European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

13.The Development of Cultural Identity(ies) of PortugueseStudents in English Schools: Some Implicationsfor Teacher TrainingGuida de AbreuDepartment of PsychologyUniversity of Luton, United KingdomThe published title for my presentation was «The Portuguese, theidentity of the European Union and the training of teachers», but I amvery unsure about the meaning of the expression «the identity of theEuropean Union» for Portuguese people 1 living in England. In the tworesearch projects I am currently involved in, the issue of European Identityis rarely mentioned. One of these projects is a three-year ongoinginvestigation on the experiences of Portuguese students in Britishschools and includes the perspectives of their parents and teachers(Abreu, Silva and Lambert, 2001a, 2001b). The other project focuseson the life trajectories of Portuguese women in England (Estrela andAbreu, in preparation).Both projects were framed within a cultural psychology 2 perspectiveand followed an ethnographic approach, which included in-depth1Acknowledgements: The research discussed in this paper was made possiblethrough grants from “Departamento da Educação Básica, Lisboa, Portugal” andCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation in London. A research team that includes MariaAmelia Estrela, Teresa Silva, Hannah Lambert, and myself has conducted this research. Ialso wish to acknowledge all the students, parents, school staff and Portuguese womenin Britain who participated in this research. Their generosity with their time and frankarticulation of their experiences and views were crucial to the project.2For instance Benson (2001) drawing on Cole (1996) and Bruner (1996) definescultural psychology as a perspective that—“Examines how people, working together, using a vast range of tools, bothphysical and symbolic —tools which have been developed over time and whichcarry with them the intelligence that solved specific problems— make meaningful