THE PCE PROJECT
Our OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the project is to develop first the European Culture as seen by a set of 10 countries, and then to have it taught in each country.
As European citizenship cannot be developed focusing only on institutional, economic, and social aspect, and disregarding culture – which is a much more powerful tool to enhance European citizenship.
Our METHODOLOGY
The ten partners countries have first identified the areas that Common European Culture (CEC) must cover, whether they are values, human artifacts, ideologies, religions, common heritage, history, traditions, moral principles, philosophies, educational norms, doctrines, moral principles, philosophies, doctrines, inventions, historical events, celebrities, historical places, common language, and new cultural tendencies (for instance Post-Truth or Wokism).
This was achieved by having each country establishing the cultural elements that should be part of the CEC as seen from their “window”. On this basis, it was possible for all countries to decide together what should be part of the CEC.
The next step is to have the CEC taught in one primary and one secondary school in each of the ten countries for a full school year and assess, at the end, the extend to which pupils have acquired a butter understanding of both CEC and their European citizenship. This would prove that the further development of the EU should be based on the recognition of the important role of the CEC and hence on its further development.
Our RESULTS
The trials carried out in the 10 countries have been a great success. Many lessons have been learnt, and our colleagues in primary and secondary schools have shown that it is entirely possible to give teaching a European flavour. What’s more, the teaching content proposed has really caught on with the pupils, who feel more European. The teachers tell us that this experiment will have a lasting effect on their teaching practice.
This partnership has produced a number of significant results:
– a characterisation of the common or shared European culture, the fruit of surveys carried out at national level to begin with and of lively debates to reach agreement on what is shared by all.
– a reference framework of skills, knowledge and attitudes defined for primary and secondary levels.
– a comparative analysis of the role of culture in educational curricula.
– A comparative analysis of the methods of teaching European culture in schools where the experiments took place
– a video document featuring testimonials from pupils and teachers involved in the project
and a final production that was not planned at the outset: a real European teaching programme for primary schools that can be extended to secondary level.
All these productions are available in the resources section in all the languages of the partnership.
This was achieved by having each country establishing the cultural elements that should be part of the CEC as seen from their “window”. On this basis, it was possible for all countries to decide together what should be part of the CEC.
