European Union

This article starts by examining the roots of the European Union, the first manifestation of which was the «Europe of Six», conceived by a group of people nowadays known as the «founding fathers of the EU». It then moves on to consider the educational discourses that supported the establishment of democracy in countries where this supranational political agreement was developing. The end of the First World War (1914-1918), one hundred years ago this year, saw the start of a process of peaceful reconstruction in which the foundations of a European federation to maintain internal peace were laid.
From this perspective, Europe has not only been a superlative example of political understanding but also, and predominantly, a pedagogical success story. This is why Europe is, has been, and will always be, a pedagogical project above all. In light of the new challenges we are facing today (break-up as a result of Brexit, citizens’ mistrust of its institutions,
the constant threat in markets from emerging powers, and multicultural societies, to name but a few), the solution must be educational. The pedagogical «founding fathers» of Europe tried to consolidate democracy by putting the citizen at its centre. Returning to and updating its foundational educational discourses could reposition our educational actions for reformulating the European Union.

 

Cite this article as: Vilafranca Manguán, I., Cercós Raichs, R., & García Farrero, J. (2018). Los «padres» pedagógicos de Europa. Discursos educativos fundacionales para la integración europea, cien años después de la Gran Guerra |  The pedagogical founding fathers of Europe: foundational education discourses for European integration, one hundred years after the First World War. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 76 (270), 335-351.  doi: https://doi.org/10.22550/REP76-2-2018-06

In this paper we intend to identify a professional speciality of Pedagogy that responds to a socio-labour demand, which is based on a little known research tradition, but well-founded. However, this field of interest has not an explicit implementation in the current university study plans. With this aim, we try to find out, through a descriptive-exploratory analysis, the origins of Labour Pedagogy. We also want to know how we can conceptualize Labour Pedagogy, why we consider it so important discipline, both from an academic and a professional perspective, where it is possible to fit it inside the current study plans of pedagogy, mainly in Spain, but also in the European countries close to us, and how we can guide our students academically so that they can develop a professional career inside this area.

After the analysis, we have discovered the need to make Labour Pedagogy visible by increasing subjects in the curricula and research in this line, as well as more national and international meetings which may favour the exchange of experiences.

 

Key Words: Spain, training, Labour Pedagogy, Study Plans, work, European Union.

This paper looks into the concept of toleration that underlies the educational project of the European Union. First, it discuss the main institutional initiatives of the Union against recurrent attitudes of intolerance, as well as the activity in the field of education, specially the recent Resolution of the Council on Responses of Educational Systems to the Problems of Racism and Xenophobia. The author argues that many difficulties for a firmer action are due to the principles regulating educational policy set up by the Treaty of the European Union, namely the principle of respect to cultural diversity and the principle of subsidiarity. The trouble is that each of these principles can denote not only two distinct political stands, but also two different notions of tolerance: the liberal concept and the communitarian one. Finally, an attempt of joining these two different perspectives is located in the idea of human rights as substantive content of a moral education for toleration.

European Union Declarations and Conventions concerning education for all European citizens are not new. Do they really improve education opportunities for one of Europe's minorities, the refugees? Not necessarily, although they give room for the social agencies, mainly non government organisations, to take action in favor of refugees' education. Firstly, those declarations are examined. Afterwards, the refugees' status and educational situation in the European Union are considered. Finally, a relationship between the documents and the reality is established in order to answer that question.

As a result of an initiative of the INRP, an European Observatory for educational innovation has been set up. Its main goals are related to research and training in the field of educational innovations throughout Europe. The Observatory wishes to operate as an open data base of innovation and change in European education systems. Thus, it is mainly addressed to researchers in the field, especially those interested in the comparative study of educational policies. Up to the present, five different issues have concentrated the Observatory's efforts: equality of educational opportunity, teaching and learning foreign languages, new profiles for teaching, teacher training, and headmasters' training.

The process towards an European Union seems not to have taken into account the need for an European dimension in education until recently. However, this dimension has been extremely reinforced by the means of different European programmes which have been launched in the past few years. According to this general idea, this article describes and analyses the main phases in the generation of an European Commission's education policy, as follows: 1957-1970, with a main concern on economic matters; 1971-1986, first steps to a common education policy; 1986-1992, the educational programmes; and 1992-1995, review and harmonisation of the educational programmes.