On cover: Education. - On title page: A secondary education for Europe

Field addresses the European Union's desire for a unified approach to education and its content, exploring the origin of this interest, the tensions that underlie the policies and its impact at national level.

Originally published in 1985. ‘Europe‘ and the EEC seemed to be virtually synonymous for the majority of our population and the ambivalent feelings many people have about the Community, together with the consistently bad press it received in the UK, seemed to engender a hostility in educational circles towards teaching about Europe as a whole. However, if one of the aims of education is to increase children’s awareness, tolerance and understanding of the world about them; to widen their experience and horizons; then teaching about the wider world must have a place in the curriculum. This book argues for education about Europe, not necessarily in favour of Europe, breaking down the national insularity of the UK curriculum and using Europe as one convenient ‘window on the wider world’.

On cover: Education. - On title page: A secondary education for Europe

The scope of the book is an integrated discussion of several aspects of the internationalisation process in secondary education in Europe. The European and International Orientation (EIO) in education is dealt with from different national angles and theoretical visions, supported by recently conducted empirical studies in several countries. The book describes national policies concerning EIO, the way in which schools implement these policies and the success and difficulties of the activities that they undertake. A connection is made with ideas of citizenship in a European perspective and the question comes up for discussion if there can be spoken of common European values. Important issues are explored like the tension between national identity and European communality as well as the risk of EIO in increasing the gap between lower and higher educated students. The mission of the book is provide not only background information to all who are interested in or involved in internationalisation of education, social integration and European citizenship, but to provide recommendations for future practice as well. A central focus in these recommendations is the ‘Common Framework for Europe Competence’ (CFEC), the first model that offers the possibility to structurally shape the knowledge and skills concerning the European and international developments in the school. Directions for future elaboration of this framework and its implementation in the teaching and learning process in schools are discussed.

The series entitled "Guide to secondary education in Europe" is developed as part of the project "A secondary education in Europe". The aim of this series is to give the public not only systematic & coherent information on the educational systems & traditions in all signatory states to the European Cultural Convention, but also to outline the essential problems these systems are facing at the present time.