Hub in Active European Citizenship

Emmanuelle Schon-Quinlivan

To celebrate Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the EU, the Hub is organising its first Intergenerational Citizenship Day. 120 pupils from Ireland and France, who will have been mentored by secondary and third-level students, will come together to present and discuss their Dream EU to over 25 experts ranging from MEPs, TDs, Senators, Councillors, to journalists, academics and civil servants from the Department of Education and Youth, the European Commission in Ireland and more. This is a real opportunity for students who will entirely lead this event to put the Laura Lundy model into effect and get their voice heard by people with influence. 

Dr Emmanuelle Schon-Quinlivan is the project coordinator and Director of the Hub in Active European Citizenship. She also holds a Jean Monnet Chair in Active European Citizenship. The project aims at connecting all levels of education to develop critical thinking on Ireland and the European Union with the view to empower young generations to engage with and impact effectively the EU.

Dr. Philip Murphy is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Government and Politics, University College Cork (UCC). His research interests include political socialisation, political engagement, youth politics, and research methods. He is the postdoctoral researcher on this project as well as the project manager.

Trish Collier is the principal of Kilmurry National School, a rural school in West Cork. With 15 years experience in the primary level, she is also the co-founder of My Big Friendly Guide to the European Union. She is the team leader of the Primary level advisory board.

Aoife Houlihan is a secondary teacher with 14 years teaching experience both abroad and in Ireland. She is an English teacher and subject co-ordinator for CSPE in Kinsale Community school where she is focused on developing Global Citizenship Education across the curriculum.

Georgia Maneta is a primary school teacher in Greece. She has been an active participant of Teachers4Europe and is an eTwinning Ambassador. She has co-founded the eTwinning project eTwin citizens and is the team leader of the International Advisory Board. 

Aoife Hegarty is our eTwinning project creator, 'Sharing our Stories'. Her research is primarily concerned with education outreach and inclusion. For her PhD research in this area, she co-designed a project between Cork, Ireland and Milan, Italy that connected two primary schools categorised as being in socio-economically deprived areas. This project brought external learning resources into the classrooms as well as connecting the school groups with each other undertaking collaborative research about both of their local cultural heritage. This project was supported by each respective city council.

For the BFGTOEU classes, she has developed a five stage project with resources for students and teachers from across the European Union. This project endeavours to develop further connections for EU based schools to embark on cultural heritage education and understanding. 

Jean Monnet Teacher Training grant - Knowing Me Knowing EU

The Teacher Training grant will focus on delivering training courses to primary and secondary teachers. 

The primary teachers will have access to CPD courses which are EPV approved: one on the BFGTOEU programme and one on the EU values studied through the medium of art. This CPD will be delivered in the Glucksman gallery in UCC. 

The secondary teachers will have access to UCC accredited CPD courses which will be delivered online and face-to-face in UCC and Dublin. 

In April 2023 and 2024, teachers will have the opportunity to go on a funded study trip to Brussels which will be coordinated by Dr Emmanuelle Schön-Quinlivan and the Irish College of Leuven. 

KMKEU governance structure

Jean Monnet Chair in Active European Citizenship

The Jean Monnet Chair focuses on connecting the work of third level students towards engaging secondary level students through social media. Instagram and TikTok posts on the EU will be created in paralell with monthly episodes on European affairs on a new YouTube channel, EU TV +. 

Third level students will also create the script and story board of monthly episodes for EU TV Junior, a channel dedicated to news on the EU under seven monutes for 7 to 12 year olds. 

Don't hesitate to get in touch if you want to participate as a secondary or primary school.

In May 2023 and 2024, we will organise a Europe day festival in Cork City Hall. It will be a family day with arts and craft, music, story telling, debates, videos and students' work exhibited. We hope to see many of you there and to inspire other local authorities to organise such events. 

The European Union currently faces centrifugal forces on its values, its legitimacy, and its impact. This project ‘Educating for Empowered Youth Engagements on the EU’ (EYESonEU) will build on a 2021-2024 Jean Monnet Teacher Training (JMTT) grant which supported the development of tailor-made educational toolkits for teachers and students in Ireland. It has two priorities:

Design and deliver training courses on EU citizenship and policies:

• 9 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training courses for post-primary teachers, face-to-face and online, accredited by UCC
• 9 CPD training courses for Vocational Education and Training (VET) educators, face to face and online, accredited by UCC
• 2 transnational training courses for 12 Irish teachers, delivered in Brussels with hands-on institutional and cultural visits, accredited by a UCC digital badge

Develop and disseminate digital training and teaching material:

• To integrate EU citizenship and policy matters in existing curricular and non-curricular research projects at post-primary and VET level (rEUsearch Projects)
• To support an EU-themed scavenger hunt for active learning of EU citizenship and policy impacts in daily life and at local level (scavEnger hUnts)
• To promote a framework for agnostic deliberation, through which students can engage on salient and politicised matters with peers, local stakeholders, and political representatives (Make Europe Personal (MEP) Moments)

This project will develop, deliver, and disseminate training courses and teaching resources, using ICT for collaborative learning, to support active learning through research, gameplay, and deliberative methodologies. It will support teachers to empower young people’s EU civic literacy and awareness of policy impacts at local level. It will reach 720 teachers and over 13,000 students aged 12-20.

At a time when the European Union is facing increasing centrifugal forces regarding its values, its legitimacy and its global impact, KACE aims to build on the results of KMKEU. It will have four deliverables centred on what KACE stand for from a content standpoint– Kids as Active Citizens in Europe but also from a pedagogical viewpoint Knowledge, Agency, Connection, Engagement:

KNOWLEDGE - An online training platform, accredited by the Department of Education and Youth.

Free, accredited online training, connected to the new curriculum which will be implemented in 2027, will be essential to increase the reach of the existing educational programme, Key to the EU. It will build on the momentum of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU to sustain teachers’ and students’ engagement with European issues at a time where the EU is consistently discussed in the news.

AGENCY - 3 intergenerational dialogues on common EU values between primary, secondary, third level students, academics and local, national and European policy-makers. Each year will be themed according to a European value discussed through the prism of European policies and European affairs.

CONNECTION - 3 transnational training courses

These training opportunities will include 10 Irish and 10 EU teachers leading to a UCC certificate, delivered in Brussels, with hands-on institutional and cultural visits.

ENGAGEMENT - Development of classroom games based on the European Union and its values.

10 games will be in collaboration with Pistes Solidaires (France) for students aged between 7 and 12 years old. They will be piloted and adjusted to support the existing Key to the EU lessons and quizzes and the teachers’ training

This project develops training courses, games and activities, using ICT for national and transnational collaborative learning while developing an intergenerational dialogue on EU values and European policies. It will reach 440 teachers and over 13,000 students. 

Our research focuses on citizens’ engagement with the EU. This includes how young people conceive of the EU and how it relates to their political identity. We are particularly interested in the political efficacy of teachers and students. The sense of competence which teachers possess to educate about the EU, and which students possess to understand and act in it. Our research examines what factors impact same, including educational artefacts such as our BFGTOEU and DAB programmes.

In advance of European Parliament elections in 2024, our research will assess the nature of citizens’ engagement with that campaign. Our public events and educational programmes will facilitate a greater understanding of the impact of deliberation and agonism on citizen engagement.

Our research avails of qualitative and quantitative methodologies and techniques. We are quite excited about insights gained from our piloting of creative and drawing techniques to capture young people’s conception of the Union. From an academic perspective, our contributions and dissemination straddle political science, sociology, education, and European studies.