Understanding the difficulties of implementation of a teachers' evaluation system in Greek primary education: From national past to European influences

Abstract

This article delves into the reactions of national institutions to various external stimuli originating from supra-national policies formulated by international organisms and other bureaucracies. The authors argue that such stimuli, when ignoring various previous arrangements developed in a given social and/or historic (national) context, may disrupt the institution's balance. In particular, they create divergence among the three pillars - normative, regulative and cultural-cognitive - around which an institution is built and lead the main actors involved with it - players - to act with the aim to best serve their own interests. In the case of Greece the attempt on the part of the Greek government to establish a system of evaluation at the level of primary education - following the country's participation into the European Union - led to severe conflict among the actors involved and to the institution's neutralisation. Accordingly, the level of divergence between what is desirable (normative pillar), what is established by law (regulative pillar) and everyday practice (culturalcognitive pillar) became larger. Finally, the problematic institution's function resulted to an even more serious crisis, which could well be interpreted as 'creolisation' of the Greek education system.