Europeanization and French Primary Education: Local Implications of Supranational Policies

The European Union takes a growing role in social policy, including educational policy, among its fifteen member nations. The creation of a “New Europe” requires, according to most of its architects, the creation of a European identity and notions of European citizenship. We are, consequently, seeing new educational policies and reforms incorporating what is called a “European dimension” in schools. A new sort of European citizen or “self” is the desired outcome of such educational changes: one who identifies with a wider social space beyond the nation. As Maryon McDonald has noted, beginning in the mid-1980s EU officials came to realize that the economic models of the EU were not sufficient for the creation of a “People’s Europe”; these officials came to believe that “people needed to know they were European … and such elements as the European flag and an anthem were introduced” (McDonald 1996:54). The role of education in the construction of Europe is expanding rapidly, particularly since the explicit mention of education in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997. The treaty charges in Article 149 that Community action shall be aimed at.