Maria Iliou

Maria Iliou is a professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education at the University of Athens, having transferred from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Ioannina, where she taught since 1980. She was born in Athens in 1933. She studied philology in Athens, and pursued education and sociology in Paris. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Paris 5 (1975). She worked as a research associate in the Departments of Economics of Education and Sociology of Development at the Institute for the Study of Economic and Social Development (IEDES) at the University of Paris I (1960-1964 and 1967-1975) and as head of the Research Group on Sociology of Education at the National Center for Social Research (1965-1967 and 1976-1979). As a UNESCO expert on educational and social issues, she has undertaken numerous missions to African countries. She was a member of the Administrative Committee of the University of Thessaly (1984-1990) and a visiting professor at the Free University of Brussels (1986-87). From 1989 to 1990, she served as Vice President and Acting President of the Pedagogical Institute. She has been a member of the governing bodies of IEDES, the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), the International Association of French-speaking Sociologists (AISLF), the International Fund for the Promotion of Culture (FIPC), and the Women's Rights Association (President in 1982-83). She is a member of the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations concerning Teaching Personnel (CEART), a Special Advisor to UNESCO's International Fund for the Promotion of Culture, a member of the Bureau of the Francophone Society for Comparative Education in Europe (CESE), and a founding member and Vice President of the Hellenic Society for Comparative Education (ELESE). She has published studies and articles in various Greek and international journals and has contributed to collective publications.