Session 8: Pedagogical Relations and Developing Countries
Chair: Pericles Tangas

Multiculturalism and Linguistic Education
Lapo Orlandi
"Esperanto" Radikala Asocio, Italy

No abstract is presently available

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An Inquiry into the Nature of H.E. in a Developing Country: The Case of Greece
Theodore Papaelias & Eleftheria Dogoriti
Piraeus Technological Educational Institute, Epirus Institute of Technology, Greece

After the 1970s about 70% of the population aged 18-24 of the countries of E.U. study in tertiary institutions (the U.S.A. and Canada had already surpassed that percentage). This paper aims to show that in many developing countries an exceptionally greater demand for studies in tertiary education has been developed than was necessitated by the market – in other words, this tendency cannot be attributed to economic reasons.
The methodology employed to explain why countries like Greece exhibit an exceeding demand is based both on the assessment of the dominant position, as it arises from the implementation of the model of human capital, and on the examination of the social and ideological variables. The analysis of statistical data concerns the period 1974-2003 and was carried out both at state and regional level. In order for the mosaic to emerge more completely, data is assessed (by econometric techniques) for the years up to 2010.
Furthermore, the dynamic of the market was researched (the last thirty years), taking also into consideration the consequences of globalization. Special attention was paid to the influences from the formation of a common educational policy in the framework of the Declaration of Bologna and the subsequent meetings of Ministers aiming at compiling a Common European Educational Chart (formulation of a Common European Policy). One of the outcomes of the research is that the essence of tertiary education has changed and also tends to diverge increasingly from its traditional role.
At the same time, for a more complete representation, the primary research was conducted using more than 6000 questionnaires in selected regions of the country. The results complemented the view that had been formed by the treatment of macroeconomic data.
Following that, a model was created, based on the Greek social and educational mosaic as it was formulated by the synthesis that was carried out; in other words, an attempt was made to generalize the Greek experience. This model purports to account for similar behaviour in the majority of the less developed countries – something that traditional economics fails to achieve.

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The ‘Function’ of English: From ‘Poor Man’s Classics’ to Liberal Lynchpin
Erica Schouten
English Department, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa

This paper will examine the way in which English as a disicpline re-invented itself, moving from its inauspicious origins in the nineteenth century to its preeminent position as a lynchpin of a liberal education in the 1950s and 60s. This discussion will draw primarily on examples from the New Zealand university system, but will attempt to show how these examples tie into much larger ideological (and international) arguments about the value of the humanities.
This analysis will focus on the conflict between the utilitarian roots of the discipline, and later critical movements which sought to emphasise the 'higher' values transmitted by a literary education. This conflict has an intimate connection to ideas about the university's relationship to the public sphere. I will then seek to show how this historical narrative could be applied to debates about the place of culutral and media studies in the university, and how this in turn relates to arguments about the 'worth' of a liberal or humanist education.