Amid heightened political tensions in Europe, the importance of scaffolding citizens’ understanding of European integration and the EU project is clear. Those who teach European studies and EU politics at third level relay that engagement and conception beyond a national lens cannot be assumed. In part, this is due to the limited presence of European affairs on primary and post-primary social and political curricula. Teachers of children and adolescents highlight a need for flexible and dynamic resources to teach the values, institutions, and policies of European integration from childhood to adulthood.

This workshop showcases teaching tools which target teacher and student efficacy on European integration and EU politics. They derive from primary (Big Friendly Guide To The EU) and post-primary (Discuss, Argue, Build The EU) toolkits from the ‘Hub in Active European Citizenship’ in University College Cork. They were developed in collaboration with teachers and students across educational level, through Erasmus+ Teacher Training and Jean Monnet Chair in Active European Citizenship projects.

Workshop attendees will participate in exercises designed for active and peer-to-peer learning on the EU; a simulation to teach integration, a simulation to teach decision-making, a game to teach multi-level citizenship, and an artistic exercise to teach conception. The design exposes participants to differing positions and experiences in a framework which promotes deliberation and agonism rather than antagonism. The next step of the workshop will facilitate the exchange of insights and experiences from practitioners and participants across educational levels. Including discussion on such exercises as pedagogical tools, and as creative methodologies in the scholarship of teaching and learning, socialisation, and political engagement.