Categorie: research

In December 2022, my first book came out, on approaches to teaching Latin and ancient Greek at primary school. The book is available for purchase internationally via online book stores.

A first review was very positive: ‘Classics at Primary School is an engaging and practical guide to promoting social justice through classics. Evelien Bracke provides an exemplar of teacher self-reflection, makes a convincing case that classics can and should be employed as a tool for social equity, and explicates a justice-oriented and culturally responsive approach to pedagogy that is firmly grounded in educational research and theory. Classics at Primary School has something to offer all stakeholders in education, and it would make a particularly impactful addition to any pre-service teacher’s reading list.’

The book was also mentioned recently by the Greek Elliniki Agogi project.

Next Monday, forty nine pupils from two primary schools in the province of East-Flanders will embark on a five week course in Ancient Greek: the year 5 and 6 pupils will get two hours of Greek each week, taught by students from the Section Greek and Teacher Training at UGent. It’s the first project of its kind in Belgium and we’re very excited to get started!

The project aims to raise the intellectual aspirations of young people from deprived economic backgrounds as well as improve their linguistic ability. To gauge the relative impact of the classes, we have started a small research project. Today, all pupils as well as a control group sat a test to measure their baseline knowledge of spelling and reading in Dutch, and view of their own education. At the end of the project, all pupils will again be tested to gauge if the project has had an impact on their view of (language) learning.

Pupils and teachers today were very excited and also interested in meeting the students who will be teaching them – and after our initial workshop with students and interested teachers last Thursday, we’re ready for take off! More information soon…