European integration history from a Transnational Perspective

Timetable

100% (27 h, 8 weeks) online course including synchronous sessions, asynchronous sessions on moodle platform, and online collaborations between teachers and students or beetween students from other countries in small teams

Module aim (aims)

The course deals with the milestones of the European integration process, from the aftermath of WW2 up to the enlargement in 2004-2007, bringing together and confronting different historical and cultural perspectives.

The aims of this course is to make students reflect upon the reasons and consequences of the diversity of perspectives across the European continent, by sharing their views and learning from each other in the frame of a virtual exchange. Students will learn more than just from their national perspectvive; and they will have the opportunity to co-create the content of the course by preparing in team a shared approach based on the contrasting historical and cultural perspectives to some EU milestones. This course, based on experiential learning, is engaging, interactive, and student-centred: students verbally and visually exchange opinions working in small international teams and altogether during synchronous sessions. Students prepare a list of people, places and events they want to talk about, and are asked to comment the inputs of their classmates.

This course will foster multilingualism by exchanging and presenting certain press texts in their original languages. This course enables the acquisition of transferable and practical skills: presentation skills, working in an international team, intercultural competencies, communication, selection of online work tools, considering problems from multiple perspectives, critical thinking and interdisciplinary synthesis, intercultural understanding.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Basic knowledge about the process of European integration.

Syllabus

Learning outcomes:

LO 1: During this course, students will be participating in a series of online activities on the milestones of European integration with students from other countries. This will allow you to improve your knowledge about this process from just the national or regional (e.g. Western / Central Europe) ones taught in your previous secondary school or university courses and you will become aware of the cultural dimension of the history of the EU.
LO 2: During this course, students will be working in international teams. This activity will help you acquire skills related to critical and creative thinking about intercultural differences and how to manage them in teams in an online context. After having taken part in the course, you will be able to match proper tools according to online collaboration and partners needs, and the topic you will be developing. You will also improve your communication skills in English.
LO 3: During this course, students will reflect in a team on the causes and consequences of differentiated perceptions on selected milestones of their choice of the EU integration process. It will be reflected in the way you will verbally and visually exchange online more than single stories in your team and give feedback to students from another country. This activity will allow you to improve and widen your reflection on the influence of national stories on contemporary European issues.

Course content:

Ice Breaker Activities: Who I am and what is the EU for me? Where am I from and how does my place connect to the EU? Important people in the integration process.
The first part of the course deals with 2 weeks of various online activities during which students will have to complete tasks that will allow them to get to know each other and the tools that can be used during the virtual exchange. Already in this first part, there is a synchronous discussion on topics introducing students to the issue of perceiving the EU from an international and intercultural perspective. Comparison and analysis: Ideas of European Unity. Treaty of Rome and the four freedoms.
The second part of this course consists of 2 weeks in which students start to write and present a short opinion on the chosen problem connected with European history according to their perspective. In addition, students will discuss, in small teams, recent EU media coverage in their respective countries. Students will jointly prepare opinions and comments on the results of other groups' work. During the synchronous session, students will have the opportunity to exchange observations and experiences gained during this stage of work. Collaboration (4 weeks work in small groups): Milestones of EU history. Contemporary perception of EU issues.
In the third part of the course, students will be working in international teams on the topic they chose in the previous part of the course.

The project should give students the ability to share their experiences so far and learn from each other. The exchange of the students will take place online and during a virtual synchronous session. Results will be presented and discussed on the virtual forum.
This course is engaging, interactive, and student-centred: students verbally and visually exchange opinions working in small groups and altogether during synchronous sessions. During this course, student input contributes to curriculum development. Students prepare a list of people, places and events they want to talk about, and are asked to comment on the inputs of their classmates.
This course will foster multilingualism by exchanging and presenting certain press texts in their original languages.

The module aims:

The course deals with the milestones of the European integration process, from the aftermath of WW2 up to the enlargement in 2004-2007, bringing together and confronting different historical and cultural perspectives. It is based on experiential learning: it aims to make students reflect upon the reasons and consequences of the diversity of perspectives across the European continent by sharing their views and learning from each other in the frame of a virtual exchange. Students will be asked to co-create the content of the course by preparing in teams a shared approach based on the aforementioned analysis of the contrasting historical and cultural perspectives to milestones of the European integration process. This virtual exchange may be complemented with physical mobility in one of EPICUR’s university campuses.

Information:

Year: 2023/2024
Semester: Fall
Hours: 27
Language: English
Topic: European integration history from a transnational perspective
Module: European identity
Format and dates: 8-10 weeks online project work

Credit points: 5 ECTS

Components of assessing:

• individual work connected with small tasks each week of classes (30%);
• participation in discussions during synchronous sessions (30%);
• presentation of the results of the work done in small groups: a short study on the selected milestone, its importance in the process of European integration, taking into account the international and intercultural perspective (40%).

Module Lecturers:

Dr. Lucyna BLAZEJCZYK-MAJKA, associate professor in Department of economic history, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (majkal@amu.edu.pl);
Dr. Sabine MENU, associate professor at EM Strasbourg Business School, University of Strasbourg (sabine.menu@em-strasbourg.eu)

Reading list

• Amato, Giuliano, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, and Gianfranco Pasquino. 2019. The history of the European Union: constructing utopia. Oxford: Hart.
• McCormick, John. 2017. Understanding the European Union: a concise introduction. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dinan, Desmond. 2016. Origins and evolution of the European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/hepl/9780199570829.001.0001.