17-59

• Ανδρειωμένος, Γεώργιος

The contribution of education in general to the formation of the personality of the students and their political socialization is a commonplace. Textbooks of the primary school have often been used by political systems to socialize students according to their schedules in order to minimize any dispute in the future. As for Greece, during the last seventy years the material of such books is usually designated by special services of the Ministry of Education.The aim of this paper is to show the way in which the Peloponnese under Ottoman rule is portrayed in fifty-one (51) reading books of the primary school from 1937 to 1997, thus demonstrating the way in which national self-knowledge is configurated through the reproduction and adaption of appropriate texts by the compilers.Stereotypes are reproduced by the prominence of critical moments of the past and the present, such as heroic acts of self-denial and sacrifice. Peloponnese stands out as a nucleus of resistence and revolution and is the centre of interesting stories (narratives) and fables (traditions). This reminds us that in the formation of nations throughout history occurs what the well-known historian Delmer Brown described as making myths more historical and making actual events more mythical. In other words, national histories usually convey a goal for the future by often appealing to some understanding of the past in support of that goal.The heroic figure of Theodoros Kolokotronis emerges as one of the protagonists of the revolution in the Peloponnese since a considerable number of texts regarding his life and struggle for freedom from Ottoman oppression are comprised in the examined reading books of the Greek primary school.However, during the last years such messages have grown weak. The specific texts have been replaced by other passages conveying different ideals. Furthermore, circumstances have changed not only in Greece but also worldwide. As Steven Grosby underlines, “the reaffirmation of tradition and its transmission from one generation to the next necessarily involves modification to the tradition”.

• Educational sciences
• Political Science

• Education, Elementary
• Ιστορία
• Nationalism and education

Περιέχει σημειώσεις, Ανακοίνωση στο 3ο Διεθνές Συνέδριο Ανατολικών και Αφρικανικών Σπουδών - “Ή Πελοπόννησος κατά την Τουρκοκρατία και τη Βενετοκρατία, 1460-1821”, Γαστούνη Ηλείας, 5-7 Σεπτεμβρίου 2008.