Open AccessTHE INTERCULTURAL ASPECT OF DISTANCE EDUCATION IN GREECE: A CASE STUDY OF EXPLORING EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP’S REPRESENTATIONS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Author(s) -
Nektaria Sakkoula
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
international journal of teaching and learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2682-7034
DOI - 10.17501/26827034.2021.1103
Subject(s) - refugee , pandemic , distance education , covid-19 , intercultural communication , qualitative research , pedagogy , sociology , intercultural learning , order (exchange) , political science , social science , medicine , disease , finance , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , economics
Intercultural education in Greece has recently been brought to the foreground, due to the worldwide migrant/refugee crisis. However, the COVID-19 pandemic outburst in 2020 forced distance education and, hence, technology utilization upon all stakeholders. In this regard, by adopting a qualitative approach and by exploring educational leaders’ representations, this paper aims to investigate whether intercultural and distance education principles can be combined in order for students with a different cultural background to continue attending their lessons, as most native students do. The findings of this study demonstrate that intercultural principles are hard or in some cases impossible to be applied in distance learning and consequently, refugee/migrant students end up falling behind or being entirely excluded from the educational process.