The european schools system and its early years: an example of multilingual and intercultural education? origins, influences and problematisation

Abstract

In the contemporary context of rising levels of diversity, many policy initiatives relating to intercultural understanding have been undertaken at national, international and supra-national levels. In the European Union context, intercultural education has established itself as one of the main policy tools to manage cultural diversity and promote integration. This paper aims to investigate, reconstruct and problematise the historical origins of this model and the concept of diversity associated with it by focusing on the European School System, a peculiar education system born in 1953 in Luxembourg to meet the educational needs of children of EU officials. From the Sixties to the Nineties these Schools were considered to be a «prototype» (Janne Report, 1973, p. 10); previous research has partially shown their controversial nature due, especially, to the elitist character of those Schools and their encyclopedism. Through a plural methodological historical analysis the story of the early years of the ESs will be reconstructed, bringing also into evidence their possible connection to educational internationalism, peace education, and intercultural education.