Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Children's educational engagement with nationalism in divided Cyprus

Children's educational engagement with nationalism in divided Cyprus Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a situated, theoretically informed account of national identity construction by exploring children's engagement with nationalism in the context of the classroom in divided Cyprus. The paper aims to illustrate how children enter and participate in the cultural world of nationalism in the classroom by accepting, resisting, and negotiating the ideological meanings they encounter there. Design/methodology/approach – The research on which the paper draws used an ethnographic approach. The paper draws primarily on teacher‐student exchanges during class lessons and, to a lesser extent, on interviews with children. Findings – The paper suggests that the process of engagement between children, teachers, and nationalism often produces powerful senses of belonging which are, however, always limited and unstable both because of ideological contradictions and ambiguities and because of children's access to alternative knowledge. Research limitations/implications – Though the ethnographic evidence suggests that nationalism in educational contexts produces powerful senses of belonging among children, more research is necessary to document the processes by which children consume nationalistic ideologies. Originality/value – The paper is original because it offers a dynamic explanation of national identity construction through the application of practice theory to ethnographic data which takes into account both the powerful institutional constraints imposed on children at school as well as their agency and ability to impact their worlds. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy Emerald Publishing

Children's educational engagement with nationalism in divided Cyprus

Download PDF
12 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/children-s-educational-engagement-with-nationalism-in-divided-cyprus-PkS5d6DPDh

References (55)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0144-333X
DOI
10.1108/01443331111164124
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a situated, theoretically informed account of national identity construction by exploring children's engagement with nationalism in the context of the classroom in divided Cyprus. The paper aims to illustrate how children enter and participate in the cultural world of nationalism in the classroom by accepting, resisting, and negotiating the ideological meanings they encounter there. Design/methodology/approach – The research on which the paper draws used an ethnographic approach. The paper draws primarily on teacher‐student exchanges during class lessons and, to a lesser extent, on interviews with children. Findings – The paper suggests that the process of engagement between children, teachers, and nationalism often produces powerful senses of belonging which are, however, always limited and unstable both because of ideological contradictions and ambiguities and because of children's access to alternative knowledge. Research limitations/implications – Though the ethnographic evidence suggests that nationalism in educational contexts produces powerful senses of belonging among children, more research is necessary to document the processes by which children consume nationalistic ideologies. Originality/value – The paper is original because it offers a dynamic explanation of national identity construction through the application of practice theory to ethnographic data which takes into account both the powerful institutional constraints imposed on children at school as well as their agency and ability to impact their worlds.

Journal

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy – Emerald Publishing

Published: Sep 6, 2011

Keywords: Children; Nationalism; Education; Divided societies; Cyprus

There are no references for this article.