Citizens of Europe

The French politician Jacques Delors is often cited as proclaiming “We have created Europe, now we must create Europeans!”, a statement which suggests that belonging within Europe is not simply a series of trade agreements but requires something more from its citizens.

In one sense, the concept of a European Citizenship is something that is relatively new and discussion relating to its meaning and definition are gaining popularity as a basis for research across a range of social science disciplines. Within education, the growth of programmes for teaching citizenship in schools and in tertiary education has seen a sharp increase and this pattern is prevalent across Europe (Education Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency 2012). This wide scale inclusion of an education for citizenship can be partly attributed to the European Framework for Key Competences (2006) which proposed that schools provide education for citizenship that encourages skills and knowledge development based in social and civic contexts – in essence, an active, engaged approach to citizenship. The competences challenged education policy makers in EU member states to take citizenship seriously as a core part of school curricula.

Teaching ‘Europe’

Part of the goal for citizenship education as directed by the Council of Europe (European Parliament and of the Council of Europe 2006) was to encourage a sense of belonging not just within each person’s nation state, but within a wider, European context. However, a consistent ‘problem’ is that of teaching about Europe – it is common for the European Union (EU) and Europe (the continent) to be combined and teachers often admin they lack confidence in their knowledge of both topics. It is a significant task, to create a curriculum that includes complex issues such as identity, citizenship, diversity and political frameworks. In addition, when and where to teach such topics is also problematic.

The idea of ‘active’ citizenship underpins the Council of Europe’s recent (2011) approach to teaching and learning, and the claim that those who teach democratic citizenship should be active in practicing such ideals. This approach has challenged educators and education policy makers across Europe to develop models of Citizenship Education that not only teach children about being a citizen, but also facilitate ways of being an active citizen. Central to the promotion of an active model of citizenship is the development of a shared understanding of its meaning and the importance of effective communication amongst citizens. Within citizenship curricula across Europe, citizen identity has been commonly linked to a national or regional focus, and, as Davies (1996:52) argued, this limited focus reveals suggests an “idea and reality of Europe itself are not clear”. So how might teachers tackle this thorny subject?

Creative Connections: Exploring school-based education for European citizenship

It was the aim of Creative Connections to challenge young people to think about what being European in the twentieth century means to them. We wanted to explore ways of encouraging pupils in schools to challenge their ideas about citizenship identities and, in doing so, experience a collective learning experience which attempted to transform preconceived ideas and stereotypes. Transformation through collective learning is, Delanty (2007) claims, a core task of citizenship therefore, Creative Connections experimented with online blogs linking different schools across the partner countries – through online interactions it was hoped that pupils would ‘talk’ and share ideas. The current political tensions within the European Union and across Europe are portrayed in the mass media as a state in crisis and a union which is coming apart at the seams. However, it was with the echoes of such negative depictions in mind that the collaborative work bringing six European partners together in Creative Connections has sought to explore ways to promote citizenship understanding through art and digital media. Central to the research was the goal of a fresh exploration of European citizen identities seen through a range of educational and cultural lenses; the partners have worked towards the exploration of citizen identities which are complementary rather than competing. Pupils have been encouraged to talk and to listen; to consider the lives and ideas of others. Such skills are the foundation to strong citizenship understanding – the evolution of a collective learning capacity within society. This cultural focus on citizenship can only serve to promote more positive attitudes towards our fellow citizens within Europe.

An English Perspective

In England, the four schools working on the project all took differing approaches to exploring the European citizenship aspect of the research. Due to the teachers being art specialists, there was some work for them to do in relation to thinking about the European themes and, it is noted, that in England the National Curriculum for Citizenship had very limited content relating to Europe thus it was unsurprising that teachers were initially less confident about how to explore the material. Pupils did not seem to share the same reticence and the case studies reveal initial dialogue and exploration in lessons – particularly those at secondary level – in which pupils engaged in debates about Europe, the role of the UK in Europe and their feelings about being European.

The older children did seem to be influenced by the media and/or parents in terms of the comments they made about England’s relationship to Europe and these beliefs were sometimes hostileIt was notable that virtually no English pupils engaged in discussion about European Citizenship within the quad blogs – their focus remained entirely on commentary related to artwork content and composition. On a few occasions, some persistent online questioning from teachers and researchers led to pupils explaining how their artwork related to European themes but the explanations were not always clear or detailed enough to understand the links they were making. . However, many pupils (in both secondary and primary schools) revealed specific personal links to European culture, language and travel which were previously unknown to their teachers and peers – thus the opportunity to discuss heritage, family and other links to Europe was facilitated in the work undertaken for Creative Connections. So how can teachers take the idea of European Citizenship further?

A key element in the development of citizenship is the role of questioning – Creative Connections has a Survey Tool to initiate discussions about European Identity and also provides questioning ideas for teachers to use with pupils when exploring these difficult subjects. To move beyond the stereotypes is always difficult therefore, we encourage experimentation: – ask pupils to devise further questioning; provide opportunities for them to take some responsibility for exploring ways to challenge and change stereotypes. Active citizenship requires ongoing reflection, discussion and it would seem vital that in a time of European instability that education for citizenship is central to a secure future.

 

References

Convery, A. (1997). Pupils’ Perceptions of Europe. London: Cassell Educational Series.

Davies, I. (1996) The Teaching of History and Education for European Citizenship. The European Legacy (3) 1 872-877

Delanty, G (2007) Citizenship as a learning process: Disciplinary citizenship versus cultural citizenship. URL: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-06-30-delanty-en.html. Downloaded: 3/12/2013

Education Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency (2012). Citizenship in Europe. P9 Eurydice and Policy Support. Brussels, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency.

European Parliament and of the Council of Europe (2006). Key Competences for Lifelong Learning A European Framework: annex of a Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of Europe 18 December Official Journal of the European Union.