The European Dimension to National Curricula

Abstract

This chapter explores what happens once education policies have been agreed at the European level, and addresses the question: what are the implications of European integration for the citizenship education policies of member states? As Chapter 2 highlighted, in the emerging European education space, education is governed by the principle of subsidiarity, and member states retain control over the structure and content of their school curricula. European education policies such as those described in Chapter 4 are therefore not binding and member states could easily ignore European initiatives in this area. Indeed, as Chapter 4 also notes, in the past this is what many member states have done. What this chapter will show, however, is that despite the dearth of ‘hard’ governing instruments, most European states (and certainly all of the EU member states) have still incorporated a ‘European dimension’ to their school curricula and provide some level of education about Europe and European integration.