The European Dimension in Education: School Counselours' Perspective

Europska dimenzija u obrazovanju tema je kojom su se kreatori europskih obrazovnih politika intenzivnije počeli baviti 70-ih godina prošlog stoljeća, dok je interes među hrvatskim znanstveno-istraživačkim krugovima privukla unazad dva desetljeća, a posebice ulaskom Hrvatske u Europsku uniju. Teorijski dio rada donosi sažeti prikaz tijeka razvoja Europske unije i njezinih institucija te razvoja koncepta europske dimenzije u obrazovanju kroz inicijative Europske unije. Iako s teorijskog gledišta pojmovno određenje europske dimenzije predstavlja svojevrstan izazov, može se reći da europsku dimenziju u obrazovanju određuju specifična znanja i vještine koje obrazovanje treba pružiti učenicima kako bi osvijestili i prihvatili prednosti i izazove života u Europskoj uniji. U ovom radu pod indikatorima europske dimenzije u obrazovanju smatraju se (europske) vrijednosti, europsko građanstvo i identitet, višejezičnost i mobilnost te razvoj znanja, vještina i stavova „o Europi, u Europi i za Europu“. U istraživanju o stavovima i viđenju Europske unije i europske dimenzije u obrazovanju provedenom među populacijom školskih pedagoga u Hrvatskoj, rezultati su pokazali da se pedagozi smatraju osrednje informiranima te jednako tako osrednje kompetentnima za raspravu i uključivanje sadržaja europske dimenzije obrazovanja u svoj rad. Ipak, pedagozi prepoznaju školu kao značajno mjesto za postizanje zadanih ciljeva europske dimenzije u obrazovanju.The European dimension in education is a topic with which the creators of the European education policies became concerned during the 1970s, while it caught the interest of the Croatian scientific and research community two decades ago, and especially after Croatian accession to the European Union. The theoretical part of this paper comprises of a brief overview of the development of the European Union and its institutions and the development of the concept of the European dimension in education through the initiative of the European Union. Although from a theoretical point of view the conceptual definition of the European dimension represents a challenge, it could be stated that the European dimension is defined by the specific knowledge and skills which the education should provide students with, in order for them to became aware of and accept the benefits and challenges of life in the European Union. In this paper, the indicators of the European dimension in education include: (European) values, European citizenship and identity, multilingualism and mobility as well as the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes „about Europe, in Europe and for Europe“. The research part of this paper is concerned with the attitudes and perception of the European Union and the European dimension in education among a population of school counsellors in Croatia. The results showed that the counsellors consider themselves to be moderately informed and equally moderately competent to discuss and include the European dimension in education in their work. Nevertheless, they recognize the school as an important place for achieving the goals of the European dimension in education