“Family as represented in Language and Literature school textbooks of the Greek primary school.”
Thomas Babalis & Marina Vlachantoni
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Abstract
Family is considered to be a social institution, which not only follows the pace of the progress society is making but also influences it through the application of personal choices and expressions.By studying family throughout centuries, it has been found out that it is constantly changing and taking various forms. The form of nuclear family has been dominant nowadays, coexisting, though, with other alternative forms such as the expanded one, the single-parent one, the adopting one, the reformed one to name but a few, since contemporary societies appear to be more flexible as far as the needs, the values, the institutions and mostly the choices are concerned.
In order to find out whether school projects the family institution, refers to its constituent parts or analyses its forms helping thus, towards their acceptance and consequently contributing to children’s smooth adaptation in school and society in general, it is considered of pivotal importance to study the frequency and the way the family institution and its forms appear in the new textbooks of Greek Language and Anthology that are currently being taught in Primary Schools.
For the purposes of the present study, the New Cross-Thematic Curriculum and the corresponding syllabi have been under scrutiny in order to find out whether family and its forms are included in their aims and objectives. More specifically, the method of content analysis has been chosen for the textbooks of Greek Language and Anthology for all grades of Primary School. For the statistical analysis of the results, descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation statistics, independent sample t-tests and analysis of variance have been used, based on S.P.S.S.
According to the results of the study, the family institution has sufficiently been presented among other psycho-pedagogical and sociological issues. Family and its nuclear form in particular are sufficiently presented in the textbooks of Greek Language and Anthology. Its members equally participate in all activities. Not only do parents support the younger family members but also grandparents and they are presented in a way showing affection, interest and love.
However, the other family forms, such as the single-parent one, are not satisfactorily presented, a fact which is not in compliance with the aims and objectives of the New Cross-Thematic Curriculum and the contemporary ‘trends’, according to which the particular form is fast gaining grounds.