The formation of young children’s national identity usually happens in early childhood. The family and social environment, the school and the national festivals play an important role and have a particular effect on the formation of a child’s national identity and on the identity of the national ‘other.’ Research has shown that kindergarten students have already form a strong national identity, in favour of the dominant national identity. This is combined with stereotypes and prejudiced opinions against the non-dominant national identities. For the majority of Greek students, the national enemy is usually represented by the citizens of Turkey. In this article is presented an action research which took place in a Greek kindergarten; its aim was to transform the children’s view of the neighbouring ‘other.’ The individual activities aimed to help the children to transcend the stereotypical image of the Turk as the enemy of Greece and to discover cultural similarities between the two peoples. The research showed that after the completion of the activities, the young students formulated significantly more positive views than their initial ones about this particular national ‘other.’
The formation of young children’s national identity
usually happens in early childhood. The
family and social environment, the school and the national festivals play an
important role and have a particular effect on the formation of a child’s
national identity and on the identity of the national ‘other.’ Research has
shown that kindergarten students have already form a strong national identity,
in favour of the dominant national identity. This is combined with stereotypes
and prejudiced opinions against the non-dominant national identities. For the majority of Greek students, the
national enemy is usually represented by the citizens of Turkey. In this
article is presented an action research which took place in a Greek
kindergarten; its aim was to transform the children’s view of the neighbouring
‘other.’ The individual activities aimed
to help the children to transcend the stereotypical image of the Turk as the
enemy of Greece and to discover cultural similarities between the two peoples.
The research showed that after the completion of the activities, the young
students formulated significantly more positive views than their initial ones
about this particular national ‘other.’
Primary Language | English |
---|---|
Subjects | Studies on Education |
Journal Section | Research Article |
Authors | |
Publication Date | January 1, 2019 |
Submission Date | September 30, 2018 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 |
We would like to share important news with you. International e-journal of Educational Studies indexed in EBSCO Education Full Text Database Coverage List H.W. Wilson Index since January 7th, 2020.
https://www.ebsco.com/m/ee/Marketing/titleLists/eft-coverage.pdf
IEJES has been indexed in the Education Source Ultimate database, which is the upper version of the Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson) and Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson) database, from 2020 to the present. https://www.ebsco.com/m/ee/Marketing/titleLists/esu-coverage.htm
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.