When it comes to Europe, pupils, as the “addressees” of education, are embedded in a rapidly changing society and thus confronted with a variety of conceptions of Europe found in societal discourse as well as school curricula and political guidelines on education about Europe. They have to find their place within these discourses and form their own judgements. Additionally, they have the possibility to identify with Europe as a cultural, political, geographical, economical or historical space. Due to heterogenous individual backgrounds and everyday life-experiences, a diversity of students’ perspectives can be assumed. As the didactics concerned with teaching about Europe aim to consider the students’ perspectives in education about Europe and empower them to represent their interests in society and politics (Lange, Vetter & Wegner 2021), this research provides a thorough insight into the students’ perception of and identification with Europe.

The Greater Region, a cross-border region between France, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium with strong functional integration and frequent cross-border flows (Durand & Decoville 2020), serves as the geographical area of research. Due to the numerous entanglements in the Greater Region, it can be understood – just like other border regions within Europe – as its own transnational region within the region. It forms a space of shared, cross-national action and experience for its inhabitants. The study also examines to what degree the pupils make use of these transnational possibilities. 

As a common ground, the objectives for education about Europe by the European Union were analyzed. The Council of the EU formulated recommendations On promoting common values, inclusive education, and the European dimension of teaching (2018). The objectives of education about Europe established in this document are strengthening the “European” values and “European” identities as well as promoting active and critical citizenship. These recommendations tend to juxtapose positive identification on one end with autonomous judgement on the other end of the spectrum. As a consequence, the national or regional curricula range between these two extremes and take these recommendations into account to varying degrees. Furthermore, the production of these curricula rely on different conceptions of Europe (Langer & Mönter 2022). The didactical concepts of Critical Education about Europe reflects on educational goals and aims at enabling the students to reflect critically on the social discourses about Europe with its respective power structures. It also aims at providing students with tools needed to reflect on their own political socialization and to be able to participate in the democratic negotiation process (Eis & Moulin-Doos 2018).

Considering the above mentioned context of diverse interpretations of Education about Europe, an international comparison in an area of common transnational experiences seems all the more necessary to inform about what aspects constitute students' perspectives – their own experiences or/and societal discourses. 

Following the perspective of “subjectification” (Mecheril 2014), for the purpose of this research the learners are understood as individuals, that are addressed by institutions like schools in the form of their curricula and the political requirements as subjects, who should develop certain characteristics. Since the orders of difference and belonging are only maintained through performance, the contingency, the possibility of doing things differently, is already inherent in this perspective. The empirical study therefore examines, how the pupils position themselves in the field of so called “addressings” (Rose 2019). To facilitate this examination, the perspectives of the pupils are studied regarding seven dimensions: Conceptions of Europe, identification with Europe, attitudes towards Europe, education about Europe at school, perceived possibilities for participation, the idea of a future Europe and reflection on one's own socialisation and integration into societal structures of power.

This paper presents research making use of quantitative and qualitative methods. As laid out above the empirical research is based on a discourse analysis of education policies by European institutions, didactical concepts on education about Europe as well as social science education curricula of the examined regions. This discourse analysis shows a multitude of conceptions of Europe and different aims of education about Europe by which the pupils are addressed as “critical and active citizens” with a “European identity”. To understand the perspective of pupils, the study examines how they react to these expectations, thus position themselves in this field of addressings. In a self-constructed, semi-standardised questionnaire study, the pupils are interviewed regarding their conceptions of Europe – as a political, cultural, geographical, economical or historical space –, their identification with Europe, their attitudes towards Europe and the EU in particular, the formal education about Europe, the perceived possibilities for participation in Europe and their transnational activities in the Greater Region. The special characteristic of the questionnaire is that it does not prescribe what Europe should be understood as. The open-ended items make it possible to include unanticipated aspects of conceptions of Europe and European identity. An example for this is the item on identification with Europe, which asks the students to justify their sense of (un)belonging to Europe. The justifications were analysed with the qualitative content analysis according to Kuckart (2017). The questionnaire study is complemented by two group discussions. A group discussion focuses on the future of Europe. The perceived possibility of shaping the future is the prerequisite for the ability to act, which is the goal of European education in many concepts. The pupils are confronted with the assigned task of shaping the future Europe. The discussion involves pupils who have contrarily assessed their possibilities for shaping Europe in the questionnaire study. In the second group discussion, the recommendation of the Council of the EU, which formulates the goal of promoting identification with Europe among the pupils, is discussed. Here, as well, students are invited who have different attitudes towards the concept of European identity. Both group discussions examine how the students deal with the roles assigned to them and whether they address each other as holders of these positions. In addition, it is observed how the pupils deal with their opposing positions and whether a homogeneous group opinion is formed.

The research, which combines qualitative and quantitave methods, gives insight into the perspective of pupils from five European regions on multiple levels: Conceptions of Europe, identification with Europe, attitudes towards Europe, education about Europe at school, perceived possibilities for participation, the idea of a future Europe and reflection on one's own socialization and integration into societal structures of power as well as the transnational activities in the Greater Region. Considering the last aspect of the pupils’ lives, the results of the study promise answers to the questions, if this transnational space is used by the students, if the activities have an impact on the pupils’ perceptions and if the pupils' (re)produce common cross-border discourses or national differences – as seen in the curricula analysis – persevere. The meta-discussions, as part of the group discussions, promise to provide information on how students benefit from reflecting on the roles they are expected to fulfill, which can provide approaches for critical teaching about Europe. First results show, that the identification with Europe depends not only on the concept of identity but also the conception of Europe, the students refer to. Furthermore, it could be found, that the students reflect on their socialization and also formulate criticism on the concept of European identity, when given the chance. By examining pupils as subjects who are addressed by the institution of school in a certain way, the study connects the level of educational policy and curricular requirements with the level of the pupils. It is expected that this will also provide further understanding of how teachers, who have to deal with the tension between the students' perspective and the teaching requirements, can unite the two. The research therefor offers points of reference on how to teach about Europe considering the pupils’ perspectives.

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