Who can (not) be Greek? Citizenship, Identity and Belonging among youth of sub-Saharan African background in Athens

‘Who can be Greek?’ This was the question posed to the Greek society for the first time before the implementation of the Act 3838 in March 2010 which gave the right to access the Greek citizenship -under specific preconditions- to all children of legal migrants born or schooled in Greece. This change of the Nationality Code in order to include all those children was coincided by the economic crisis resulting into the rise of xenophobia, racism and extreme-right rhetoric. The outcome was the cancellation of the Act 3838 by the State Council in February 2013. Under this particular framework, the notions of identity and belonging formed among the youth of African background in Athens are explored. The ways those youngsters perceive not only themselves but also their peers, their countries of origin and the country they live in, are crucial elements of their self-identification. Researches have shown that the integration of the second generation is highly connected to their legal and social status. However, integration is a rather complex process, influenced and shaped by many variables and multiple factors. It is not linear; therefore, its outcomes are difficult to be predicted. Yet, I argue that citizenship acquisition facilitates the process as it transforms those children from ‘aliens’ to ‘citizens’. How these youngsters are perceived by the majority society and the State is one of the core questions of the research, focusing on the imposed dual ‘otherness’ they are subject to. On the one hand, they have to deal with the ‘otherness’ originating from the migrant status inherited to them by their parents, and on the other with the ‘otherness’ deriving from their different phenotypic characteristics. Race matters and becomes a means of discrimination against youth of African background who are perceived as inassimilable and ‘forever others’.

How teachers think about the role of digital technologies in student assessment in mathematics

This study concerns teachers’ use of digital technologies in student assessment, and how the learning that is developed through the use of technology in mathematics can be evaluated. Nowadays math teachers use digital technologies in their teaching, but not in student assessment. The activities carried out with technology are seen as ‘extra-curricular’ (by both teachers and students), thus students do not learn what they can do in mathematics with digital technologies. I was interested in knowing the reasons teachers do not use digital technology to assess students’ competencies, and what they would need to be able to design innovative and appropriate tasks to assess students’ learning through digital technology. This dissertation is built on two main components: teachers and task design. I analyze teachers’ practices involving digital technologies with Ruthven’s Structuring Features of Classroom Practice, and what relation these practices have to the types of assessment they use. I study the kinds of assessment tasks teachers design with a DGE (Dynamic Geometry Environment), using Laborde’s categorization of DGE tasks. I consider the competencies teachers aim to assess with these tasks, and how their goals relate to the learning outcomes of the curriculum. This study also develops new directions in finding how to design suitable tasks for student mathematical assessment in a DGE, and it is driven by the desire to know what kinds of questions teachers might be more interested in using. I investigate the kinds of technology-based assessment tasks teachers value, and the type of feedback they give to students. Finally, I point out that the curriculum should include a range of mathematical and technological competencies that involve the use of digital technologies in mathematics, and I evaluate the possibility to take advantage of technology feedback to allow students to continue learning while they are taking a test.