The European Union in the environment and society primary school subjects

Predmet proučevanja v magistrskem delu so vsebine o Evropski uniji pri predmetih spoznavanje okolja in družba v osnovnih šolah. Učenci v slovenskih osnovnih šolah dobivajo različne informacije in znanja o skupnosti, v kateri živijo, družbi, politiki, delu, vrednotah itd. Največ teh informacij učenci v prvih petih razredih osnovne šole dobijo pri predmetih spoznavanje okolja in družba. Vendar pa se te informacije le malokrat uvrščajo v evropski kontekst, saj o njih redkokdaj govorimo v kontekstu Evropske unije in njenih vrednot – morda zaradi premalo posodobljenih učnih načrtov in neustreznega učbeniškega gradiva, morda pa tudi zaradi premajhne zavzetosti učiteljev. Ker smo želeli to področje dobro raziskati in opisati trenutno stanje vključenosti tem o Evropski uniji v predmeta spoznavanje okolja in družba, smo v teoretičnem delu opisali evropsko in slovensko zakonodajo s področja šolstva in izobraževanja, ki vključuje evropsko dimenzijo in teme o Evropski uniji in jih spodbuja. Pregledali smo različne izobraževalne programe in evropske projekte, ki so v trenutku nastajanja tega magistrskega dala na voljo učiteljem za nadgradnjo znanja o Evropski uniji in za krepitev evropske dimenzije. Naslednji del je posvečen analizi in pregledu učnih načrtov, učnega gradiva, učbenikov, delovnih zvezkov, delovnih učbenikov in priročnikov za učitelje ter dodatnega razpoložljivega gradiva, ki bi bilo lahko učiteljem v pomoč pri poučevanju tem o Evropski uniji v šoli. V empiričnem delu so prikazani rezultate raziskave, ki je bila izvedena med učitelji, namenjena pa je opisu stanja oziroma pogledu učiteljev na poučevanje teh vsebin. Raziskava je bila izvedena s pomočjo polstrukturiranega intervjuja in anketnega vprašalnika. Med raziskovanjem smo ugotovili, da Evropska unija nima neposrednega vpliva na izobraževalno politiko v državi, vse pristojnosti na tem področju so v rokah držav članic. Slovenski učni načrti so po vstopu Slovenije v Evropsko unijo sicer bili posodobljeni, je pa v njih malo ciljev, ki vsebujejo evropsko dimenzijo oz. vsebine o Evropski uniji. Učbeniki, delovni zvezki, priročniki in ostalo predpisano učno gradivo izhaja iz učnih načrtov, zato tudi v tem gradivu najdemo malo vsebin, ki so kakorkoli povezane z Evropsko unijo. Je pa učiteljem na voljo veliko evropsko financiranih projektov in dodatnih izobraževanj, ki se jih le-ti pogosto udeležujejo. Prav tako Evropska unija finančno podpira izdajo gradiv, zato je učiteljem na voljo veliko dodatnega gradiva o Evropski uniji, ki se ga lahko poslužujejo pri pouku. Od učiteljev je torej odvisno, v kolikšni meri so pripravljeni predpisane učne vsebine še dodatno nadgraditi z vsebinami o Evropski uniji. Za to imajo veliko prosto dostopnih možnosti v obliki različnega gradiva – nekaj tega smo zbrali in evalvirali tudi v našem magistrskem delu.The subject of study of this master\u27s thesis are the topics of the European Union as taught in primary schools in the context of the environmental and social studies. The students of Slovenian primary schools gain a variety of information and knowledge regarding their community, society, politics, work, values, etc. In the first five years of primary school, the majority of such information is obtained during the lessons on the environmental and social studies. However, such information is very rarely placed in the European context, i.e. in the context of the European Union and its valuesperhaps due to the lack of updated curricula and inadequate textbooks or due to the lack of teachers’ enthusiasm. We wanted to thoroughly explore this subject and describe the topics of the European Union that are currently included in the lessons on the environmental and social studies. The theoretical part thus covers the European and Slovenian education and school laws that include and promote the European dimension and the topics of the European Union. We examined various educational programmes and European projects that have been available to teachers at the time of writing this master’s thesis to upgrade their knowledge of the European Union and to strengthen the European dimension. The next part is focused on the analysis and overview of curricula, teaching materials, textbooks, workbooks and teacher’s handbooks, as well as additional material available that might assist teachers in teaching about the European Union. The empirical part shows the results of the survey conducted among teachers and aimed at describing the current situation and teachers’ perspective on teaching these topics. The survey was carried out using a semi-structured interview and a questionnaire. In the survey, we found that the European Union has no direct impact on national education policies, as the latter are within the exclusive competence of the Member States. After Slovenia had joined the European Union, Slovenian curricula were updatednevertheless, only a few goals include the European dimension or the topics of the European Union. Since textbooks, workbooks, handbooks, and other required learning materials are based on the curricula, even these materials contain only a few topics related to the European Union. However, teachers can benefit from many European-funded projects and additional training that they often attend. What is more, the European Union financially supports the issuing of materialsconsequently, there is a lot of extra material on the European Union available for use in the classroom. Teachers are therefore the ones who decide to which extent they will further upgrade the curricula with the topics of the European Union. They have many freely available options in the form of different materialswe collected and evaluated some of them in our master’s thesis