Nicola Savvides

Developing a European Identity: A Case Study of the European School at Culham.

Encouraging pupils to develop a sense of European identity is one of the implicit aims of the ‘European Schools’. This paper reports on a small case study that was carried out in 2004 that investigated how the European School at Culham attempts to develop in its pupils a sense of European identity. In particular, the study looked at the secondary school’s organizational features, its curriculum, extra‐curricular activities and teachers’ conceptions of European identity. The research findings reveal that above all else, pupils’ sense of European identity is encouraged indirectly through the many opportunities the school provides for these children from diverse European backgrounds to integrate and interact with one another. Teachers at the school believe that it is through such interactions, which take place both in the classroom and through extra‐curricular activities, that pupils learn about each others’ cultures and languages and develop a feeling of being European.

Interaction and critical inquiry in asynchronous computer-mediated conferencing: a research agenda.

This paper reviews research on learner and tutor interaction in asynchronous computer‐mediated (ACM) conferences used in distance learning. The authors note claims made for the potential of ACM conferences to promote higher‐order critical inquiry and the social construction of knowledge, and argue that there is a general lack of evidence regarding the actual achievement of these aims in such conferences. We present and discuss the relevant research literature currently available on the effects of social presence, the tutor’s teaching and moderating strategies, and task type. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research in each of these areas.

Intercultural communicative competence in foreign language education: questions of theory, practice and research

Language teaching and learning has undergone a ‘cultural turn’ since the emergence of ‘the Communicative Approach’ and ‘Communicative Language Teaching’ in the 1970s. The earlier study of language, which involved the study of literary and other texts, had neglected the need for ‘communicative competence’— the ability to use language in socially appropriate ways, often operationalised as ‘politeness’. However, perhaps as a consequence of globalisation, new technologies, and mass economic and refugee migration, it has become clear that communicative language teaching too, with its focus on sociolinguistic appropriateness and politeness, is inadequate to the task of teaching for communication. This new social context requires consideration of the ways in which people of different languages — including language learners themselves — think and act, and how this might impact on successful communication and interaction. The ‘cultural turn’ – the introduction of ‘intercultural competence’ to complement ‘communicative competence’ – has further refined the notion of what it is to be competent for communication with speakers of different languages. Teachers and learners now need to be ‘aware’ of other people’s ‘cultures’ as well as their own, and therefore, the term ‘intercultural (communicative) competence’ has emerged, along with other terms such as ‘cultural awareness’ and ‘transnational competence’.

The European Dimension in the National Curriculum for England

Since its introduction under the 1988 Education Reform Act, the National Curriculum has been subjected to frequent modifications. Its earlier revisions were carried out largely because the curriculum was overloaded and imposed considerable pressure and demands on both pupils and teachers. Sir Ron Dearing was appointed, in 1993, to carry out a major revision and attempted a ‘slimming down’ of the National Curriculum. This resulted in the cessation of history and geography (subjects believed to be important in incorporating the European dimension) from being compulsory at key stage 4. Furthermore, Economou (2001, 2002) found that the revised National Curriculum of 1995 failed to provide a statutory basis for the European dimension; some references to teaching about Europe were made in the curriculum orders for history, geography, modern foreign languages, music and art but they were of limited nature and open to diverse interpretation on the part of the teachers. As a result, some pupils were taught about Europe while others were deprived of such an opportunity. The curriculum was also criticised for being ‘Anglo-American’ (Morrell, 1996). Perhaps such kinds of criticism combined with further pressure of the need to integrate a European dimension during the 1998 UK government’s Presidency of the European Union was what prompted and led to the most recent revision of the curriculum, published in 1999 for implementation in the year 2000. With the intention of developing the contribution of Economou, this paper analyses the subjects within the most recently revised National Curriculum, revealing the extent to which the approach to the European dimension has changed. I begin with a brief discussion on the nature and aims of the new curriculum that are relevant to the European dimension before moving on to a more detailed examination of the European dimension within the curriculum subjects.

Investigating Education for European Identity at Three ‘European Schools’: A Research Proposal

Encouraging pupils to develop a sense of European identity is one of the implicit aims of the ‘European Schools’. This article describes a proposed research study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which will investigate how this aim is being pursued at three European Schools. The proposal builds on two years (2003–2005) of preparation including research methods training, preliminary research and pilot work conducted at one of the three European Schools to be studied. The introduction to this article presents the contextual background and rationale to the proposed study, before moving on to a brief review of the empirical literature and the conceptual framework. Following this is a discussion of the general purpose of the research, outlining the research questions and the methods that will be used for gathering the data to answer them. The purpose in presenting the preliminary details of this project is to seek constructive criticism and suggestions from educational researchers, particularly from amongst comparativists and those working on European, international and intercultural dimensions. This proposal is designed to guide the project rather than to serve as a fixed framework. It may therefore be modified in light of the feedback received and as unforeseen avenues and new opportunities present themselves.

Market efficiency and the basis in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme: New evidence from non linear mean reverting unit root tests

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the validity of the cost of carry model by examining the time series properties of the deviation between future and spot prices in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) over the time period 2005-2012. The paper utilizes a non-linear mean reverting adjustment mechanism, and discovers that although deviations of future from spot prices can exhibit a region of non-stationary behaviour, overall they are stationary indicating market efficiency in the trading of carbon permits. Design/methodology/approach - – The methodology involves non-linear mean reverting unit root tests. Findings - – The findings provide insights into the functioning of the EU-ETS market. They suggest that it is informationally efficient and does not permit arbitrage between spots and futures. Originality/value - – The authors are the first study to examine efficiency in the EU-ETS by investigating the validity of the cost of carry model. The authors are also the only study to look at efficiency in both Phase I and Phase II of the scheme.

Guest Editorial: Second special issue on Intercultural Competence

This second special issue on intercultural competence continues the investigation of the cultural turn in language teaching. As described in the first special issue, the rationale for our focus highlights the importance, and imperative, of research illustrating teachers’ and learners’ developing awareness of other people’s ‘cultures’, as well as their own, as they engage and communicate with others in different languages or in a lingua franca. Curricula and policy documents have begun to highlight the need to develop learners who have intercultural competence, and the responsibility for this teaching and learning is often placed in the domain of the language teacher (Byram and Parmenter 2012). Yet, as the articles in the first special issue demonstrate, the theory and practice of developing intercultural competence is itself undergoing a ‘cultural turn’ as authors critically examine and contest the meaning and value of the language of this cultural turn. For example, the articles in the first special issue illustrated the complexity, and limitations, of terms such as ‘intercultural (communicative) competence’, ‘identity’, ‘the intercultural speaker’, and ‘cultural awareness’. In this second special issue, authors continue this exploration of the cultural turn in language teaching and learning, and the concepts that underpin it. They also continue to examine the interrelationship among models that illustrate and guide teacher practice, practice itself – the relationship between what teachers do, and how, where, and what learners learn – and empirical investigation through teacher-led research. In particular, they address three key themes: contexts of teacher education, descriptions of specific courses and textbooks, and the potential and possibilities engendered by new technologies. The first of these three themes – teacher education in developing learners’ interculturality – is as yet under-explored, and the two articles by Mónica Bastos and Helena de Araújo e Sá and Ana Sofia Pinho attend to the importance of developing teachers’ own intercultural understanding. Bastos and Araújo e Sá highlight the importance of training programmes that enable teachers to integrate the intercultural dimension into their professional practice. Their article draws on Portuguese secondary school teachers’ accounts of representations and experiences of intercultural communicative competence and how it develops. From this evidence they develop a heuristic model of professional training that includes the cognitive, praxeological and affective domains of teacher experiences of developing intercultural communicative competence. Their colleague, Ana Sofia Pinho, illustrates in her article the potential of intercomprehension as a portal for developing teachers’ intercultural sensitivity. Drawing on student teachers’ accounts, Pinho demonstrates how teachers’ growing intercultural sensitivity enabled them to build knowledge about intercomprehension, knowledge which is important in expanding teachers’ critical cultural awareness and which enables them to perform as intercultural and plurilingual educators. The second theme explores the place of courses and textbooks. Béatrice Cabau shows how an intercultural model, which recognises the multifaceted aspects of identity, languages and the learner’s profile, can be used in language education in the Hong Kong context. The approach merges two guiding pedagogic frameworks – the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and Content and Language Integrated Learning – to enhance learners’ motivation and interest by providing tools for reflection about one’s (social)

Methodological Issues in International, Intercultural and Comparative Education:

The field of Comparative and International Education has evolved considerably from its origins in the early nineteenth century when research focused on providing descriptive accounts of educational provision elsewhere that would inform the development of national education systems. Attention to developing theories and methods for systematic and rigorous comparison, and the problems involved in making such comparisons, began in the late nineteenth century (Phillips & Schweisfurth, 2008) and remains an area of interest and debate. More recently, paradigmatic shifts towards post-positivist and poststructuralist frameworks as well as other societal and contextual shifts mean that researchers must constantly develop their thinking about designing and using appropriate methodological tools and be aware of a plethora of methodological issues that go beyond how to compare and include such issues as how to conduct ethical and credible research in international and intercultural contexts. The proliferation of globalisation, internationalisation and Europeanisation has led to an increase in mobility, migration and diversity in societies, educational institutions and workplaces, as people move to live, study, work and conduct research abroad. Advances in technology have also broken down barriers to international communication at a distance, although this is not the case in some remote and underdeveloped locations. Researchers of all disciplines are increasingly collaborating with ‘cultural others’ (Sanderson, 2004) both within and across geographical borders and it is now commonplace to work on large interdisciplinary projects involving participants from other countries, regions and contexts. Researchers and methodologists therefore face new opportunities and challenges as they engage in the research process. Operating in an era of ‘supercomplexity’ (Barnett, 2000), they are required to develop certain skills and competencies that will enable them to understand and communicate appropriately with people from other horizons, include and make sense of multiple perspectives and shifting identities, and design appropriate methodologies that produce credible and ethical research outcomes. The development of researchers’ intercultural competence, defined as ‘the ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in intercultural situations based on one’s intercultural knowledge, skills and attitudes’ (Deardorff, 2006, p. 8) is key, as is the development of emotional and social intelligence, particularly when engaged in interpretative and qualitative research where the emphasis is on understanding ‘others’. In line with this background, this thematic issue sets out to explore some of the theoretical and methodological issues of conducting research in international, intercultural and comparative education. Each article makes a contribution to this theme by discussing the approaches, complexities and challenges of conducting empirical research, and some of the theoretical and conceptual difficulties encountered, offering insightful solutions and recommendations. Before providing an introduction to and synopsis of each individual article, I summarise the key