The semblance of progress amidst the absence of change: Educating for an imagined Europe in Moldova and Albania

Abstract

For Moldova and Albania, the promise of integration into the European Union (EU) has led to a reimagining of the purpose of schooling. Once charged with producing loyal communist citizens, their schools and educational policies are now focused on producing democratic citizens of an expanded Europe. This chapter examines how educational discourses are reconstituting notions of national citizenship to fit within a broader pan-European identity. We find that despite the adoption of common European standards, the EU imaginary nonetheless produces divergent results in classrooms through the perpetuation of uneven power relations, the displacement of local needs, and the contradictory fusion of new principles and old practices. Thus, in these cases, the social imaginary is invoked to convey the semblance of progress amidst the absence of change.

Citation

Gardinier, M.P. and Anderson Worden, E. (2010), "The semblance of progress amidst the absence of change: Educating for an imagined Europe in Moldova and Albania", Silova, I. (Ed.) Post-Socialism is not Dead: (Re)Reading the Global in Comparative Education (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 183-211. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3679(2010)0000014010