What does European Dimension mean ?

The own existence of projects working on European Dimension has been clarifying this term which was initially more an aspiration than a definite concept. Today, European Dimension is considered a multidimensional reality with different historical, cultural, geographical, philosophical and political aspects.

Obviosly the process to build up an "European Dimension" is not an easy road. Many times it is the politicians responsible for promoting it, who seem more interested in pointing out differences rather than focusing on the common features all in the name of supposed national interests. On the other hand, it is also clear that we can not progress towards "European Dimension" if we forget the values and traditions in every country, fear widely extended among large parts of society.

It is for all the above that European Dimension should be developed only from a wide and reasoned awareness of the own identity. In this way, each and every one of the participants in the project contributes to build up an European identity by explaining his/her own national identity to the others. This method will also allow us to go deeper in our knowledge of Europe and the Europeans citiziens.

In Primary Education, European Dimension does not mean introducing a new subject to deal with a new reality; on the contrary, our aim should be trying to see matters from a new point of view, one that every day¥s underlines the similar realities found in different countries and social situations as well as the most significant contrasts, and so to use similar technics and procedures of analysis making possible that any European citizien can be aware of what happens and why in any other European country. This will also be necessary stop towards understanding the reality in non-European countries. Whatever the situation, the key is following the same process: to start with the close and concrete reality and then move to more general and distant level.

The treatement of the differences that we might find in different countries must not be (used as) an excuse to reinforce our natinalistic identity but as a means to help in the understanding of other realities, which is the only method to enhance (the values of) solidarity and cooperation and to fight xenophobia. Our aim in Education is working with universal values and a character mainly attitudinal on all elements of the curriculum in order to develope flexibility, reponsability, awareness, etc.

All the above does not exclude a critical spint that must be present on the whole of the learning process, promoting (the values of) creativity, cooperation and participation., so that the European reality becomes more and more coherent with its many and different members, and a reality in constant process of improvement.

History of the Project

On initiative of the Teachers¥ Centre in Bristol, Bristol City Council/Education Department in the United Kingdom, it was created a group of associate centres from different countries: Denmark (Ribe Staatsseminarium), Germany (NLI Hildesheim), Spain (initially the Unit of Education Programs in Cantabria and later the Tachers¥and Resources Centre of Torrelavega), and some time later Greece (University of Crete).

The main peculiarity of this Project, Comenius action 3.1, is the fact that all the members are institutions involved in teacher training and investigation. This aspect gives the Project a potentially wides effectivity and possibility of expansion of the results and the conclusions among a large number of teachers using not only the regular activities organized by these institutions but also through the possibilities that the new technologies open to communication.

The Project has been going on for several years with a number of meetings in Bristol, Ribe, Hannover, etc and the main aim is to prepare and shape courses for teachers in the different participant countries.

Apart from the aims described above, these courses have tried to develope the following objectives :

1. To develope and promote the treatment of common spaces in the Curriculum of Primary Education, and common problems in different countries and areas.
2. To use common procedures in the treatement of problems of similar characteristics.
3. To establish areas of creation and exchanging of experiences and materials to be applied in different countries and contexts.
4. To follow jointly the experimentation of the same materials in different countries.
5. To use materials and procedures that promote the European integration without giving up everybody¥s own identity.
6. To motivate the pupils to communicate without prejudies with people from other cultures and nationalities, learning to be citizien of Europe and the world.
7. To elaborate a data base of materials, centres and people as a reference for other projects of similar characteristics.

A significant example of how this project developes is the course in Ribe (March 1998):

The preparation of this project started with the selection of 3 teachers of Primary Education from Cantabria with experience in European Dimension and good knowledge of English language to participate in the meeting.

Each of the three teachers got in charge of each of the three spaces chosen as central for this course :

• The materials already in existence about European Dimension.
• The aspects of the Curriculum in Primary Education capable of treatement in European Dimension.
• The creation of a webpage with all the information about the Project. This page should facilitate the exchange of materials and experiences to everybody and it was considered as a necessary first step to (facilitate) cooperation.

1. The Spanish Education System
2. What is a Spanish school like?
3. The Curriculum in Primary Education
4. The integration of the European Dimension in the Curriculum
5. Experiences in Primary schools in Cantabria in education exchanges
6. Two specific examples of Educational Project of Centre

It is also being created a data base with all the teachers involved at any stage in the Project to facilitate communication among them. This data base will also include the activities and resources prepared in the different courses of the Project.

Then during the course, each of the three groups –made up by people from different countries who had been working on each of the three topics previously prepared: materials, curriculum and cooperation-, they tried to prepare a number of activities that could be used in the future by all teachers interested in European Education Projects, as a common guideline and a reference of the main problems and difficulties that they can find.

These activities could be used with different aims :

• To find reasons to participate in projects of cooperation
• To find out differences and similarities among schools in different countries
• To give a common structure to methods of analysis so that they can be used in different situations
• To design process of teaching-learning and materials of historical character that based of procedures proper of the Social Sciences and coming from different places and sources, they can be used in all contexts.

All these materials and activities will be tried for the first time at the next meeting of teachers from different countries to be held in Hannover in November 1998. This meeting will also allow to develope the structure of the materials created as well a the webpage for general use of everybody interested.

Finally, there will be another course in Cantabria, in 1999 where the participants will get the conclusions based on the experimentation of the materials, and hopefully another set of material will be designed. This meeting will also make a general evaluation of the Project itself based on the analysis of the experimentation and the efectiveness of the material activities designed with a previous specific aim.

Martín Escalona Palacios ("Mata Linares" School, San Vicente de la Barquera)
Miguel Angel García de la Santa de la Torre (Teacher's Centre of Torrelavega)
Juan Carlos Gómez Salas ("Gerardo Diego", Santander)
Claudia Lázaro del Pozo (Teacher's Centre of Torrelavega)
Teresa Martínez del Piñal ("Buenaventura González", Sta. Cruz de Bezana)