Alistair Ross

London Metropolitan University · Institute for Policy Studies in Education

This study analyses the way young Europeans, aged between 10 and 20, construct their sense of identity with geo-political entities such as the nation, the state and the European Union; how these are expressed; and how young people manage the potential multiplicity of identities. It re-analyses earlier data, some 224 transcripts of young Europeans d...

This chapter takes a complementary approach to the others in this volume. Rather than starting with the policies and practices that educational systems take towards migrant education, we consider how young people in Europe - of both migrant and non-migrant origins - construct attitudes towards migrants and refugees. We argue that accessing the voic...

This article examines the use of deliberative discussions as a method of analysing the geo-political affiliations and values of young people. Exploring such areas through traditional interviews and questionnaires can present problems in that they can unduly prompt answers. Using open-ended and loosely structured discussions can allow the generation...

What are the characteristics of educational intervention programmes that appear more successful in attempting to address social inequalities? This chapter reflects on the conclusions and recommendations of a study made by a seven-country team that in 2006–2009 investigated policies relating to different kinds of inequality and disadvantage in 14 st...

This research project focuses on young European's political identities and the values that they express, and the implications this may have for political education. The qualitative study used 324 small discussion groups with groups of 11 to 19 year-old, across 29 European countries. The processes of deliberative discussions let the participants fee...

Chapter 1 opened a discussion on what is meant by social justice in education, and the issues involved in defining this, and what research directed towards this would look like. We identified different types of potential injustices, and the subsequent chapters examined various of these in turn, in a range of educational contexts, through the prisms...

This book has been written by a group of researchers who worked together variously over 2000–2015, who broadly share a commitment to educational research that leads to social justice. This introductory chapter sets out what we understand social justice to mean, and how this gives a particular connotation to the terms ‘educational science’ and ‘the...

What are the characteristics of educational intervention programmes that appear more successful in attempting to address social inequalities? This chapter reflects on the conclusions and recommendations of a study made by a seven-country team that in 2006–2009 investigated policies relating to different kinds of inequality and disadvantage in 14 st...

Analysing young people’s willingness, their ability to participate in political action, and the discourses that they employ to do this, are clearly issues of the ‘public good’. This chapter examines how many young Europeans appear to be constructing identities that include a globalised and/or European dimension, that coalesces around issues of poli...

This book presents a series of analyses of educational policies – largely in the UK, but some also in Europe – researched by a team of social scientists who share a commitment to social justice and equity in education. We explore what social justice means, in educational policy and practice, and how it impacts on our understanding of both ‘educatio...

This article explores how young Europeans (12–19) describe how they discuss political issues with their friends, their parents, and teachers in their schools, and the ways in which these appears to impact on their political understanding and identities. Based on 324 group discussions with 2000 young people, in 104 locations in 29 different European...

This article argues that many young people (11 to 19) in Europe articulate a construction of their identity that includes a European element. This articulation is often initially made in instrumental terms, but through deliberative discussion can move to become more idealistic. The data is drawn from over 300 small discussion groups across 29 Europ...

This study addresses how young Europeans (11–19 years of age, 29 countries, n = 2000) construct identities around their country and Europe, and how they discuss nationalism and national identities in their discourse. Based on empirical data collected through small group deliberative discussions (n = 324) in 29 states, young people’s use of these te...

This article is based on an analysis of the treatment of the European Union in a sample of textbooks from Germany and England. Following contextual remarks about civic education (politische Bildung) in Germany and citizenship education in England and a review of young people’s views, we demonstrate that textbooks in Germany and in England largely m...

Young people’s political involvement and interest is often assumed to be low, and their political views seen as no more than repeated opinions from parents or the media: this chapter challenges these assumptions. It firstly examines the contingent and contextual resources used by young people to construct narratives of political identity: their kno...

Young people often expressed their identification with their country and with Europe through shared values and concerns. This was frequently with respect to their country, and common with respect to Europe, although European values were more sharply identified when comparisons were being made with a non-European ‘other’. These values can be broadly...

One of the pervading issues in the discussions identified was the social reaction to diversity and difference. The young people who took part in the discussions came from very diverse backgrounds, often very different from those of their parents and grandparents, representative of the diversity of young people in the European Union. The two traditi...

This chapter considers the hierarchy of concentric locations and the nature of identification and attachment to each: microloyalties to neighbourhood, town and city; the province; the country and the state; regional affiliations; European identity; and global constructions of the self. This chapter suggests that the degree that a particular level i...

The use and meaning of terms such as nation, citizenship, country, state and Europe varies across generations and between different states, and young people’s identities are related to their socio-political constructions of these terms. A variety of models characterise the plasticity of social construction of political and locational narratives of...

Narratives of identities can be constructed in relation to country and European region. This chapters groups 29 countries into regions that hold similarities in terms of history, culture and ethos, and considers two perspectives: how the inhabitants broadly construct themselves as a distinct group, or not, within Europe; and how other Europeans, in...

Many young Europeans now seem to construct their wider political identities in the way that Anderson once described national identities (1991): as imagined communities. Young people, who have grown up post-Cold War, in a more diverse society than their parents, who are digital social media natives, are consequently less nationalistic, more acceptin...

This book explores how young people in Europe construct their political identities. Based on small discussion groups with 2000 young people across 29 European states, Alistair Ross explores how 13 to 20 year olds build identities in contemporary society, creating contingent narratives of local, national and European identities with families, friend...

Young people in Europe are often described as apolitical non-participants in the civic culture of their own states and the European Union (EU). Using empirical data based on group discussions (n = 324) in 29 European states (104 locations; 2000 young people aged between 11 and 19), this paper challenges this, and suggests that many young people hav...

This chapter describes and discusses the supranational form of citizenship that is in place in the European Union. The historical background is sketched with an overview of the education systems in place across Europe. The strategies for global citizenship education are discussed including references to the colonial legacy, with emerging themes of...

The article analyses how young people in Croatia conceptualise their identities in terms of “place identifications”, a type of social identification that captures membership of a group of people who are defined by their location. It is based on focus group discussions conducted with 68 elementary and secondary school students aged between 11 and 17...

This chapter is necessarily rather different from the chapters that deal with individual countries. The EU consists of 28 states, each of which has considerable elements of sovereignty but is also a member of a political, economic and social union. Citizens of each member country are also citizens of the EU: this is additional to their country citi...

This part of the book allows us to go beyond description and analysis and into the development of what we consider should be done in key areas. In chapter 1, we referred to the need for proper consideration of the ways in which countries developed their national policies in the context of diverse populations and the obviously significant movements...

A quarter century ago, Benedict Anderson (1991) published what came to be a seminal book on understanding nationalism and nation states, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. Anderson argued that nations were not primarily bounded territories but ‘imagined communities’, created in the mind and heart through the...

This chapter analyzes how some young people in postcommunist Europe construct narratives of identity with their country, their sense of agency, and their constructions of themselves as generationally different from their parents and grandparents. Based on data from focus groups with young people between 12 and 19 years from 12 countries that joined...

'Globalization' and 'the Nation' provide significant contexts for examining past educational thinking and practice and to identify how education has been influenced today. This book, written collaboratively, explores country case studies - Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the UK and USA as well as discussing the transnational European Union. © Kin...

How do young people construct their identities in the complexity of their own country, belonging to the European Union, and being part of global society? This book is based on a unique empirical study of a thousand young people, aged between eleven and nineteen, from fifteen European countries. Covering East European states that joined the EU betwe...

A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEFSZYaNbzk

Early school leaving has been identified as a key policy priority across Europe. In this article, we critically discuss the underpinning assumptions and rationale for this policy focus, challenging the association that is made between early school leaving, economic growth and employment. We suggest that ESL is important, not because it is inhibitin...

CiCe DEED allows you to explore how different languages in Europe conceptualise ideas about citizenship and identity, particularly as they are used in educational settings. The words and ideas that we explore in these pages do not always translate directly, and each language uses the vocabulary of these ideas in different ways. Because the idea of...

This article explores how young people (aged 12–18) in the four Visegrad states of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic are constructing their identities, particularly their sense of attachment to their country and to Europe. This generation is of particular significance, in that they are the first generation for many years to have been...

This book is about inequities in education in Europe. The authors have worked together on an analysis of educational inequalities in Europe, which they draw on through the book: they suggest that the countries of Europe, through the European Union, are beginning to address issues of educational disadvantage on a systematic, continent-wide basis. Be...

This article explores how young people (aged 12 -18) in the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are constructing their identities, particularly their sense of attachment to their country and to Europe. This generation is of particular significance, in that they are the first generation for many years to have been born and socialise...

This article explores how young people (aged 12 -18) in the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are constructing their identities, particularly their sense of attachment to their country and to Europe. This generation is of particular significance, in that they are the first generation for many years to have been born and socialise...

This paper reports findings from a study commissioned by the (then) Department for Children, Schools and Families. The research mapped the provision, and explored the impact, of supplementary schools and aimed specifically to develop further understanding as to how supplementary schools might raise the attainment of Black and Minority Ethnic pupils...

We discuss some implications for citizenship education, based on a survey of young people in four European countries in which they were asked how they think they will act politically when they are adult. The empirical sections of the article are based on a survey of 2,400 students aged between 11–17 in 2008–2009 in Poland, Spain, Turkey and England...

This is the final book in the series European Issues in Children’s Identity and Citizenship. It analyzes current perspectives on intercultural education in Europe and the attempts and initiatives to include European citizenship education in teacher education. In the developing demographic, political, and social character of the expanded Europe, the...

Este artículo examina las bases teóricas de la ciudadanía y de la identidad así como algunas de sus implicaciones en la potencial identidad y ciudadanía Europea, y su relación con la red CiCe de maestros, educadores y otros. CiCe (Children’s identity and Citizenship in Europe, ‘Identidad y Ciudadanía de los niños en Europa’) es una Comisión Europea...

This paper explores concepts of multiple and nested identities and how these relate to citizenship and rights, and the implications of identities and rights for active citizenship education. Various theoretical conceptions of identity are analysed, and in particular ideas concerning multiple identities that are used contingently, and about identiti...

We explore the perceptions of teachers concerning citizenship and enterprise in Hungary and England. Contextual matters are described and research methods outlined prior to a discussion of emerging issues. We argue that citizenship in both countries is understood broadly in terms of what it means to be human. The English teachers emphasized communi...

Working class groups have historically been excluded from participation in higher education. Past decades have seen an expansion of the system towards a more inclusive higher education, but participation among people from working class groups has remained persistently low. Is higher education unattractive for these groups or are the institutions ac...

This article describes the early stages of a funded project. The project aims to explore the perceptions of teachers concerning the tensions and overlaps between the drives to promote a form of education that stresses competitiveness and enterprise at the same time as emphasising the centrality of civic values. The project is taking place in Hungar...

Although curriculum is central to the schooling process, debates about it are rarely well informed. Over the past ten years there has been a dearth of books that have informed the debate by examining curriculum in a broader context, beyond the National Curriculum. Ross, in this refreshing re-examination of the area, opens up a more general debate o...

This paper suggests some areas of investigation in curriculum development and research into children's economic thinking that might be developed, based on an analysis of how UK primary schools appear to be incorporating economic and industrial understanding into their curriculum planning. The description of EIU, as proposed in Curriculum Guidance 4...

This article examines some of ways in which young children learn about aspects of economics and industry, and discusses some of the reasons that have been advanced in the United Kingdom for why this should be encouraged. After a discussion of the experience that young children have of the social world (and in particular of the economics), and the u...

This paper summarises the findings of an analysis of primary education students’ backgrounds and economic experiences, relating this to their economic and industrial understanding. The research was conducted in the 1990‐91 period by the Primary Schools and Industry Centre of the Polytechnic of North London, under the sponsorship and aegis of E ATE....

We keep being asked to help children learn about industry or the world of work. Most of us want to hear about examples if we are to be convinced. Alistair Ross describes such an example for us. Although most of the article is about the one project he reflects on how it fits within the whole picture of education into the wider world. It too incident...

Young children are capable of holding fairly sophisticated political concepts and of developing political skills, particularly if both are derived from the direct experience of the child. Political education in Primary schools occurs both through the ethos of the institution itself, as a model of a political system, and in some schools through the...

Human rights and education for citizenship, society and identity: Europe and its regions This paper discusses how Universities, who train and educate professionals who work with children and young people, might contribute to the development of a citizenry for the Europe of the future. The paper considers strategies to help young people understand E...

This keynote paper sets out aspects of the relationship between citizenship education and society. Such a relationship must have at its core the idea that citizenship must be active: it must involve citizens being engaged with their fellow citizens, operating in a democracy, proceeding to undertake social change, performing politically - doing some...

A társadalomismeret oktatását több szinten is támogatják jelenleg Európában. Egyre nő azok tábora, akik szerint szükség van a polgári tudatosságot növelő iskolai oktatásra és a fiatalokat a demokratikus intézményrendszerekben való aktív részvételre serkentő okta- tási programokra. Tanulmányunk a társadalomismeret tanításának négy aspektusát vizs- g...

The political, economic and social characteristics of Europe have changed dramatically over the past sixty years, as they have in most of the world. All European countries are considerably more prosperous, with a more educated population, and have a much more sophisticated and technological economic base. Europe has also largely been internally at...

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