In today’s globalized world, it is essential for students to learn about the European Union and its institutions, policies, and values. The following Needs Analysis (Deliverable 2.1) aims to provide scientific evidence on the importance of teaching EU in schools.
Publications
The MOTIVATE Survey identifies teachers’ motivations for teaching the EU in schools. The teachers participating in the survey came from different levels of education including primary, secondary, and vocational education and training (VET) schools, as well as school principals. The aim of the study was to examine the possible influence of psychographic factors on teachers’ tendency to integrate EU-related issues into their teaching. For this purpose, personality traits necessary for teachers’ roles such as agreeableness, extraversion, openness, neuroticism and conscientiousness and a number of different psychological concepts such as autonomy, competence, relatedness, burnout, job satisfaction, self-efficacy, anxiety and overall well-being were studied. The study sample consisted of 161 teachers with an average of 16.4 years of teaching experience. Through the survey, the following profiles of teachers emerged: the EU Pedagogy Enthusiast, the intellectual researcher, the multi-faceted motivator and the Proactive EU Integrationist.
The Mapping of EU courses was carried out in twenty-three university departments of teacher education and corresponding undergraduate programs in nine Greek universities. The teaching of EU-related courses contributes to the preparation of primary and secondary school teachers in understanding the complexity, functioning and impact of the EU on the daily life of citizens. However, the mapping has shown the limited number of courses on the EU and European Education Policy. In parallel, it was found that a very small number of students in pedagogical departments know what the European Education Area, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) are. In contrast, many students pointed out the need to learn more about the EU from the department they are studying and that they consider teaching the EU to their future students as very important.
Deliverable 5.3 comprises, among other materials, the Proceedings of the conference “Studying, Teaching, Learning the European Union II,” which was jointly organized by the Jean Monnet program “Motivating Teachers 4 Europe” (MOTIVATE) and the Laboratory of Educational Policy, Research, Development, and Interuniversity Cooperation of the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Piraeus.
The project’s results are disseminated through Policy Recommendations, a high-level Final Conference (“Studying, Teaching, Learning the European Union II”), the publication of its Proceedings, and a series of peer-reviewed scientific publications, including a Special Issue. Through these activities, the project aims to promote educational reforms, strengthen the teaching of the EU in schools, and inform the development of future curricula and training programs.