Education for Europe by means of geography school textbooks?

Seventy‐six volumes of secondary‐school‐level geography textbooks from six European countries have been analysed. An ‘area analysis’ revealed that Europe as a whole is often mentioned, but that European communities—except the European Community — are seldom used as a topic. A ‘content analysis’ showed that politics and economy frequently are the themes when talking about Europe, but culture or ecology are seldom mentioned in transnational topics. These textbooks relate to different curricula: the numbers of geography lessons taught per week are different, and the age at which pupils study Europe varies. Accordingly, there is a variation of approaches to Europe visible in the different countries, and even within these, for example in the German Budesländer as a ‘qualitative analysis’ proves. Many textbooks already stress the growing necessity of European cooperation or even integration in the political and economic areas, but few deal with the ecological or social aspects of the future European community.