The enhancement of the European dimension (further referred as ED) in the national curriculum is a large scaled educational innovation that affects countries in the European Union (EU) including the Czech Republic. The purpose of our research is to find out how the issue of ED is dealt with in current Czech educational documents. The ED in education presents one of the most important and topical educational principles. The school subject of history has a great potential for the realization of basic ED aims in education. Therefore, we are focused on the problematic of ED as the particular didactic phenomenon in the history curriculum.

In our research we plan to answer these questions:

1.    Is ED integrated sufficiently into current structure of textbooks?

2.    How much space is devoted to the theme of ED in all researched textbooks?

3.    Are the textbooks supporting FEP created with the emphasis on ED?

4.    Are there any differences among textbooks supporting FEP and those, which don´t support FEP in the way of their possible interpretations and depth of the theme of Europe? If so, what are they?

The issue of the ED is more than topical in the time of running curricular reforms in the Czech Republic as it is grounded in the Framework Educational Programme for Primary Education (2007, further referred as FEP PE). This curriculum document acknowledges the ED as one of its priorities in education. In FEP PE it is included as a so called “cross section topic”, an integrating principle presented across the curriculum. A cross section topic Education for Global and European Thinking puts emphasis on education through the European dimension.

The ED is a cross curricular topic that has to be given attention to throughout the curriculum, especially in the social subjects. Some of the social subjects have always dealt with Europe at some stage. Chronologically speaking European history can be traced back to ancient times. Ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages, the renaissance, industrial revolution, fascism, post war Europe, just to mention a few European topics that are traditionally dealt with in history lessons. There are enough opportunities to build in the European dimension.

The ED promoted through the subject history, for instance, should provide pupils with opportunities to critically investigate historical events and processes which have contributed to the concept of modern European civilization. Moreover, in the teaching of history the process of European integration, its roots, and its future chances need to be discussed.

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