Teaching About Europe in Poland Teaching About Poland in Europe
The Old City of Toruń, Poland
modern city functions in the medieval frames
Aleksandra Zaparucha
Secondary School Complex number 10, pl. św. Katarzyny 9, 87 – 100 Toruń, Poland
ABSTRACT
Toruń, a historical Polish city of almost 200,000 inhabitants, is located half-way between Warsaw and Gdańsk. For years its centre containing the largest number of medieval structures in Poland was neglected due to lack of money for renovation. Things have started to change since both political and economic changes took place in Poland in 1989. New businesses and the EU funds brought money necessary for rejuvenation, thus preserving the old functions of the centre and adding the new ones.
Preserving the old city functions:
- shopping centre – locating modern shops in historical buildings;
- tourist centre (see Photo 1 and 2) – opening atmospheric hotels and cafes in medieval settings;
- cultural centre – reviving the New Town Market with the cite events;
- living quarter – renovating or adding new tenement houses in the city centre.
Adding new city functions:
- banking and insurance centre – locating banks and insurance companies in medieval tenement houses.
As a result of the changes which have taken place for the last two decades, Toruń is ready to apply to become the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2016.
Selected bibliography
Urząd Miasta Torunia, Projekty europejskie,
Zaparucha A., HindsonJ., Retail revolution, Geographical, 1991
Zaparucha A., HindsonJ., Retail revolution – a year later, Geographical, 1992
Photo 1. The main shopping street of the Old Town of Toruń – newly installed ‘small architecture’
Photo 2. Summer tourist attractions – rickshaw services and souvenir stalls in the main street of Toruń’s OldTown
Teaching about Europe in Poland – teaching about Poland in Europe–
selected issues
Aleksandra Zaparucha
Secondary School Complex number 10, pl. św. Katarzyny 9, 87 – 100 Toruń, Poland
Abstract
Teaching about Europe has always been an important party of Geography teaching in Poland. Currently, since Poland joined the European Union in 2004, this issue has become even more significant. Thus, European education begins in kindergartens, followed by all levels of school education.
The paper presents selected topics dealt with during the above stages of education. An example is taken from a local kindergarten where the teachers have designed a series of activities to introduce children to the memberstates of the European Union. Further on, selected primary school books are tested in regard to their European dimension. These are both the earliest stages of school education, classes 1-3, when school integrates all the school subjects, as well as classes 4-6 when Geography is not taught as a separate school subject, but its issues are included in a broader subject of “Nature Studies”.
Systematic knowledge on European issues is taught during separate Geography lessons compulsory for all the students at the Junior High, or Gimnazjum, level (classes 1-3), followed by High School, or Liceum, level (compulsory for 2 out of 3 years of education). At the earlier stage general topics about Europe are covered, such as location, climate, geology, and relief etc., accompanied by a study of selected counties. The latter stage, however, deals with more specialist issues, such as politics or trade.
However, teaching about Poland as well as other East and Central European countries was not a key issue in Geography teaching in West European countries. A selection of British Geography textbooks, both modern and published in the past in the UK, reveals these inequalities. There were cases when maps devoted to European issues contained only the West European states. Moreover, in many cases all the Communist countries were dealt with very briefly without distinguishing any differences between them. Since European Union has been joined by new countries there is a great need as well as span for changes.
Selected bibliography
Teaching about Europe in Poland:
- Barbar Józef, 1984, Geografia gospodarcza świata dla kl. II liceum ogólnokształcącego, WSiP, Warszawa
- Krynicka-Tarnacka T., Wnuk G., Wojtkowicz Z., 2002, Moje miejsce w Europie, podręcznik geografii dla gimnazjum, SOP, Toruń
- Krynicka-Tarnacka T., Wnuk G., Wojtkowicz Z., 2004, Moje miejsce w Europie, Unia Europejska, suplement do podręcznika geografii dla gimnazjum, SOP, Toruń
- Moje miejsce w przestrzeni geograficznej,program nauczania geografii gimnazjum, SOP Toruń, 2004
Teaching about Poland in Europe:
- Haigh M., 1985, Around Britain and Europe, CUP
- Images of Poland, 1991, Geographical Association
- Reed A., 1984, The World Now, Bell and Hyman, London
- Waugh D., 2003, The New Wider World, Nelson Thornes, Cheltenham
GEOGRAPHY STUDENT TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE EU AND EUROPEANS IN TURKEY
Ozturk, Mustafa[1]
ABSTRACT
This paper looks at the attitudes of geography student teachers with regard to European Union (EU) and how geography student teachers conceptualise European Dimension (ED) in geography education in Turkey. Based on the data collected through questionnaires and in-depth interviews with geography student teachers, this paper begins by revealing attitudes of student teachers about the EU and Europeans. On this account, itstates how student teachers differentiate themselves from ‘Europeans’ and how they identify Turkey in relation to the EU. Then, it goes on to examine what student teachers think about the politics of Turkey’s membership of the EU. The majority of student teachers point out a strong attachment to Turkish identity, which is thought to be different from European identity. Here the term ‘identity’ – in the sense of belonging to Turkic ethnicity/nationality/culture – is used as an umbrella concept encapsulating culture, history, mentality and religion. Since student teachers cherish their cultural heritage and identity giving much significance to its preservation and transmission to future generations, Turkey’s membership to the EU becomes a problematic issue for them. Finally, the paper briefly considers how student teachers conceptualise ED in geography education. The majority associates the issue with mainly politics, including geopolitics, Turkey’s membership politics and people’s own political positions.
Key Words: European Union, European Dimension, Geography Education, Student Teachers, Turkey
Geographic stereotypes as a tool to learn about others: a European experiment
Marko Krevs, Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia,
Abstract
In scientific discussions geographic stereotypes are usually disregarded as presupposedly biased or even intentionally incorrect or pejorative information. We are not aware how often we use them not only do describe others, but also to portray or to attempt to understand the differences between the countries, cultures, places, or to adapt our behaviour and communication with others. They help us to function in multi-cultural environment.The potential value of systematic collection and use of geographical stereotypes for teaching (cultural) geography is presented in the paper, and related to other sources and ways of delivering the information (e.g. statistical data, maps, travel guides, simulation games). An approach to collecting national stereotypes from countries of Europe and beyond, using web survey tool, and few results are presented. The importance of networks like Herodot and Eurogeo is emphasized in such systematic data collections, and in their critical evaluation.
The challenges of promoting Geography
Dr. Maria Attard
Geography Division, Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta.
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Abstract
There is a considerable difference in the demands for studying geography in Higher Education Institutions across Europe. The declining demands for geography in some universities stems from a number of factors, mainly the lack of promotion of geography as a discipline and the lack of effective promotion of what geography is and what does a geographer do. These aspects have been identified in a number of countries as the main reasons for the declining interest in geography by prospective graduates and employers. HERODOT Thematic Pillar 2 is responsible for the promotion of geography in the 21st Century. The objectives of the pillar are two-fold. First the pillar will try to assess the current and future promotion of geography as described by academics across Europe and partner countries outside of the Union. Second will be the creation of a toolkit for the promotion of geography. The target of this exercise will not only be educators in HE, but also NGOs and the influential European society. This will increase the visibility of geography and describe what geography is all about. The work of the pillar will consist primarily of collecting information about the available promotion and materials used for this promotion[2]. Using the HERODOT network of geography departments across European Higher Education Institutions, a questionnaire will aim to collect information about current practices and identify best practice examples. The final target of the pillar is to create a user friendly tool kit that is easy to understand but also tries to identify the key elements of what makes up geography and geographers.
Keywords: Geography, promotion, tool kit.
“The new SpanishUniversity System and the possibility of a compulsory subject entitled Europe”
The adoption of the commitments taken in Bologna has been for many governments an excuse to modify their national university system from the basis. In Spain, for instance, the reform of the University Ordinance Law was passed last March in the Deputy’s Congress, which means the third attempt of a global change in the academic structure of the university studies. This last revision is quite similar to other systems adopted in Europe with just five fields of academic titles: Graduated in Arts, Sciences, Social Sciences, Health Sciences or Technologies. First question is what category do you think Geography should belong to? The government said that Geography could be a title an academic degree in Arts or Sciences, paradoxically just two days before an assembly of the Spanish Geographers had concluded that Geography should be a Social Sciences study. The real thing is that the university system in Spain is going to be altered from its pillars and in this context a common subject entitled “Europe” could have this place.
SPECIFIC GEOGRAPHY FIELDWORK AS A SOURCE FOR MULTIPURPOSE TEACHING AND A PROVIDER OF INTERDISCIPLINARY DIMENSION TO TEACHING
Dr Daniela Dumbrăveanu
Dr Liliana Dumitrache
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography, Human and Economic Geography Department
The aim of this paper is to further present a teaching experiment undertaken by the authors initially as a singular fieldwork experience in order to develop new practical skills among geography students trained to become primary and secondary school teachers and tourism experts. Due to unexpected positive results and obvious need to be developed the experiment was repeated involving a greater variety of actors and more depths into the considered aspects.
Given Romania’s recent EU accession national teaching curricula needs changes in both education sectors, schools and higher education. New teaching methods, techniques and approaches have become a priority within both education sectors. Geography fieldwork involving simple geography or pure geographical information has been experienced (together with history and biology) primarily as a method to help future secondary school teachers and tourism experts to understand how fieldwork techniques help children to interpret
a)local historical heritage and local history of national importance,
b) local community traditions or local religious symbols important for the local community variety via natural wildlife.
Secondly the paper is aiming present the second round of results after the second run of the experiment developed at the level of a mixed group of undergraduate students (geography, tourism, European studies, archaeology) undertaking geography fieldwork. The experiment focused on fieldwork as a geography technique for other subjects to be taught through in order to raise cultural difference awareness among both students and children.
CHANGINGGEOGRAPHICAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF EUROPE AMONGST GREEK-CYPRIOT PUPILS: A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF A PRIMARY SCHOOL CURRICULAR INTERVENTION
Dr Stavroula Philippou
Department of Education Sciences
Cyprus College, Cyprus
Abstract
One of the objectives of EU educational policy has been to promote a European dimension in education as a means of developing a sense of European citizenship and identity amongst pupils and students. However, the notions of European citizenship and identity are far from simple and have raised a number of debates and discussions. One argument has been that enhanced geographical knowledge of own and European countries enhances national and European identities and indeed some definitions of national identity include aspects of knowledge of national geography. There is a scarcity of research, however, exploring children’s understandings of geographical concepts in general and of Europe in particular; the few studies available have been conducted by developmental psychologists and educational researchers and indicate a number of difficulties faced by children in dealing with geographical concepts. These issues were thus addressed in a curriculum development, quasi-experimental, action research project aiming at introducing a European dimension in the History and Geography curriculum, which was implemented amongst 10-year-old pupils in Cyprus during the school year 2000-2001. The paper focuses on findings concerning pupils’ geographical understandings of Europe. These findings derive from both pre and post-evaluation and the discussion is conducted through comparisons between and within the experimental and control groups, in an effort to identify the impact of the curricular intervention on pupils’ geographical understandings of Europe. Findings are structured into four sections; the first explores pupil representations of Europe and the EU and refers to pupils’ general understandings and knowledge of Europe. The second part investigates their landmark (knowledge of whether places exist) and configurational (spatial location of places) knowledge of Europe and the EU, the third and fourth focus on how they located Cyprus in relation to Europe and Europe in relation to the world respectively.
CHANGINGGEOGRAPHICAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF EUROPE AMONGST GREEK-CYPRIOT PUPILS: A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF A PRIMARY SCHOOL CURRICULAR INTERVENTION
How Slovenia deals with the European Dimension in Geography Education
Tatjana Resnik Planinc
Abstract
The paper focuses on the implementation of the European dimension in geography education in Slovenia therefore the present situation is discussed from the viewpoint of manyrapid and profound changes we are dealing with nowadays. Different ideas and possibilities of what European dimension in geography may include are presented. Environments, political formations, different ways of life, cooperation, and co-dependence are just some of the themes that might contribute to the awareness of European cohabitation. The paper defines knowledge and skills pupils and students need to acquire to face the challenges of tomorrow's society.
Key words:European dimension, geography, education, Slovenia, knowledge, skills
[1]Asist.Prof.Dr., Erciyes University, Education Faculty, Kayseri, 38039, TURKEY
e-mail:
[2]An example is the UK Employability Profiles Resource Packs prepared by the Higher Education Academy (GEES) (available at and by the Association of Geographic Information (AGI), IGGI and Ordnance Survey (available at