Learning About the European Union in Times of Crisis: Portuguese Textbooks’ Normative Visions of European Citizenship

Purpose: To investigate how EU related contents are represented in Portuguese upper secondary school textbooks of History and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).Design/methodology/approach: The study performs a textbook analysis on two History textbooks and three EFL textbooks to explore if and how EU related topics are addressed. The methodological approach was mainly qualitative, based on a content analysis of the textbooks, but also includes some quantitative data (e.g., number of paragraphs) to determine the importance given to European topics in each of the selected school subjects.Findings: EFL textbooks have a residual approach to EU topics that is mainly focused in students’ mobility. History textbooks, while containing a significant amount of information about the EU, present it mainly in a non-confrontational perspective and do not prioritize the development of students’ critical thinking about the EU. Our data also points to a predominance of national level citizenship related content, with European citizenship being briefly and normatively presented to the students.Research limitations/implications: EFL is attended by almost 100% of students in the academic track of secondary education, but History is a curricular subject only available to 25-30% of the students; as such, our findings refer to a specific group.Practical implications: Textbooks should include more information about the actual problems and challenges of the EU to foster the development of students’ critical thinking about the EU