From 25 until 27 September 2015, 30 history and citizenship educators, representing Member organisations from all EU-countries met at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona for the first meeting of the project “Teaching ‘Europe’ to enhance EU cohesion: European Integration as a subject of study in secondary school education in the 28 member states”. The overall aim of the project is to improve the way in which teaching and learning about the EU is taking place and is coordinated by professor Fernando Guirao from Pompeu Fabra University in partnership with EuroClio. The research results will be compiled into a research report with a comparative analysis and country case studies and is expected in September 2016.

During the meeting the team discussed their research results of 2 history books for the final 2 years of compulsory education in their country, looking into communalities and differences in approach, number of pages and integration in the national historical narrative. Vadim Oswalt from Giessen University gave a workshop in which he explained his transnational research on history maps in 36 countries and showed methods how to interpret maps. The next phase in the project is the research of 2 textbooks for another social science subject. These results will be discussed during the next meeting, which will coincide with the training seminar for the Decisions and Dilemmas project from 12-15 February. For more information on the project please contact Steven Stegers (steven@euroclio.eu).