The european school system in the eyes of its stakeholders

Resumen

The subject of this research is the perception the stakeholders of the European School system have of the strengths, weaknesses and reform of the system. The European School system was created in 1957, to offer a solution for the children of the European official offering mobility by teaching mother tongue thus assuring the child could go back to National systems as well as to become laboratories of pedagogical experiment for mother tongue teaching, multilingualism, multicultural education, and harmonizing European curriculum. There are currently 14 schools in 7 countries and over 22.000 pupils. In the theoretical framework a desciption is made of the changing context of the school. Globalisation, europeanisation and multiculturalism are discussed as well as the effect the changing role of education has on governance, specifically autonomy, accountibility and leadership. The approach and methodology used follow a process of definition of research questions, the elaboration of the variables of analysis, the construction of a survey, the testing of the survey in panel with different languages, and the launch of the survey, analysing the results through several statistical and analytical tools. The survey was launch to the Joint Teaching Committees, where most of the stakeholders of the European School system are represented. This research finds that the stakeholders value most the multilingual and multicultural aspect of the European School System. Globalisation increased the demand for international education, and raised awareness for the need of citizenship: belonging to a common social and cultural area based on solidarity and mutual understanding of cultural diversities. The European Schools provide an international education (multilingualism) and promote equal respect of cultures and diversity (multiculturalism). Concerning improvement areas stakeholders of the European School System indicate that the system needs more quality assurance and more involvement of the stakeholders including the local community. The stakeholders agree with the authors of earlier studies that overpopulation and lack of an alternative course to the European Baccalaureate are important weaknesses of the system. Furthermore stakeholders feel that there is too much bureaucracy and that more autonomy is needed for schools. Concerning the reform, stakeholders are quite aware of autonomy, opening up and the reform of the European Baccalaureate. Opening up is an answer to the demand for international education where mutual understanding of each other¿s language and culture promote social harmony and European citizenship. The reform of the European Baccalaureate is an answer to the global professionalization and marketization of education as well as the need to simplify because of the opening up of the system. Stakeholders agree that opening up fits the need of an evolving Europe and they think is successful.