Communication Literacy in Undergraduate Studies of Tertiary Education in Greece

Communication Literacy of teachers set the conditions for successful teaching and pedagogical work in the 21st century school. The post-doc research aimed to: investigate if and to what extent communication is offered as a self-standing subject in tertiary education at undergraduate level, aiming at improving students’ communication skills ̇ determine the thematic units in which communication proves to acquire particular importance  ̇ investigate the communication types and forms on which focus is placed ̇ make comparable formulations between theoretical recognition of communication and its practical implementation in education. The ultimate goal is to form the basis of proposals for the comprehensive inclusion of basic communication courses in Greek universities, in case it is ascertained there are shortages in teaching communication pedagogy and instructional communication at undergraduate level or fragmented references. The results have shown that a comprehensive programme of systematic teaching of instructional communication and communication pedagogy at undergraduate level is missing.


II. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
In this "century of communication", as the 21st century has been called, the previous section showed the importance of this post-doc research regarding its originality, its contribution to scientific knowledge and its relevance with the research orientation and subjects of the Department of Sciences of Preschool Education and Educational Design, University of the Aegean. The research interest is particularly high also from the pedagogical point of view, given that teaching communication courses in tertiary education contributes to the respective training of those people who perform particularly important pedagogical work, the training of teachers-pedagogues, as communication lies at the heart of every social relationship, particularly of the relationships developed in school environment. Moreover, school environment is linked with communication circumstances and goals entirely dependent upon the personality of the individual, the teacher in this case, whose communication choices affect his/her relationship with students and therefore the quality of the educational and pedagogical work [21], [13].
Based on scientific data of Pedagogical Science, it is commonly accepted that fundamental goals of school and education include shaping students' personality and integrating students in the social system. The converging view of Pedagogical Science experts as Konstantinou [12] stresses is that "a personality is considered accomplishedfulfilled when completion of communication and act has been acquired, that is when a person is able to deal with and solve, in a rational and, therefore, efficient way, personal and social issues, without disappointing own and others' expectations" and that "students need knowledge and skillscompetences to learn how to think and judge, interpret the physical and social world around them but also manage it in an efficient way and be able to communicate with it". Therefore, the organization of the communication relationship and the increased communication expectations, which constitute basic parameters of an efficient school, are the duty and responsibility of teachers, who commit to implementing the above-mentioned pedagogical goals, and their training in communication matters proves an inevitable need.
The review of relevant literature showed a significant gap in research about teaching "communication" subjects at undergraduate level in university schools that prepare teachers for primary and secondary education, pedagogues who offer valuable educational and pedagogical work. Relevant bibliographic references were limited to investigating the communication relationship between teachers-trainers and students-learners but did not touch upon its teaching dimension [19]. Extending the research to the level of Greek national PhD theses, a similar gap was ascertained, as all theses that built around the axis of "communication" were not investigating the teaching dimension of "communication" subjects in tertiary education at undergraduate level. More specifically, the search in the National Archive of PhD Theses in the scientific field of "Education" with the term "communication" as key word returned 2,002 PhD theses, of which only 16 contained the notion of "communication" with a pedagogical dimension. The search in the scientific field of "Other Humanities" with the same criterion returned 353 PhD theses, of which only 1 concerned the pedagogical dimension of the term "communication". All the above demonstrate the originality of this post-doc research. The methodology includes search and study of the study guide of each University Department of Humanities. Through the detailed description of the subjects of the current study guide (content analysis and interpretation), the following was examined (a) reference to subjects that are relevant with the development and improvement of the communication skills of the Department graduates and (b) if this reference is determined from the beginning, that is if there is a self-standing communication subject or if communication is a sub-subject within the framework of teaching other subjects.

IV. RESULTS
The research of Study Guides concerns a high number of subjects. Considering that the average number of subjects required to obtain a university degree is 45 for each department, the total number of subjects examined were approximately 2,700. The examined fields were three: titles, goals and learning outcomes, contents. Of the total 2,700 subjects, 706 contained the term "communication" at the three examined levels. The results per examined level are presented below.

A. Titles of Subjects
The research showed that the term "communication" is mentioned in 75 subject titles, of which 33 belong to departments of Preschool Education, 21 to departments of Primary Education and the remaining 21 titles are shared among the remaining 7 categories of departments.
There were only 8 subjects containing the term "communication" in their title with pedagogical significance, while 43 of them concerned ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies). If we consider that the subjects in which the term "communication" was correlated to the fields of people with disabilities (4 in total) and interculturality (2 in total) have or are likely to have pedagogical significance, the final number of subjects referring to "communication pedagogy" amounts to a total of 14. In Chart 1, the 14 subjects correspond to 0% of subjects. The same applies to Charter 2, where the 8 subjects correspond also to 0% of subjects. Therefore, the fractional form of correlation between the number of subjects containing "communication pedagogy" in their title and the total number of subjects required to obtain a university degree in the 60 departments is expressed as 8 to 2,700 or 14 to 2,700 subjects (Chart 1, Chart 2). The 8 subjects correspond to three different categories of departments: Preschool Education, Primary Education and Philosophy and as for the subject type, only one is a required subject.
Of these 8 subjects, there is parallel reference to "communication pedagogy" goals, learning outcomes and content in 6 subjects.

B. Goals and Learning Outcomes
The research showed that the term "communication" with pedagogical significance refers to the goals and learning outcomes in 402 subjects, of which 115 in departments of Preschool Education, 116 in departments of Primary Education, 68 in departments of Physical Education & Sports, followed by the departments of Social & Mediterranean Studies with 27 subjects, History-Archaeology with 25, Theology with 19, Psychology with 15, Philology with 13 and Philosophy with 4. Of the total of 402 subjects, "communication pedagogy" is mentioned only in 49 subjects, which correspond to 7 different categories of departments: mainly Preschool Education, Primary Education, and 17 in the remaining departments, while in the departments of Philosophy and Theology there is no relevant reference. (Apart from the field of Pedagogy, the notion of "communication" is correlated to another 54 sectors, several of which could constitute a more general field).
Regarding the subject type, these 49 subjects are distributed as follows: 12 are required, 17 required elective, 19 elective and 1 Seminar. The fractional form of correlation of these subjects with the total number of the subjects required to obtain a university degree is expressed as 38 to 2,700 subjects.

C. Content
The research showed that the term "communication" with pedagogical significance is mentioned in the contents of 425 subjects, of which 129 concern departments of Primary Education, 103 departments of Preschool Education, followed, by a great difference, by the other departments: Psychology with 43 subjects, History-Archaeology with 37, Philology and Physical Education & Sports with 28 subjects, Social & Mediterranean Studies with 26, Theology with 17 and Philosophy with 14.
Of the total of 425 subjects, those having contents mentioning the term "communication" with pedagogical significance are 70. Of these, the contents of 48 provide further information offering either a short or a more detailed context, while in the contents of 20 subjects the notion of "communication" has a general and vague meaning. Two of the 70 subjects concern people with disabilities.
Once again, the departments winning the first place in referring to the term "communication" with pedagogical significance are the departments of Preschool Education with 22 subjects and the departments of Primary Education with 26, followed by the remaining ones: 12 for the departments of Psychology, 3 for the departments of History-Archaeology, 2 for the departments of Philology, Philosophy and Physical Education and 1 for the department of Theology.
In addition, regarding the contents, the following have been observed: • In many subjects, the text of contents is the same as goals and learning outcomes • In some of them, the text of contents is exactly the same • Two of them are of experiential type Of the total of 70 subjects, 28 belong to the type of elective subjects, 25 are required, 14 are required elective, 2 are seminars and 1 is tutorial.
However, the section of contents was studied to ascertain how many other subjects -in addition to those containing learning outcomes and content. Therefore, it can be stated that: • In titles: the term "communication" acquires particular importance in the thematic unit related to ICTs (  As a reminder, it is clarified that, except for the 125 subjects that make an explicit reference in the contents to some communication form or aspect, in the remaining subjects up to number 425 reference to the term "communication" is general and vague.
Regarding the 4 th goal: "correlate and make comparable formulations between the rhetoric formed at theoretical level about the value of communication and the vision of the university condition at practical level", some estimates can be tentatively formulated. An explanation about the lack ascertained in the teaching of communication skills could be that the inclusion of the communication content in science subjects is at the discretion of scientists in charge and therefore reflects their focus on traditional research and conventional communication with other scientists [7].
Another explanation could be that science academics already have a heavy workload within the framework of the current tertiary education system. A specific barrier that professors face in teaching communication skills is that they are specialized in a specific scientific field and cannot be expected to be responsible also for the education of undergraduate students in communication [5]. Science academics rarely have time, resources or formal education to communicate their own research to non-scientific audiences [15]; this gets even harder when it comes to developing the skills, resources and subjects required to teach such communication extensively. For this reason, it is necessary to admit that a fundamental "identifiable framework" is required to develop curricula on communication skills development [14].
Regarding Greece, it can be said that Greece has always been a place of delayed implementation of the new pedagogical principles. In Greece, the establishment of university departments aiming at communication and the evolution of communication studies only took place in 1990s [6]. As Petrou [17] claims it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that universities "are in times of research, making an effort to deal with problems created because of massiveness and often inconsistency between the studies offered and the needs of society", a phenomenon more intensely present in Greece.

V. CONCLUSIONS
A general conclusion of this research is that there is no comprehensive programme of systematic and responsible university teaching of "Communication Pedagogy" at undergraduate level, which would allow students, future pedagogues, to be equipped with scientific communication knowledge, understand the technical-strategic principles for the improvement of the communication skills of both themselves and their students and keep abreast of the latest pedagogical learning theories.
This study may either be a source of inspiration to deal with the Communication Literacy in the field of education or offer aspects for further elaboration and contribute to the creation of innovative programmes for a more efficient teaching and a more efficient resolution of various conflicts among those involved in educational reality. It is the state's duty to take care of the "communication preparation" of teachers, assisting them in their difficult pedagogical and teaching work. The field of research shall be able to convince university departments to create Specialization Sectors related to the teaching of efficient communication as a method of teaching and as a method of conflict resolution.