The construction of the European : changing patterns of identity through education
This chapter deals with the debate that is occurring in the European countries about the emergence of a new European citizenship. Rhetoric increasingly focuses on the Europeanization of education as one of the main trends to accomplish this purpose and to achieve the social and political goals of the European Union. The first argument is historical, and attempts to shed light on the connection between the development of the nation-state and the consolidation of national systems of education, by suggesting that we are participating on the end of a cycle of two centuries in which the school has been seen in the context of a triad of "nationality-sovereignty-citizenship." The second argument is sociological, and takes account of the way in which the phenomena of globalization and localization express themselves in the European educational arena, notably through a new concept of citizenship, which prohibits the nation-state from having complete control over the way schools are conceptualized, and organized. The third argument is comparative, and underlines the need to stimulate the development of a scientific way of thinking, which is capable of reflecting critically and theoretically on changes. Nowadays, the situation in the European Union countries constitutes a very interesting and stimulating challenge for a comparative approach. Not only in the perspective of direct comparison between two or more countries, but in the sense of global analyses of relations of transnational interdependency.