European curriculum

     Dear Teachers,
     We have begun intensive work on the construction of a European Curriculum, promoting European values. We hope that both the curriculum, and the accompanying teaching aids will be accepted by teachers and pupils. We have decided to take into account the following values, as examples: cultural diversity in Europe, respect for otherness and diversity, and peaceful conflict resolutions.

European/Supranational Curriculum for Primary School
• Theoretical part
  • Information about the project (Elżbieta Mach)
  • Structure of the curriculum (Elżbieta Mach)
  • Definition of "European/supranational curriculum" (Elżbieta Mach)
  • Europe - its borders and identity (prof. Zdzisław Mach)
  • Preparing teachers for new Europe (J. Sayer)
• Practical part
  • Pedagogical introduction (Elżbieta Mach)
  • Scope of subjects:
    • House (Belgian Partner - Frederik De Clercq, Geert Kraeye)
    • Families and Family lives (British Partner - Maria Birbili)
    • Play & Learning (Italian partner - Angela Bachieca, Angela Bulzinetti, Floriana Serafini, Paola Zaggia):
      • Dramatisation laboratory
      • The Secrets of Bluelawn
      • Friends in the Woods
      • Little Giant, Little Hero
      • The Creative Metamorphosis
      • Play in time and space
      • Self-identity
      • Best Web Sites
      • Bibliografia
    • Finding out Cultural Diversity and Similarity in Your Pot (Polish partner - Elżbieta Mach, translation: Agnieszka Drzšszcz, Magdalena Czernek, Agata Sadza)
      • Example n^o1
      • Example n^o2
      • Example n^o3
      • Example n^o4
      • Best Web Sites
  • Conclusion (Elżbieta Mach)

  European/Supranational Curriculum for Secondary School

  • Introduction
    Suggested educational contents:
    • Italian partner
    • Belgian partner
    • Poilsh partner
  • Expected levels of student`s competence

  The definition the "European curriculum" proposed by Polish Partners:

       The main goal of the project on "European curriculum for children of migrant workers" is the creation of a specific program that would cater for children of migrant workers. One of the goals is the creation of "supranational curriculum", which wolud be introduced into the curricula of local schools and educational institutions in European countries. This program will contribute to promotion of human values, molding of the European citizen and responsibilities of a young generation that will be responsible for fate of Europe. It will also contribute to awareness in students of the richness of European cultural diversity and her common (for all the European countries, nations and states) cultural roots.
       In the December meeting in Gent the consortium of the partners decided to change the name "supranational curriculum" to EUROPEAN CURRICULUM.

       The idea of curriculum as a didactical element in each of the partner country is understood in a bit different way. It is caused by the specific and sovereignty of national educational systems as well as different educational needs of students, teachers and the whole educational environment.

  In the understanding of Polish partners, EUROPEAN CURRICULUM is:
  • uniform (in the area of goals, contents and general guidelines in the areas of competence and student ability creation)
  • encompassing with its range all the European countries- not only the EU (introduced into the Euroean schools - which express their will to use it in their program)
  • promoting European common cultural heritage
  • showing the cultural diversity of European countries and nations and treating this diversity as a value in itself
  • created with the international cooperation through the involvement into the project partner institutions
  Why is the program called EUROPEAN CURRICULUM?
  • it is created in the European, supranational structure
  • it contains universal goals and contents, which are not characteristic to just one country and its educational system, but which trespass the country borders
  • creates common European ground of working for teachers and schools; at the same time it respects sovereignty of national education systems in deciding about their structure, goals, teaching contents which are specific for each country
  • the target group are children which have differentiated educational starting ground, starting the learning process in different (national) educational systems, or in "substitute systems" ex.: children of workers that permanently relocate throughout Europe - circus people.
  • this program will also be used by local "stationary" school children
  What benefits will the EUROPEAN CURRICULUM bring to educational school programs?
  • common educational politic for common action
  • the sense of teaching continuation - children, which often change schools and educational system
  • no matter what the place of residence - standarized way of realization of educational tasks important for Common Europe - shaping of common European citizen
  • building of the sense of a membership in a common European family.

  The definition the "European curriculum" proposed by British Partners.

       From Oxford we have already offered papers on what might be meant by curriculum, and the issues raised have not been discussed. Perhaps this could be included in our exchange on 'European Curriculum'. We also presented at our first meeting the example of a European Curriculum as offered in the EU's own network of European Schools, and will continue to refer to this in deliberations.

       This further note is confined to school curriculum, although learning is lifelong and lifewide, and to 'European Curriculum' for school, although it may well apply more globally. By Europe we mean the whole of Europe, not just the present or future EU.

  By "European Curriculum" might be understood some or all of the following:
  • a curriculum derived from the core values which are common to Europe and to which members of the Council of Europe and EU are committed;
  • a curriculum to which children should be entitled in schools anywhere in Europe;
  • a curriculum which extends the European dimension beyond national curricula, and seeks to promote or reinforce European identity.
  • those elements of school curriculum which can be found across most or all national curricula, and can be recognized as common to European countries, i.e are not distinctive to particular national curricula;
  • the curriculum to prepare or train teachers for the above.

       Some of these could be investigated in two frameworks: elements which already exist in practice, and elements which could or should exist. A bridge between these would be examples of good existing practice.

       There is a body of existing literature on European Curriculum, both as a whole (e.g. McLennan 1992) and in particular curricular areas (e.g. Slater 1996 for History). There are documents from official bodies such as the Council of Europe or the European Commission (e.g. EC Green Paper on the European Dimension 1998 and national responses to it). One task is to compile an up-to-date reference bank relevant to our work, and to identify what remains to be investigated.

       Curriculum is by definition not static; studies of existing practice are rapidly overtaken by change and development. Nevertheless, a systematic comparative approach across school curricula in Europe would be helpful in identifying current practice and trends.
       If we can identify current work in this field and the gaps in it, we could propose to work on the gaps or encourage further work by others. Within the project, interests in working on this could be identified, and some joint work made possible.

  Main site: http://www.sokrates-migrants.uj.edu.pl

  © Copyrights of the materials in the following pages belong to the Consortium of Partner Institutions and to European Commission. We hereby agree to reproduction and free od charge distribution of these materials, on the condition that the sources will be acknowledged together with references to the webpages of the project.