Page 389 - Janja Žmavc in Igor Ž. Žagar, Kako so Evropejci odkrili neznane dežele in se spoznali z novimi ljudstvi, Evropa v slovenskih osnovnošolskih učbenikih, Dissertationes 14
P. 389
mary
In this book we present an analysis of different notions of “Europe” that
can be found in the Slovenian primary school textbooks for history, ge-
ography and citizenship education lessons.
This analysis was a supplement study of a research project “The Forma-
tion, Development and Uses of the Concept Europe in Slovenian News-
papers in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century”, which was carried
out at the Educational Research Institute from February 2008 to Febru-
ary 2011. The purpose of the project was the analysis of different concep-
tions of Europe, which emerged, formed and reformed themselves in the
Slovenian media from the second half of the twentieth century to this day.
Our analysis is based on a standpoint that the notion of “Europe”, which
is determined by the significant historical international and internal political
events and which is reproduced by the media, enters into the educational field.
Here such a notion of “Europe” often remains an implicit and unproblema-
tized part of the official knowledge that is regulated by the curricula. With-
in the educational discourse the “ever changing conceptions of Europe” that
with the help of public media sphere become a part of everyday (background)
knowledge are constructed as common-sensical and normative. Namely, the
institutional context, where such a language use is performed, and the specific
nature of educational discourse, allow these conceptions to confirm, explain,
legitimize and naturalize current political or other problematic and prevail-
ing notions of “Europe”, “Europeanness” and “European values”.
With the analysis of the textbook material we are trying to show, if and
how some notions of “Europe” in the primary school textbooks run par-
In this book we present an analysis of different notions of “Europe” that
can be found in the Slovenian primary school textbooks for history, ge-
ography and citizenship education lessons.
This analysis was a supplement study of a research project “The Forma-
tion, Development and Uses of the Concept Europe in Slovenian News-
papers in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century”, which was carried
out at the Educational Research Institute from February 2008 to Febru-
ary 2011. The purpose of the project was the analysis of different concep-
tions of Europe, which emerged, formed and reformed themselves in the
Slovenian media from the second half of the twentieth century to this day.
Our analysis is based on a standpoint that the notion of “Europe”, which
is determined by the significant historical international and internal political
events and which is reproduced by the media, enters into the educational field.
Here such a notion of “Europe” often remains an implicit and unproblema-
tized part of the official knowledge that is regulated by the curricula. With-
in the educational discourse the “ever changing conceptions of Europe” that
with the help of public media sphere become a part of everyday (background)
knowledge are constructed as common-sensical and normative. Namely, the
institutional context, where such a language use is performed, and the specific
nature of educational discourse, allow these conceptions to confirm, explain,
legitimize and naturalize current political or other problematic and prevail-
ing notions of “Europe”, “Europeanness” and “European values”.
With the analysis of the textbook material we are trying to show, if and
how some notions of “Europe” in the primary school textbooks run par-
