Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a more complete explanation of the notion of empowerment, shifting the emphasis from the individual teacher. It examines underpinning metatheory in more detail and in particular how it relates to the Cypriot context. The book explores the case studies in relation to a laminated framework and the Transformational Model of Social Activity, developed by Roy Bhaskar. It looks at a more general and comparative sense at education processes and how they operate in socio-historical contexts, and in particular in post-conflict and geographically divided societies. Education systems change over time and experience alterations to both their internal and external structures and relations. The book explains the phenomena of the disempowerment of primary school teachers in the Republic of Cyprus.