It aims to increase critical understanding—on the part of European students and citizens in general—of Europe's past, present and future and its role in the wider world.
These help make learners aware of how national historical viewpoints have been created, and how and why they may contrast with the beliefs and understandings about history in neighboring countries.
Moreover, to reach a mature comprehension of the complex political, social, economic and juridical framework in which the EU has been conceived and built, it is important to broaden our view back in history before 1945 and World War II.
In order to reach such important goals the group has decided to map the current situation and to produce and disseminate Guidelines and Reference points for Higher Education programmes in Europe.
Critical views on the process of integration are also presented in a lecture series forming part of the Master of European Studies (MES) offered by the Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt on Oder (DE).
in this example is also the interior multi-disciplinary approach, also used in other courses such as "Interdisciplinary Analysis of EU" (in the "Integrated Studies of Europe" Programme, Universität Bremen [DE] ).
That is also the case in a course on "Transnational History" at St Andrews (UK) that deals with the interconnections between European societies and non-European regions from the 18th century.
A comparative and transnational approach to the idea of Europe in a long durée perspective is pursued in the second cycle programme in "European Historical Studies2 at the University of Évora (Portugal).
Students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the complex and contested historical origins of the European Union and be able to justify their chosen definition of what constitutes EU history.
Ability to define suitable research topics to contribute to historiographical knowledge and debate The learner should be able to identify a number of significant studies relating to the history of European integration and cooperation during the 20th and the 21st centuries, including for example the concrete acts regarding it, the ideas surrounding it and the obstacles to it; to connect these works with the historical and political context in which they were produced; and to define the position of the author with respect to the historical, political, methodological and theoretical questions addressed.
The learner should be able to elaborate a research plan, organised around bibliography, documents and other sources (oral, written, material), as appropriate to address the questions posed and to revise (broaden, perfect) it in relation to his or her findings.
Ability to identify and utilise appropriate sources of information for a research project The European Union is sometimes compared to an onion (as a sphere) with concentric layers.
This will require competences in finding, classifying and using critically sources of information appropriate to the historical time period, geographical space or phenomena analysed.
Indeed, history as discipline possesses the necessary tools, particularly in the vital area of source criticism, to evaluate and validate the vast amount of information made available through the new technologies.
Search engines can limit the unwary scholar to a narrow gaze, only identifying those documents which contain particular terms, while missing others with a more subtle relevance to a particular question, and plucking journal articles and primary materials from their context.
The project has already pioneered making available electronically resources for teaching which represent the latest scholarship on numerous key topics related to thematic and national histories.
It is not surprising that in order to achieve this, several of the working groups on the project have produced readers and online teaching guides dedicated to their particular fields, and that more are in preparation.
(1) Increasing visibility of CLIOHWORLD and associated projects One of the wonders of the digital age has been the proliferation of resources online, but this presents the challenge of how to maintain a profile in what can often seem like a jungle of information.
It is particularly appropriate that CLIOHWORLD should be found on both these sites, for it ties in with the project's aims to reach out across the continent, and now globally, to promote a critical understanding of European history, and to disseminate teaching materials to help learners of all ages study this topic.
As mentioned above, many of the other Working Groups of CLIOHWORLD expect to produce online resources related to their particular themes and links to these can be added as appropriate to Wikipedia and Facebook.
It is often assumed, for example, that young people are automatically computer literate and skilled in the use of search engines and digital resources, but it is often the case that they require training and support.
The, at times, lax checks and balances which govern online publishing mean that the unwary may use unreliable or poor quality materials in the place of more scholarly resources.
Universities are also increasingly aware of the opportunities for expanding their reach and recruitment using e-learning tools, with lectures being posted on YouTube and online courses being developed to enable distance learning.
Even social networking sites like Facebook and virtual worlds like Second Life are proving to be of use to educational institutions, facilitating communication and, in the latter case, enabling the recreation of artefacts, battlegrounds and even cities of the past.
The Working Group has interviewed one teacher of history on her experiences of using Second Life as a teaching tool and will include details of this case study in the report.
As the interview highlighted, questions remain, however, about the extent to which such online interaction is an adequate or satisfying replacement for traditional classroom based activities.
Sixty universities and organizations from 29 countries participate in CLIOH-WORLD, meeting on a regular basis and developing links with European and World History associations in other continents.
CLIOHRES ("Creating Links and Innovative Overviews for a New History Research Agenda for the Citizens of a Growing Europe") is a Sixth Framework Programme Network of Excellence organized by a group of 45 universities, many of which are CLIOH.net members.
A five-year project, it aims at achieving and disseminating greater understanding of both the actual histories and the representations of the past current in Europe today, highlighting both diversities and connections and explaining the development context.
The central methodological core around which this TWG will work sees the study of gender as a valuable tool for understanding social evolutions rather than as an end in itself.