Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Higher education (University) as a comparative perspective. In order to understandbetter the French case, we will start by a quick presentation of the strength ofcentralism in the organisation of national education.The foundation of the French state education dates back to the third Republic(1871−1940). Le tableau de la géographie de la France by Vidal de la Blache andl’Histoire de la France by Lavisse have long been at the core of our teaching; theyenabled the headmasters and the teachers to pass on the values of the Republic suchas patriotism and secularism. Today this civic dimension is still present, the twosubjects aim at creating a cultural identity for the young among which Europe mustbe one major aspect. This civic dimension in the teaching of these two subjects ispossible because education is national and completely centralized. Teachers in highschool and elementary school are employed as civil servants.Teachers of high school and elementary schools have to enforce the nationalcurriculum. It determines what should be studied throughout the year, for everysubject. It shows the number of hours per subject that the teachers should respect.The redaction or growth of the curriculum of a subject is done by the National EducationMinister who relies on the national curriculum council which is composed ofuniversity professors and National Education executives. After much consultation,the curriculum is published. The National Education inspectors and the Headteachersmust take care to enforce it. However teachers can have a certain amount of freedomregarding its application.In Universities, the constraints of the content of the subjects are less strong. Theministry, according to reforms, proposes a referential structure but it is the pedagogicteam of the geographic departments that decides on the general orientation of theteaching. This model has to be approved by the University and the ministry. Oncethe orientation of the instruction is settled then the responsibility for the contentsof the various courses falls on the teachers. Therefore each university determinesits teaching orientation according to its competencies and strategy. This notion ofstrategy is develops with respect to the Bologna process and the implementation ofthe LMD (licence/bachelors-masters-doctorate/PhD) system. Indeed this systementails that the training is done to enable the students to reach a certain educationalstandard but it also must answer to a number of requirements according to employment.The approach is no longer national and regional, it is also European and itplaces education within a competitive European system.New tools to promote European citizenship in secondary educationFirst of all, the curriculum and handbooks/textbooks are the principal tools supportingthe construction of this European citizenship. The Middle school curriculum of 1995puts Europe forward as early as the 5 e (12 years old) but it is particularly from the4 e (13 years old) that it becomes central (Table 1).242