Suchergebnisse

Over the last three decades the term 'European dimension in education' has been used by the European Union and the Council of Europe to denote some of their educational initiatives to prepare young people for an increasingly integrated Europe. Cyprus, a country at the margins of Europe and characterised by ethnic conflict and division, has had to respond to such demands as a condition of EU membership. The 'European dimension' was conceptualised as a subtle approach for a curricular intervention, to alleviate the ethnocentrism of primary curricula and to shift Greek-Cypriot pupils' extreme views. This study showed that there were some interesting shifts which point to the potential of curricula in providing children with a wider range of 'tools' with which to represent national others. ; peer-reviewed

This paper is about the concept of "Europe" and how it could be used as an educational framework to alleviate existing tensions regarding citizenship education and Euro-pean/national/state identity in the context of Cyprus. To this end, the paper serves both a descriptive and a normative agenda, in that it largely describes recent theoretical and political development in civics and citizenship education in Europe and in Cyprus, in order to explore, in the last part of the paper, the potential of using "Europe" and "European citizenship" as tools for reflection and dialogue over (Greek)-Cypriot citizenship and identity. The study of European citi-zenship is complicated due to its different meanings and associations with national identities; I argue that in Cyprus this is further complicated by a political problem of community conflict and partition, which has long been challenging peoples' national identities. Cyprus, an island lying on the borders of (traditional geographical definitions of) Europe and one of the European Union's most recent member-states needs to revisit its approaches to citizenship as a condition of EU membership. The paper illustrates how ongoing discussions and debates over the political problem of Cyprus render it extremely difficult to take decisive steps towards reconceptualising existing Greek-Cypriot civics and citizenship education curricula, exactly because notions of national identity have so far been inextricably interwoven into these curricula. It is proposed that a revisiting of the meaning of "Europe" and the discourses of post-national, multicultural and European citizenship, as well as human rights and democracy might be useful tools to address citizenship and identity dilemmas deriving both from EU membership and the political problem in Cyprus.

"I don't forget and I struggle" is a phrase that decorates all Greek Cypriot classrooms. Since 1974 the phrase has become the symbol of an educational system that has fostered the collective memory of new generations of Greek Cypriots who were born in conditions of semi-occupation, under the weight of an unresolved political problem. In this paper we review the Greek Cypriot educational context in the period since the 1974 Turkish invasion and we argue that the kind of collective memory it has fostered contradicts the declared curricular goals of citizenship for a pluralistic and democratic society. We argue that European citizenship education, with its emphasis on overcoming past conflicts through shared political values, could be the key for a new citizenship ideal both for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. ; El lema "Yo no olvido y lucho" decora todas las aulas greco-chipriotas. Desde 1974 se ha convertido en el símbolo de la preservación de la memoria colectiva en la escuela, donde es transmitida a las nuevas generaciones que nacieron bajo un régimen de semi-ocupación y crecieron bajo el peso de un problema político sin resolver. Este trabajo somete a examen la contradicción entre el principio de ciudadanía para una sociedad pluralista y democrática como objetivo curricular y el tipo de memoria colectiva promovida en el contexto educativo greco-chipriota durante el período posterior a la invasión turca de 1974. Se sostiene, así mismo, que la educación para la ciudadanía europea, que enfatiza el papel de los valores comunes en la resolución de conflictos, podría ser la clave de un nuevo ideal de ciudadanía, tanto para la comunidad greco-chipriota como para la turco-chipriota.

Responding to profound social, political and technological changes, recent global trends in education have included the emergence of new forms of curriculum policy. Addressing a gap in the literature, this book investigates the ways in which curriculum policy is influenced, formulated, and enacted in a number of countries-cases in Europe. This important collection uses the concept of 'curriculum making' as an analytical tool to explore the processes and phases of curriculum policy reform experienced across countries. Drawing first on international perspectives and then presenting a series of country case studies, written by internationally recognised curriculum specialists, the chapters explore curriculum making as an activity that occurs across multiple layers of educational systems, through a continual interplay of the global and local. Concluding with a comparative analysis of the contextual factors that shape curricular practices in different contexts, this book is a must-have resource for educational policy makers, researchers, teachers and teacher educators across the globe.

This chapter provides a summary and a concluding discussion on the main findings from the different cases and chapters throughout this volume. The chapter revisits the approach on curriculum making as non-linear and as framed around a conceptualisation of interrelated sites of activity – supra, macro, meso, micro and nano – presented in the introduction. A central conclusion of this book is that the meso site of activity stands out as critical for current developments within curriculum making, both in terms of a transformed role for the nation state in macro curriculum making, as well as implications of policy flows and processes from the supra site of activity. Based on our observations, we suggest an elaborated model for understanding curriculum making, with special attention to the significance of meso curriculum making and teacher agency. In the final part of the conclusions, we argue that there are a number of lessons to be learned from curriculum making in the European context. In line with the significance of meso curriculum making observed throughout the volume, we emphasize the importance of middle ground and mobility, the necessity of participatory curriculum making, and that systems of accountability need to be based on trust. We also underline the importance of a delicate balance concerning regulation – providing support, guidance and steering – together with a critical awareness of destructive as well as progressive forces for maintaining and providing the agency of the educational system for good curriculum making. KEYWORDS: