European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

WHAT MAKES US EUROPEAN? IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN THE ... 183political structures has to start considering the issue of the Other froma new perspective, one conceiving intercultural and identityrapprochement as one of the possible modes.The culture claim that this Seminar wants to make is often motivatedby a will to “re-ritualise” practices and social relationships and tostrictly redefine each individual´s place with the conscious or unconsciousconcern with reducing the anguish caused by the simplification offoreigners and the permanent frontier outbursts 15 . Today, the resurgenceof culturalism in schools is also risky. It may entail narrow-mindednessand fragmentation of the school system due to the division of theschool into multiple impregnable school units according to culturaldifferences. This risk could be a consequence of absolute culturalrelativism far from a global perspective. A firm orthodox doctrine ofrelativism could be implemented in schools.Following Camilleri´s line of thought, the answer could lie in thedevelopment of our critical identity, but how can this be accomplished?Some guidelines for the formation of educators from theviewpoint of identityWhen teacher development courses reach the conclusion thatschools must incorporate new educational goals such as knowledge ofother cultures, my firm and outright response is always in the negative.This type of aims run the serious risk of being tackled in the classicalway, favouring a deterministic and one-sided approach to culturalbehaviour that contrasts with the notion that culture is built in adynamic and interactive way. I believe that the emphasis should be puton the method, the methodology and on the educational act itself as aform of social communication and interaction.Following are some items that educators can use as teachingstrategies or guidelines:—To define a more “sociologist” concept of European identity.—To learn and teach how to appropriate and negotiate multiplefeelings of belonging.—To learn how to be in charge of one´s own socialization and notonly a product of it.15Projects such as those carried out by Andrés Tornos can be very illustrative:Tornos, A. (2000) Profundizar en la Integración. Documentación Social, Octubre-Diciembre, 141-155. and Tornos, A. (1994) La identidad del inmigrante y su situaciónfamiliar. Miscelánea Comillas, 52, pp. 365-379.