The Views of Greek Primary Education Teachers on the Formation of Cultural Identity

The aim of the present paper is to present the Greek Public Primary School teachers’ views on the construction of cultural identity as well as the role that the different collectivities play in modern societies. Exploring concepts such as “identity”, “diversity” and “cultural identity” and valorizing the theoretical framework of Habermas’ “Theory of Communicative Action”, the writers of this paper have applied the qualitative research of semi-structured interviews in order to collect their data. The participants were fifteen (15) Greek Public Primary School teachers while the questionnaire was comprised of thirty-two (32) questions. The findings indicate that: a) the teachers tried to define the meaning of “different identity” through the elements of otherness that arise from ethnic, linguistic and religious factors; b) the majority of teachers pointed out the religious aspect as the most important aspect of cultural identity; c) different ethnic groups necessarily have a different way of life, way of thinking or way of speaking; d) all teachers have unanimously stated that cultural differences are social constructs and not inherent in the members of a particular group; e) a person can move between different cultural identities; f) the majority of teachers argued that collective identities different from those of the dominant group should be preserved.