheme based on the current needs and trends of the Greek market, by exploring a wide range of human resources and motivation theories and how these could be applied in the NGO sector. The proposals are based 1) on findings of relative research in the field about how the youth sector in Greece has been transformed ever since the so-called ‘refugee crisis’; 2) on the results of research conducted in the context of the Greek labor market, on companies active in fields other than the youth sector, but which could serve as a good example with regards to mentality and inner organization.

Facts and findings are analyzed and interpreted in order to reach conclusions regarding the significance of specific motivational factors (such as personal development) in one’s professional performance. In addition, the study highlights key areas for further research, since it combines a research of key motivation factors and their impact on current and potential employees.

This paper discusses museum initiatives which address immigrants and refugees in order to contribute to their social inclusion and focuses on educational actions that took place in Greece during the past three years of refugee crisis. Moreover, it examines the concept of participatory museum projects, their potential for intercultural learning and for creating “meeting places” for various and distinctive communities.

In particular, it analyses an educational project organized in a Second-Chance school of Attiki in collaboration with refugee families from Elliniko camp, which brought together young people from different backgrounds: young refugees, immigrants and natives. During the implementation, participants had the chance to meet, interact with each other, discuss their experiences, play, express themselves and enjoy being together sharing creative time.

This experience led to the formation of an “oral history exhibition” in school made by the students including “stories” collected from refugees and immigrants during the project. The evaluation of the project provided interesting insight on intercultural education and museum learning inside an outside the museum.

The proposed intervention will focus on the presentation and assessment of the pilot programme of the Hellenic Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs on agricultural education for refugee youth aged 15-18 years old, that has been designed and implemented together with the Agricultural University of Athens and the School of Agriculture of the Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki. The primary objective of the programme has been to empower the learners, helping them to acquire useful technical skills on agricultural education (including issues such as soil, crops, crops, irrigation, pest control), as well as soft skills. To this end, workshops with trainees, headed professionals and academics have been implemented. Apart from its training value, the programme has been designed to enable the refugee youth to produce agricultural products for their own consumption an/or for public utility purposes. The implementation period has been March to July 2017, and 300 beneficiaries participated (150 young refugees residing at the moment of the implementation at the refugee camps of the Region of Central Macedonia and another 150 residing in Attica’s accommodation centers). Against this background, the idea is to open a discussion with the public on the social inclusion of the refugee youth through informal and nonformal learning, via programmes as the pilot programme on Agricultural Education. In other words, we are interested in understanding how skills and competences development, can foster, on the one hand, empowerment, and, on the other social inclusion.

2015 marked the most intense migratory flow from the Middle East to the Central European countries, mainly through the Balkans. Greece was the main country receiving since a huge number of refugees, sometimes exceeding the country’s limits to assisting and caring for them (Karnezis, 2017). Refugees residing in our country, although only as a country, seeked ways to be further educated and become accustomed of the EU values and ways of life. Therefore, many of them, enter school classes and others join amateur teams while they were trying to promote social inclusion through informal and non formal learning pathways. Library access, librarians’ role, reading habits as well as information dissemination in the countries of origin of adolescent refugees differ, while discrimination among men and women exists (Schmidt, 2007). This paper aims to highlight the role of libraries (i.e. public, school) in the refugee’s youth education in Greece. Specifically, the way libraries in Greece are used and refugees’ youth reading habits as a complement to their school assignments and commitments will be emphasized. Finally, this paper contributes to capturing the reading habits of adolescent refugees and reveal the role of libraries in the Greek school education system.

The participatory concept has changed the museums’ strategies from education through experience to participation and has increased the debate about new forms of participation. The aim of this “participatory turn in” is to enhance citizen’s participation in taking political decisions, by establishing new ways of taking part in democracy. In the cultural context, and especially in the museum sector, it is essential for Museums to rethink all established practices and adapt them to the contemporary concept of “Forum” in order to improve the interaction with museum visitors, especially with young people. Moreover, in the age of digitalization, it is important for Museums to find new ways of interpreting culture to young people. Therefore, Cultural institutions have embraced the use of “Crowdsourcing” as a tool to engage the public and to achieve better participatory practices in heritage. These practices contribute to the concept of cultural democracy, by enabling teenagers to interact with each other, to create content, share knowledge and experience and to engage with cultural heritage. The current paper will discuss the theoretical framework of participatory Museum and the way that influences informal learning environments, by presenting examples of museum “participatory projects”, regarding crowdsourcing engagement of teenagers from Greece and abroad.