Crisis, Austerity, and New Frameworks for Teaching and Learning

A Pedagogy of Hope for Contemporary Greek Education

Maria Chalari

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780367028602
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429671647
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book attempts to examine the educational consequences of the recent social and economic situation in Greece, and it explores—on a general level—new possibilities for teaching and learning at times of national crisis. Using Greece as an exemplary case, Maria Chalari demonstrates how the relationship between neo-liberalism and education is especially salient during difficult times; it also demonstrates the effect of this relationship on teachers' day-to-day experiences. By attending to, yet moving beyond, the negative implications of socio-economic crisis, this volume aims to present core educational values of the current era, as well as the crucial issues that may become opportunities for reflection and change.

Part I
The Context of the Socio-Economic Crisis in Greece and the Theoretical Underpinnings of the Study

1
Introduction

Introduction

In this chapter, I present the rationale, the social context and the conceptual-theoretical framework of my book. The chapter is organised into four sections. In the first section, I discuss the rationale and the social context of the book, and I present the view that it is not only necessary to explore thoroughly and insightfully the negative implications of the socioeconomic crisis, but also vital that we learn to recognise the core values of the current era and the crucial issues that may become opportunities— and even driving forces—for reflection and change. In the second section, I continue with the conceptual-theoretical framework within which the topics and issues presented in the remaining chapters are addressed. In particular, I discuss the starting point of the book, which is an ontological need for hope (Freire 1994). In the third section, I present a brief overview of the qualitative study on which this book is based. Finally, in the fourth section, I outline the overall structure of the rest of the book.

This book is an analysis based upon data from a research project, and it creates a space in which it is possible to think differently about schools and about teaching and learning. My main aim is to deliberately seek out possibilities of hope, particularly those possibilities which are articulated by teachers, and to present new frameworks for teaching and learning for contemporary Greek education. Throughout, it is not assumed that teachers have solutions, nor that they are solely responsible for reconstruction, but rather that they have a worthwhile contribution that may offer possibilities, and which should be heard. As a result, this book endeavours to give voice to teachers’ concerns, anxieties, commitments and hopes.

Rationale and Social Context

In the last few years, major political and economic changes have swept through Greece. The country is facing a severe economic crisis and is being driven deeper and deeper into recession with every passing day. It is also facing a serious xenophobic crisis, a crisis of values and an identity crisis. All of these, together with the global refugee crisis, have contributed to the generation of an increasingly complex society, uncertainty among Greek people and a sense of the unpredictability of the future.

Aside from the huge difficulties and severe problems that it has created, the current social and economic situation has also revealed new tendencies and possibilities in society. We may succeed in becoming aware of these, but only if we manage to sidestep the situation’s negative implications, and try to embrace a different way of thinking. What is different about this book is that it takes a deliberate and systematic stance of hopefulness. I will not be primarily reporting a set of findings or conclusions, but rather sifting and exploring the data of my research project for traces, glimpses and possibilities of hope.

As will be explained later (pp. 45–46), my position is one of standpoint epistemology, a standpoint of hope, over and against the dire and self-defeating discourse of despair which dominates the current context of Greek education and public life. In my book, namely, I attempt to look more closely at the Greek educational system in order to tease out the hope that I believe is already present. As the authors of the book Discerning Critical Hope in Educational Practices show by the use of the word ‘discerning’ in the book’s title, critical hope may already be present and need only be sought out (Bozalek et al. 2014).

I believe that this crisis is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to redefine our life goals. As Romer stated: ‘A crisis is a terrible thing to waste’.¹ We are living in crucial times, and we need to replace the ethos of survival that we have adopted over the past years with the belief in the possibility of a decent life and the promise of a real democracy. To survive crises, financial or otherwise, new stories must emerge (Bussey 2012); one can postulate that the education system is well placed to offer such stories. If we are able to consider the crisis from the bottom up, to see the gaps rather than the closures (Ball 2012) and to closely examine the breaks and rupture points through which new tendencies in society are disclosed and made apparent (Deleuze and Guattari 1984), then we can deploy and utilise education as a means of framing an imperative for insights and indications of what is to be done.

My main area of interest is education, particularly the Greek education system and its need to respond to the challenging and ever-changing circumstances of the socio-economic crisis and its accompanying social uncertainty. Greece, at this present time, is a fascinating place in which to study the evolution and nature of the challenges faced by the education system and its teachers. It is also an important context in which to rethink education as a process of self-awareness and empowerment.

As Rogoff (2008) suggests, if education could displace our energies from what needs to be opposed to what can be imagined, or could at least perform some kind of negotiation of their relation, then perhaps we would have an education that is reconstructive rather than reproductive. This socio-economic crisis may show us how to proceed, both in opening up new understandings of pedagogy, education and politics, and in establishing a notion of hope that is dynamic while being, at the same time, realistic. ‘It is the very depth of the crisis that may force the shedding of the most deeply entrenched (mis)beliefs about education, enabling thereby a new space for innovation and growth’ (Ball 2012, ix).

Halpin (2003) argues that, within narratives of decline and hopelessness, the seeds of change and a vision of what life should be like become apparent. Hopelessness does not merely form a useful starting point; it can even encourage creative and imaginative strategies for engagement, inclusion and social justice (te Riele 2010, 41).

These aforementioned ideas, combined with an approach built on the concept of hope, underpin this book. Hope, as Halpin (2003) suggests, has a creative role in encouraging the development of imaginative solutions to difficulties that give the impression of being uncontrollable—and it can be a vital resource and a theoretical tool for education. The philosophy of hope is a promising theoretical approach that has the potential to become a productive conceptual tool (te Riele 2010) for exploring a politics of possibility (Giroux 2003) in education.

In accordance with these considerations, my book attempts to examine the consequences of the crisis at the time of the research, while also exploring the possibilities of a better world beyond the crisis. Not wanting this book to be another text of despair, I do not simply concern myself with how bad things are; I try to avoid the voice of endless complaint, to disrupt the predominant messages of doom and gloom. I strive instead to think about the principles which teachers, policymakers and educational researchers cherish in the education process (Ball 2012), and to focus on the new stories that are about to emerge. The premise for this book is not to ignore the negative implications of the economic crisis in Greece, but to take the analysis of these as a point from which to begin, rather than one on which to finish.

In troubled times, it is very important to stand back in order to get a better perspective of the bigger picture. Although increased awareness of what is happening may have the potential to give way to feelings of hopelessness and desperation, another likely prospect is that understanding will not make us weaker; on the contrary, it will strengthen us. For this reason, my book begins by looking at how educational issues are currently experienced, concentrating on understanding what is happening now and on attempting to identify the paths ahead. How did we get to where we are now? What does the future look like? How might our future be different? What role should education play in preparing young people for such a different social, cultural and economic future? What is education for? What is its purpose? To put it another way: if, as Giroux (2003) argues, education always presupposes a vision for the future, what is this vision today (Fielding and Moss 2011)?

In periods of great transition, when times are stormy and uncertain, and young people are threatened by the possibility of transformations— or alternatively, the possibility of missing the opportunities for such transformations—education systems have to develop robust and urgent responses to prepare students to think more critically and creatively about the future. Through this book, I attempt to send a positive message which will encourage educators to think of practical and hopeful strategies for shaping alternative and better futures.

Conceptual-Theoretical Framework

Paulo Freire, in his book Pedagogy of Hope, writes:

While I certainly cannot ignore hopelessness as a concrete entity, nor turn a blind eye to the historical, economic and social reasons that explain that hopelessness—I do not understand human existence, and the struggle needed to improve it, apart from hope and dream. Hope is an ontological need. Hopelessness is but hope that has lost its bearings, and become a distortion of that ontological need … Without a minimum of hope, we cannot so much start the struggle. But without the struggle, hope as an ontological need, dissipates, loses its bearings, and turns into hopelessness. And hopelessness can become tragic despair. Hence the need for a kind of education in hope.

(Freire 1994, 2–3)

The starting point of my book is this ontological need for hope. Therefore, I put forward that we need to move beyond the narrative of ‘doom and gloom’ which is easily recognisable and arises at every turn and towards more hopeful narratives grounded in flexibility, well-being, happiness and health (Kelsey and Armstrong 2012). Through this book, I attempt to suggest that, rather than merely critiquing existing practices, we should try to imagine an alternative future. Hence, I adopt hope as my main conceptual and theoretical basis and the framework that informs my book, as well as a tool for exploring a politics of possibility in education (Giroux 2003) and an action-orientated response to despair.

Within the social sciences, conceptions of hope have only recently gained significant attention. In education, they have been used in many variations, from ‘hope theory’ in psychology (Snyder 2002) to social transformative pedagogy (Freire 1994; McInerney 2007) via pragmatist (Shade 2006) and critical (Biesta 2006; Giroux 2003; Halpin 2003) philosophy (te Riele 2009).

Rorty addresses the use of the concept of hope for social change through reform, suggesting that we replace naïve utopias with realistic but radical politics of hope (Halpin 2003, 5–6). Beyond Rorty’s contributions, however, we find a more critical approach to hope. As seen earlier, Freire argues that, while it is ontologically necessary to hope, hope needs to come together with political struggle. McInerney, like Freire, focuses on hope in terms of social transformation for equity. He argues that hope allows critical theory to take a step further, from merely understanding injustices to offering alternatives for action based on ‘a robust vision of hope that focuses on what is possible’ (2007, 263). Giroux (2003) similarly connects his ‘critical pedagogy of educated hope’ to political action (te Riele 2009).

Considering these insights into the use of the concept of hope in the social sciences, I would say that the concept employed in this book is closer to the critical approach which is rooted in the present, with eyes wide open to what Apple describes as the ‘commodification of education under neoliberalism’ (2014, xv), and which focuses on social transformation. I agree with the conceptualisation of hope proposed by Kitty te Riele (2009): that, for hope to be a practical and critical conceptual tool in the social sciences, it needs to be robust, attainable and sound. Hope should recognise the difficulties of the present situation before being able to come to an alternative positive vision; it should be located between wishing and planning, it should assume that the difficulties can be overcome and it should be ethically evaluated (Biesta 2006) and questioned in terms of its ‘soundness’.

The approach to hope which I employed in this book is very similar to Bloch’s ideas about hope. Bloch, in his magnum opus The Principle of Hope, one of the great works of the human spirit, was well aware of the problems that faced those who wish to negate the negation and move forward, and did not approach hope from a naively optimistic standpoint (Bloch 1986). Hope, according to Bloch, is in love with success rather than failure, is superior to fear and is neither passive like the latter, nor locked into nothingness. Bloch argues that the emotion of hope goes out of itself, makes people broad instead of confining them and requires people to throw themselves actively into what is becoming, to which they themselves belong (1986). Even if many people have rejected Bloch’s work, his ideas about hope still challenge us to think more insightfully about our own visions of a better world and offer a prescription for ways in which humans can reach their proper ‘homeland’, where social justice is coupled with an openness to change and to the future (Bloch 1986).

Moreover, as Halpin (2003, 16) suggests: ‘Hope has a creative role in encouraging the development of imaginative solutions to seemingly intractable difficulties’. Hope for the fut...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• List of Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• PART I The Context of the Socio-Economic Crisis in Greece and the Theoretical Underpinnings of the Study
• PART II Researching the Impact of Crisis in Greece and Seeking Possibilities of Hope
• Appendices
• Index