Since 2008 the European Union has experienced an unprecedented economic turmoil which has led to a multidimensional crisis particularly affecting the countries of the South. The effects of the crisis for those countries have been tremendous. Unemployment rate has doubled between 2008 and 2012 while youth unemployment tends to become the norm, reaching 57.9% in Greece and 55.2% in Spain. (Eurostat data, accessed on 29th January 2014). Politically the economic crisis has been linked with the raise of nationalism, radicalism and political cynicism across Europe. In this context, public trust towards parliamentary democracy, towards the political authority of the European Union and the trust of citizens in their own ability to influence policies is constantly decreasing (Exadaktylos & Zahariadis, 2012; Eurobarometer 2012; 2013) while intolerance and xenophobia is on the rise (Human Rights Watch, 2012).

The broad question leading this research project concerns the ways in which this evolving situation affects young people’s political socialisation, i.e. ‘the learning process through which the individual learns political attitudes and behaviour from generation to generation’ (Quintelier 2013: 134). The particular focus of the study concerns the perceptions of teachers and students on the situation described above and their views on the role of the school in the development of democratic political socialisation in times of crisis, given the limitations in schools’ ability to adapt their citizenship education provision to new socio-political realities (Kakos, 2012).

The study will aim to contribute to our understanding of the model of citizenship emerging from the experience of the crisis by the youth and about the opportunities that currently exist for schools to offer education for active, democratic citizenship. Our understanding of active citizenship is based on the association of the concept with the notion of ‘strong democracy’ (Barber, 2003), and with the citizens’ commitment in the quest for social justice in diverse societies (Palaiologou & Dietz, 2012).

In the final stage this will be a comparative inquiry between three European countries. The project will build upon previous studies which have investigated the same broad area but with different focus and methodology and were conducted either before (IEA study; Torney-Purta et al., 2001) or at the start of the crisis (Participatory Citizenship in the European Union study; Hoskins et at., 2012).

This paper will report on the findings from the pilot stage which is currently underway in Greece.  The extent of the effects of the crisis in Greece and the strong indications that the Greek educational policies were not ready to respond to the recent social and political changes (Kakos & Palaiologou, 2013) suggest that such inquiry is not only relevant but also well timed and very significant.

 Research Questions

RQ1: How does the current economic, social and political situation in Greece inform students’ perspectives about their citizenship?

RQ2: How do school communities in Greece perceive the role of education in the context of the current economic, social and political situation in Europe?

Sub–questions:

1.            What are students and teachers’ perspectives on the current situation and the ways that it has affected the social and political context in which schools operate?

2.            How do they think that the current economic, political and social situation inform students’ perspectives about the role and future of Parliamentary Democracy?

3.            How do they think that the current economic, social and political situation inform students’ perspectives about their national identity?

4.            How does the current economic, political and social situation inform students’ plans about their future education and employment?

5.            How do students and teachers view the role of the school in the context of the current economic, social and political situation?

Barber, B. (2003). Strong democracy: Participatory politics for a new age. University of California: California Press Eurobarometer (2012) ‘Europeans, the European union and the crisis, Eurobarometer 79, European Commission, available online at: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb79/eb79_cri_en.pdf Eurobarometer (2013) Public opinion in the European union: First results, Eurobarometer 80, European Commission, available at: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb80/eb80_first_en.pdf Exadaktylos, T. & Zahariadis, N. (2012) Policy implementation and political trust: Greece in the age of austerity, GreeSE paper #65, Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southern Europe, London, London School of Economics Hoskins, B., Kerr, D., Abs, H.J, Janmaat, G.J., Morrison, J., Ridley, R. & Sizmur, J. (2012) Participatory Citizenship in the European Union, Analytic Report. London: Institute of Education Human Rights Watch (2012) ‘Hate on the streets: xenophobic violence in Greece’, available online at: http://www.hrw.org/features/greece-hate-on-the-streets Kakos, M. (2012) Embedding citizenship education: An ethnographic tale of Trojan horses and conflicting performativities. In: Jeffrey, B. & Troman, B. (Eds): Performativity in UK Education: Ethnographic cases of its effects, agency and reconstructions. Painswick: E&E Publishing Kakos, M., Palaiologou, N. (2013). Citizenship education for unity and diversity within multicultural societies: critical policy responses within Europe. Studies in the Humanities, 41 (1), [Special Issue: Globalisation from Below]. Palaiologou, N. & Dietz, G. (2012). A new era for multicultural and intercultural education: towards the development of a new citizen. In: Palaiologou, N. & Dietz, G. (Eds.), Mapping the Broad Filed of Multicultural Education Worldwide: Towards the Development of a New Citizen (pp. 520-530). Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Quintelier. H. (2013) The effect of political socialisation agents on political participation between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one In: Abendschön, S. (Ed) Growing into Politics: Contexts and Timing of Political Socialisation, Colchester: ECPR Press Torney-Purta, J., Lehmann, R., Oswald, H. & Schulz, W. (2001). Citizenship and Education in Twenty-Eight Countries: Civic Knowledge and Participation at Age Fourteen. Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).