In a nutshell, this paper is an unconventional account of Europeanization in the field of education, understood as a process of institutionalization of world culture. Specifically, it sets out to elucidate the role of Europe in the post-socialist transformation of the Romanian school by examining in sociological fashion the formal and informal discursive repertoires, as well as the everyday schooling contexts through which change is habitually played out and enacted. Its key contribution is that it puts forward a theoretical argument about Europeanisation in the Romanian school as both more and less than what meets the eye.

A typical post-authoritarian nationalizer, a ‘reluctant democratiser’ (Kubicek, 2003), but also an euphoric supporter of the European project, Romania presents a puzzling case for the study of Europeanisation. Arguably situated in a cultural ‘borderland’ of Europe, Romania’s post-1989 education is what others have called an ‘unlikely’ or ‘unexpected’ case for Europeanisation in terms of policy convergence (Gardinier & Anderson-Worden, 2010). But if post-socialist Romania’s main characteristic is, as most contend, its nationalizing thrust (Campeanu, 1991), then what has Europe got to do with the manifold changes that its educational system experienced since 1989, most of them made – as was ubiquitously claimed - precisely in the name of Europe? This is the core research question that the larger research project from which this paper is drawn was based on.

To answer this key question, I took several empirical steps. First, I reviewed the education system as an institution of the nation-state by focusing on its organisation, structure and declared missions over time, with a specific focus on the 1989 turning point. Second, I analysed closely the specific language of educational policy that articulated Romania’s joining of the EU in 2007, by focusing on discourses of education reform put forward in the public sphere by a variety of stakeholders. Third, I explored in detail the changing notions of “nation” and “citizenship” in history and civic education textbooks and curricula in relation to the much-acclaimed imperatives of synchronisation with ‘Europe’ and the incorporation of ‘cultural diversity’. Finally, I included the dimension of everyday practices of ‘Europeanisation’ in education by focusing on the interactions between teachers and pupils in different schooling contexts and examining how, when, and to what effect, ‘Europe’ is mobilized as a discursive resource or made visible as an affiliative category.

The theoretical backbone of this study lies on a combination of theoretical insights from different strands of institutionalist thought: historical and Scandinavian variants applied to comparative education research (see Schriewer, Orivel & Sherman-Swing, 2000; Suárez & Bromley, 2016), sociological variants applied to the study of globalisation and education (also known as world polity approach; see Meyer & Ramirez, 2000; Wiseman, Astiz & Baker, 2014), and constructivist political science and international relations approaches applied to Europeanisation research (see Bulmer, 2007; Saurugger, 2009). The study adds general institutionalist arguments and sociological explanations stemming from applied research on nationhood, citizenship, globalisation and education to existing literature on comparative educational change and Europeanisation in education, which is largely focused on policy convergence, the creation of European education (policy) space(s) (Nóvoa & Lawn, 2002; Dale, 2009; Grek et al, 2013) or standardization and benchmarking as governance mechanisms typical of international organisations more generally (see Grek & Lawn 2009). 

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