MEGA (Make Europe Great Again)
Teaching about the European Union in the classroom.
Project period: October 2020 – June 2023
Target group:
– Youngsters from secondary schools in the countries of the project consortium
– Teachers from the countries of the project consortium
Coordinator: Pistes Solidaires (France)
Partners of the project: Pistes Solidaires (France), Forum Za Slobodu Odgoja (Croatia), Eurosoc Digital (Germany), Casa do Professor (Portugal), Asociación Caminos (Spain)
Website: www.learningeurope.eu
The context:
In 2022, in a summary document, the Conference on the Future of Europe highlighted the demand of young Europeans for “a minimum level of education about the European Union, and in particular about its democratic processes, [through] programs, which should be designed in an attractive and age-appropriate way, for example by developing specific curricula and teaching materials”, as well as “support [for] teacher training, so that they can draw on innovative and creativetechniques that reflect developments in teaching methods”.Teaching about the EU in the classroom has been a priority on the European political agenda for over 20 years. Most Member States have incorporated such education into their curricula; however, it remains unclear exactly how such a transmission of knowledge and understanding about the EU comes about (European Commission’s Learning Europe at School report, 2013*).
When teachers are asked whether they feel confident in teaching about several subjects,the European Union is among those they feel least confident about*. In terms of resources, the official websites list few or no teaching resources for secondary school pupils. They refer to external links, in particular the learning area of the official website of the European Union, but this is not enough to teach European citizenship in an appropriate and attractive way. Despite its importance, which goes beyond the mere threshold of knowledge, the EU remains an area of learning that is often insufficiently explored at school.
The objectives:
Pistes Solidaires wondered how to facilitate and support education about the EU in the classroom, and so the MEGA -Make Europe Great Again project was born! The idea? To bring together, create and make accessible appropriate resources and methods to help facilitate education about Europe in the classroom, aimed at teachers and pupils in both lower and upper secondary schools.
The project is open to all teachers, school leaders, working groups and education stakeholders concerned with the issue of education for European citizenship.
The results:
The results of the MEGA project, while they have all been designed collaboratively by the consortium partners, have been adapted to the reality and requirements of the target audiences in each of the 5 countries of the project. Among them:
-A White Paper to understand how and why education about the European Union still needs to be developed in France and in the other project countries.
-An educational platform dedicated to teaching about the EU, and to bringing together resources, course modules and European themes to support teachers’ work. The platform, and the resources it contains, are available in 6 different language versions: French, English, German, Croatian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
-Five e-learning modules for teachers:
- The European Union briefly
- How does the European Union work?
- What impact does the European Union have on our daily lives?
- The European Union’s agenda.
- The Green Deal for Europe.
The courses are offered in the form of a variety of interactive multimedia content for dynamic and intuitive learning, available in the 6 languages of the project.
-Activities for pupils, in the form of ready-to-use teaching sessions. For each theme, there are two possible uses: a basic version for pupils who have never tackled the subject before, and an advanced version for those who want to explore the subject further.
-A Policy Paper to bring together ideas, share best practices and support initiatives in education about the EU. The results of the production and testing of MEGA resources are presented in the form of a Policy Paper which is intended as a decision-making aid for local players in each of the countries in the consortium.