European Educational Research Journal
ISSN 1474-9041

CONTENTS [click on author's name for abstract and full text]

A European Space for Education Looking for Its Public

NINNI WAHLSTRÖM School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Sweden

doi:10.2304/eerj.2010.9.4.432

The open method of coordination (OMC) within the Lisbon strategy is discussed in terms of a European Space for Education and ‘programme ontology’. The focus is on indicators and the European dimension, and how they ‘work’ in the forming of contents and identities in this European Space for Education. The OMC is analyzed in relation to Nancy Fraser’s theoretical public-sphere approach of discourses about needs, instead of inquiry from needs. Central to the article is the problematization of the shift from national theories and methodologies to theories that might be better suited to an international European educational arena. Hence, in the final part of the article, the public-sphere theory is discussed from the point of view of globalization and within a transnational frame for education.

European Citizenship and European Union Expansion: perspectives on Europeanness and citizenship education from Britain and Turkey

CHRIS WILKINS, HUGH BUSHER & TONY LAWSON School of Education, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
ISMAIL ACUN & NUR LEMAN GÖZ Faculty of Education, University of Uşak, Turkey

doi:10.2304/eerj.2010.9.4.444

This article discusses some perspectives on citizenship education in Turkey and Britain in the context of current contested discourses on the nature of European identity and of the European Union (EU). It is based on data collected during an EU-funded student teacher exchange programme between three universities in Turkey and Leicester University in the United Kingdom. The programme facilitated participants’ investigations of their understandings of citizenship and citizenship education in Britain and Turkey. Data was collected by questionnaire from 581 Turkish student teachers and 85 British student teachers involved with citizenship education and, during the exchange visits, through focus group interviews with 14 British and 14 Turkish students. Both groups thought citizenship education was key to creating ‘good citizens’ in their countries, but the nature of this citizenship was perceived to differ between countries. The Turkish students placed a strong emphasis on national identity and Turkish citizenship, whilst the British students focused more on democracy, social justice, global citizenship and human rights. Students from both countries questioned the efficacy of the pedagogical approaches that they observed during school visits in each other’s countries.

An American Construction of European Education Space

IVETA SILOVA & WILLIAM C. BREHM College of Education, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, USA

doi:10.2304/eerj.2010.9.4.457

The construction of the European education space has typically been attributed to European education policy makers, institutions, and networks. Rarely do scholars consider the role of outside, non-European actors in shaping the terrain of European education thought and practice. This article considers the construction of the European education space as a borderless project with multidirectional flows of ideas, policies, and academics. While this project has created an intellectual space for the emergence of new theoretical insights and policy instruments within Europe, it has also had inevitable consequences for the study of comparative education outside Europe. This article explores how American scholars have attempted to influence the development of comparative education as a field in the United States by purposefully constructing specific notions of European education during the cold war (1969‑85). Drawing on content analysis of comparative education scholarship in Western European Education – a journal published in the United States – this article discusses the role of journal editors in the construction of European education spaces in order to advance not only a marginalized geographical area of study within the expanding American field of comparative education, but also a methodological vision for the future of comparative education, one free of positivist techniques, quantitative methodologies, and modernization ideologies.

Europeanising Intercultural Education: politics and policy making in Cyprus

CHRISTINA HAJISOTERIOU Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

doi:10.2304/eerj.2010.9.4.471

Historically, education policy making has been interwoven with the nation-building project. However, the centrality of the nation state in education policy making has been constrained by a wide range of new socio-political and economic phenomena that relate to European integration. This article explores the ways in which European education policies are mediated and reframed by national institutions through the case study of the development of intercultural education in Cyprus. It examines: (a) the types of interaction between European and national intercultural policies; (b) the ways in which European intercultural policies are mediated by national institutions; and (c) the impact of this process for the making and implementation of Cypriot policy regarding intercultural education. Intercultural education relates to a wide range of sociocultural, political and economic phenomena, while it is based on values that affirm cultural pluralism. Thus, the aim of this article is to provide a global perspective of intercultural education in a European state (Cyprus) that seeks conflict resolution.

Mediation in Local Educational Governance: the Educating Cities movement in a Portuguese town

JOANA LÚCIO & TIAGO NEVES Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Educativas, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto, Portugal

doi:10.2304/eerj.2010.9.4.484

Educational processes have had to deal with the significant changes that have been occurring throughout the world, at different levels, in the last few decades. The Educating Cities movement, which has been followed by cities from all over the world – from Rwanda to Denmark, through Mexico, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Italy – is an attempt to deal with such changes. The movement defines the deepening of the practice of democratic values as the greatest challenge of the twenty-first century. This article explores the role of social and educational mediation in the Educating Cities movement. Its empirical focus is on some of the experiences of the cities that belong to this network, with a special emphasis on the city of Porto, Portugal.

Researchers under Pressure: a comparative study of new forms of producing, advising and transmitting knowledge in Brazil and the European Union

LUCÍDIO BIANCHETTI Department of Specialized Education Studies, Federal University at Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil
ELISA MARIA QUARTIERO Department of Pedagogy, State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC), Brazil

doi:10.2304/eerj.2010.9.4.498

This article presents some data from the literature and opinions from responses to interviews with 74 Brazilian and 15 European researchers. They were questioned about their work and the consequences to their lives caused by the changes imposed by the Coordinating Agency for Improvement in Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) in Brazil and the implementation of the second and third cycles of the Bologna process. The measures by CAPES, the Brazilian agency that evaluates and provides financial support to graduate education, and the Bologna process are among the strategies to reconstruct higher education. They can be metaphorically compared with a chain in which one of the links is very weak or broken: researchers are under tremendous pressure to present results. Studies have been conducted in Brazil on the responsibilities of these professionals and the consequences for their work and their lives. In terms of the Bologna process, however, the most important discovery is that discussion of the role of professors, supervisors and researchers is still relegated to the realm of commonplace suggestions. Meanwhile, globalization creates many challenges and requires that attention be paid by – and to – all those involved in this process.

The Collaborative Production of Meaningful Measure(ment)s: preliminary insights into a work in progress

INKA BORMANN Department for Education and Psychology, Freie University Berlin, Germany
GERD MICHELSEN Department for Sustainability, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

doi:10.2304/eerj.2010.9.4.510

This article introduces a tri-national research and development project which aims to develop indicators for the cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary educational task ‘education for sustainable development’ (ESD). These indicators are meant to help monitor the implementation of ESD efforts in schools and institutions of higher education and, potentially, may apply to educational monitoring reports. As these kinds of indicator-based reports address a variety of stakeholders, the article focuses on how these stakeholders are included in the process of developing a set of ESD indicators in the course of the project. Its empirical stages and intentions are therefore presented, as well as some of the project’s main challenges and the ways of coping with them.

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