Tilling the soil of the European higher education area

Abstract

The Bologna Process presents both opportunities and challenges for teachers in the European area. As tensions surface between different forms of national legislation, accreditation and quality assurance, projects need to be developed that model ways of resolving problems within a European context. Utilising their links and network of contacts across a natural community within the European Union, five partner institutions set out to develop an action‐research‐based Masters degree for Steiner Waldorf teacher practitioners. This paper reports on the progress and pitfalls experienced over the three years of the project’s history. Carr and Kemmis’ ideas on communicative freedom and communicative action as an inspiration for the Masters project are linked with Steiner’s concept of schools as ‘republican academies’. Tensions between the project’s social ideals and the realities of practical implementation are discussed in the light of John Elliot’s critique of Becoming Critical. The risks in maintaining collaborative partnerships between universities and high schools are discussed. Ideals of multi‐lingual diversity are compromised by the spectre of losing control of quality assurance processes. Concerns over translation, double‐marking and role of external examiners across language borders are threatening to institutional security but also generate innovative solutions. The cost of innovation is likely to limit access for developing European countries. Cultural differences between European and UK credit systems outweigh issues of mere calibration. The tensions between the corporate culture of managerialism and marketisation and the project’s social ideals are discussed in the light of outcomes, both present and future.

Keywords:

• Bologna Process
• European networking
• Realities of practical implementation
• Social ideals
• Steiner Waldorf education