Enseigner l'Europe? : défis, potentiel et limites d'une éducation à la citoyenneté européenne

From the very start of its cooperation in education, the European Union (EU) has tried to foster European citizenship through education. Since 2015, these policies aim at promoting European identity, citizenship, and “common values” to tackle challenges linked to populism, xenophobia, and radicalization. The idea to teach citizenship is well known within the national context. Many states rely on citizenship education to raise awareness about rights and duties, to ensure the citizens’ loyalty and support, and to encourage political participation. These programs are used in order to strengthen social cohesion and to increase the democratic legitimacy of their political system.  Whether the EU should try to foster European citizenship through education, however, is far less obvious. It is widely accepted that public schools played a major role in nation-state-building in 19th century Europe. Yet, this process usually builds on state-centric assumptions. As postnational theory shows, the EU for its part is better understood as a horizontal and transnational project that preserves the member states and allows for national, cultural and other forms of diversity (Ferry, 2000; Habermas, 1998; Lacroix, 2004, 2015). The EU is a “demoi-cracy”, a “Union of peoples who govern together, but not as one” (Nicolaïdis, 2013: 351). It rightly differs from the nation-state model. Therefore, it is relevant to investigate whether, to what extent and in what form the EU should promote a European citizenship education.  Building on Renaut’s “applied political philosophy” (2003), I take an “applied political theory” approach and combine normative political theory with empirical research. I argue that there are good reasons to foster European citizenship through education. However, to be both possible and desirable, the project must abandon the nation-state model. In other words, it must be adjusted to the EU’s transnational, pluralistic and non-state-based context. Far from replacing member states’ citizenship, a European citizenship education must be conceived in ways to jointly construct European and national citizenship. Both the member states and the EU institutions should play a role in this project and complete and balance each other. The EU should contribute to fostering European citizenship through education, by facilitating horizontal cooperation between the member states. In addition, it has the possibility to set up and to encourage transnational initiatives and programs. Actors and ways of putting this project into practice include not only public schools and media. Think tanks, foundations, civil society projects, and mobility programs bring a transnational dimension and have thus also a major role to play. A European citizenship education project should follow democratic lines, while considering the rights and liberties individuals have, both as (future) adults and as (future) citizens, but also as children. I argue that aims, contents and ways to foster European citizenship through education must be conceptualized accordingly. My dissertation aims at developing a theoretical model for a transnational European citizenship education. It elaborates on possible orientations, on legitimate aims and contents, on potential actors, as well as on suitable settings and places to foster this project.  I then use my theoretical framework to study the EU approaches to European citizenship education. This involves conducting a qualitative content analysis of EU education discourses and policies (1973-2019) and semi-structured interviews with EU officials. My analysis demonstrates that the EU promotes European citizenship education initiatives since the beginning of its cooperation in education. I identify three different approaches that have been put forward to this end. I show that the EU lacks a consistent idea of the aims and the contents of a European citizenship education. This leads to unhappy tensions and contradictions. Furthermore, the EU regularly draws upon nation state categories and experiences. I argue that it needs to review certain priorities and more consistently orient its European citizenship education policies in a transnational direction. The latter is more appropriate, but currently remains under-explored. I conclude with some recommendations for future adjustments.

Keyphrases: justice, Education, Citizenship Education, European Union, Citizenship, Democracy, Demoi-cracy, Justice, Pluralism, Cosmopolitanism, Transnationalism