A Constructivist Grounded Theory on Education Policy and the Implications on the Formation of National Identity and the Political Concept of Cyprus

This knowledge-oriented research in education aims to construct a Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) to theoretically best account for education policy discourse in the formation of the national identity and political concept of Cyprus from 2000 to 2018. This is a relatively unexplored period with the succession of four different governments with different ideological backgrounds and approaches to national identity during which significant political developments related to the Cyprus problem took place.
I have applied CGT as the primary methodology and end product of this research with the support of the analytical dimensions of the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) to critically explore the ways in which Greek Cypriot education policy actors exercise nationalism and attempt to construct national identity and the political concept of Cyprus. Using a top-down approach, I applied CGT fundamentals, defined by Kathy Charmaz, and aspects of DHA to the commemorative messages of education ministers from 2000 to 2018. The latter was supported by elite interviews with key education policy actors and other archival data.
Within the political left-right spectrum, the ministerial commemorative messages of each government of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) from 2000 to 2018 project specific policy positions in relation to the past, current status, and aspirations for Cyprus. The data analysis color the political context in which the schools operate and, more importantly, reveals the themes, discourse, and macro-strategies employed as an attempt to maintain, construct, justify, or dismantle national identity.
In comparatively examining the data, this thesis concludes that governments and education policy actors occupy a powerful position in the socio-political construction and (re)construction of the discourses, concepts, and meanings of identity over time. The findings indicate that different identities are discursively constructed depending on the ideological and political premises of the respective government, the developments of the Cyprus Problem, and the vision of Cyprus.
The significance of this study lies in the fact that it offers new theoretical insights into nationalism in the RoC between 2000 to 2018, not only on why nationalism emerges, but also on how nationalism functions over time through four successive governments, under what conditions a nation or a community is projected and mobilised, and how national identity is constructed through education policy discourse in the contemporary setting of time-space compression.
In a data-driven manner, I also argue that nationalism is territorial and that, on this basis, the governments of the RoC seek to (re)produce territoriality, a continuing attachment to a particular land, by targeting the negotiation of symbolic national boundaries, spatial reconfiguration and national belonging in education policy. Special emphasis is placed on the ideological and political process of (re) producing the national land, be it the 'motherland' or the 'homeland' or even the 'special homeland'. In view of this, the construction of the inclusive 'us' and the exclusive ‘other' is also defined in territorial terms.
Outputs from this study
Maki, Ch. (2022), Territoriality in Education Policy. The Greek Cypriots and the Discursive Construction of National Identity, Proceedings of the 5th International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and Education, Athens, Greece.