DEFINING ‘EUROPE’ AND ‘EUROPEANS’: Constructing Identity in the Education Policy of the European Union

Abstract

Education policy has been regarded as an important means through which a ‘Europeandemos’ could be created within the European Union. The initiatives undertaken by theUnion in this field were based on a similar rationale that nation states employed in theirprocesses of nation-building. In this framework education was seen as the main mediumthrough which a common culture, shared values and aspirations were inculcated amongthe peoples of ‘Europe’. Parallel to this, the policy discourse of the Union in this fieldsymbolised the way in which Union institutions themselves viewed the identity of theUnion and that of its peoples. This article applies a discourse analysis framework toexplore the way in which the Union institutions represented the identity of the Unionand that of its peoples in their official discourse in the sphere of education policy, whichhas been regarded as a key policy area with respect to identity-formation andmaintenance efforts in the Union.