La dimensió europea de l'educació als centres d'educació secundària obligatòria del Tarragonès

Resumen

Doctoral Thesis: The European Dimension of Education in the Secondary Education Centres of the Tarragonès. Presented by: M. Concepció Torres Sabaté Supervisor: Dr Joana Noguera Arrom Universitat Rovira i Virgili Tarragona 2004 This doctoral thesis is developed over six chapters, the first of which defines the historical, political and legislative framework that has been generated by the unification of the countries that form the European Union, presenting a summary of the most noteworthy events that have been of influence. However, since the subject that interests us is education, that is how integration in the EU is lived in the educational environment, in the second chapter we specify how the treatment of education has evolved over various stages and treaties, as well as actions, documents and programmes that are most relevant to this aspect, programmatic lines of education policy and new challenges in this field and in twenty-first century society. We believe that through education the feeling of European citizenship can be achieved. As Jacques Delors says, ... the Commission is aware of the contribution that education must make to economic and social development. Knowing the history and the construction process of the EU and its links with the growing importance giving to education allows us to define the current reality as well as analyse the evolution of each member state, aspects that have increased our personal interest in areas related to the EU and education. It is in the third and fourth chapters that we present the real situation of the European dimension in education in the Tarragonès and research in this area. The investigations general objective is to analyse the programmes and actions that are developed in the Obligatory Secondary Education centres of the Tarragonès, as well as to identify the reality of students, teachers and the European dimension. This is done using instruments (interviews and questionnaires) that help us to determine, using qualitative and quantitative methodologies, some results about practice, knowledge and European thought, thereby arriving at a series of proposals to improve the concept of European citizenship. To illustrate this study there is a presentation of a collection of actions about the EU from various institutions involved in education in the Tarragonès, such as the Universitat Rovira I Virgili, as well as the life-long learning offered by the Institute of Education Sciences of the same university and the information offered by the Department of Education of Tarragona to the teaching staff of education centres, available through the Department itself and the Resource Centre of the Tarragonès. The process of collecting information has been dynamic and laborious, but the chance to analyse a reality so close to home the Tarragonès has been very gratifying. Some of the points that are specified in the theory section have been continually updated, since the construction of the EU has carried on throughout these years. After the conclusions, this thesis ends with a proposal of ideas derived from it and which, based on the needs that have been identified, can help to promote the European dimension in education to students, teachers and other education professionals. These are developed in the fifth chapter. The sixth chapter contains a bibliography, indices of diagrams and tables and indices of attachements. It has been more than 25 years since Europe got its name and it is still a future project. (2) 2) Le Goff (1995): La vieja europa y el mundo moderno, Madrid, Alianza, p. 71.