A hundred years since the language-education reform of 1917
May 12th-13th, 2017
Ceremony Hall, Faculty of Philosophy of A.U.Th., Thessaloniki
The Faculty of Philosophy of the A.U.Th., the School of Primary Education of the A.U.Th., and the MA program of the University of Western Macedonia “Educational Studies: Theoretical, Research and Teaching Approaches to History and Local History”, in collaboration with the Greek Society of Education Historians, the National Research Foundation “Eleftherios K. Venizelos”, the Institute of Modern Greek Studies and the Glinos Foundation, organized a conference entitled “A hundred years since the language-education reform of 1917”, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs. The conference was held on May 12-13, 2017, at the Ceremony Hall of the Faculty of Philosophy, A.U.Th.
In many respects, the education reform, which was first designed and implemented in Thessaloniki in 1916, can be considered a significant breakthrough in the history of Modern Greek Education. On the one hand, it was the first one to focus on the deepest core of the reality of education, its internal reform, aiming, at the same time, to contribute to the gradual resolution of the language issue. On the other hand, it sought to relate the implementation of changes in education to the ‘designed social change’, which, in its turn, would facilitate the urban modernization of the Greek society. Of course, already since 1920, the leaders of the reform, in a self-critical spirit, detect in it a pedagogical proposal oriented primarily towards political praxis and, as a result, view the education issue as subordinated to political expediency.
On the occasion of the centennial anniversary since the inauguration of the reform efforts of the 1917-1920 period, the objective of the conference is to provide a scientific forum for the exchange of views and ideas regarding the achievements and the limitations of that particular language reform, but also the continuation and the setbacks of reform procedures in Greek education in the long period of the intervening 100 years.
More details can be found here.