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Scottish Parent Councils Association |
SPCA,. Newall Terrace,. Dumfries,. DG1 1LW... Tel: (01387) 260428 ..Fax: (01387) 260428...  |
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Scottish Parent Councils Association |
SPCA,. Newall Terrace,. Dumfries,. DG1 1LW... Tel: (01387) 260428 ..Fax: (01387) 260428... |
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Conference 2008 Safe Internet Use ------------------ Highlights of previous SSBA conferences :- 2007 Developing a Parent Council and Encouraging Parental Involvement 2006 The Way Forward for Parental Involvement 2005 Parents in Partnership 2003 Partnerships and responsibilities 2002 SSBA is fit for the future |
Conference 2000 ----------------------- Parental Attitudes to Sex Education in Greece Abstract Recently parental involvement in education becomes increasingly a central issue for discussion. As research has shown most of the childs education happens outside school and this is the case of Sex Education. Psychological research has indicated that sexual behaviour starts at an early stage of children's development and Sex Education is thought to be an important part of the overall care and education in both the family and the school. The aim of this study was to survey the attitudes and opinions of a sample of Greek parents on children's sexual development and sex education. An attitude questionnaire with closed and open questions was constructed for this purpose and was completed by 355 parents, mostly mothers. Data from closed questions are elaborated by descriptive statistical methods while those arising from open questions are handled using content analysis methodology. Results are focused on parental attitudes to some critical issues of Sex Education such as the extent to which families and schools can provide adequate sex education, at what age should support for sexual development and education be started, what kind of influences naked persons inside the home and immodest sexual scenes have upon children, what might be the long term aims of sexual development and education, what characteristics should a parent or a teacher have in order to provide adequate sex education. Discussion points on how the parents' attitudes may contribute to the educational policy and draw attention of teachers and curriculum planners regarding sexual development and sex education of children. Parental Attitudes to Education in
Greece 1 . This paper will draw attention to the results of some empirical studies about parental attitudes to several educational issues and support the argument that parents may have a reliable view and an important contribution in school decision making. 2. The ecological theory of human development proposed by Uric Bronfebrenner (1979) has shown emphatically that influences exerted by both close to the child factors (microsystems) and distant ones (mesosystems, exosystems, macrosystems) all contribute to the development and education of human personality and behaviour. Family as the initial and basic hwnan group, one of the most important microsystems, has been traditionally thought to be the most influential factor for children's upbringing and education mostly during infancy and childhood. 3. Recently parental involvement in education becomes increasingly a central issue of discussion. Schools are not longer believed to be the only factor which can provide the whole of children's education or can compensate for disadvantageous backgrounds on their own and unaided by the families. Teaching is recognised as something which happens in the home as well as in the school. 4. The concept of fainily/school partnership has received support from European Associations of parents, teachers and pupils. A confirmation of the value o parental involvement came from the "Parents as Parents" Conference organized under the British Presidency of E.U. in Edinburgh on 26-27 February 1998. All European countries have developed policies in favour of the involvement of parents collectively within the education system. 5. In Greece since 1985 a legal system of parental participation in decision making was set up which includes five councils and committees in different levels.
6. Some empirical studies in Greece have indicated that mutual understanding and collaboration between parents and teachers on some educational matters can be very effective. In one of these studies 75 nursery school teachers, 566 primary school teachers and 566 parents were asked to rate (in a scale 0-3) 13 differences between home and primary school and 16 differences between nursery school and primary school as to the degree each difference causes difficulties to the children in their adjustment to the first grade. The subjects were also asked to rate (using the same scale) 13 pedagogical strategies for smoothing transfer to the primary school as to the degree each may contribute positively to the transition procedure. By applying the statistical method Kendall W. it was found a significant degree of concordance in the estimations of the three groups of subjects (Kakavoulis, 1994). Similar results were drawn from another empirical study in 763 parents, 313 primary school teachers, and 186 secondary school teachers who were asked to rate 20 differences between p@ and secondary school as to the degree each difference causes difficulties to the pupils in their transition and adjustment to secondary school and also to estimate 17 transition strategies (Kakavoulis, 1984). 7. A more recent research was about parental attitudes to Sex Education. An attitude questionnaire with closed and open questions was delivered and answered by 355 parents. Data from closed questions are presented using descriptive statistical methods, while those arising from open questions are handled using content analysis methodology. Results show clear tendency of the parents to consider sex education from early years very important, to think that both the family and the school are not prepared enough to fulfill this role, to believe that sex education should have a deeper meaning for the children and that sex morality is a basic element of sex education. Parents echo to a great extent the wiews of the teachers and students. (Kakavoulis, 1997). UNIVERSITY
OF CRETE Alexandros
Kakavoulis M.A., Dip. Ed., M.Ed., Ph D. Hir.
Polytechniou 6 Tel.: 30 1
6391126 |
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