From National Cultural Paradigms to European/Global Cultural Paradigms: A Copernican Revolution

- The polycrisis that the European Union is experiencing calls into question the very essence of the EU itself. - Dissemination of national-populist propaganda that feeds the myth of the restoration of national sovereignty, an illusion which is unable to respond to the current challenges. - Citizens’ disillusionment with the European Union, which has not met their expectations. - Unification can no longer be founded on market and economic criteria alone, rather a sense of belonging to Europe needs to be boosted to make it a point of reference for identity. - Shaping the European citizen, who must undertake a Copernican revolution in the paradigms used to interpret the contemporary world, and rethinking what a nation is

Teaching Controversial Topics in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Ireland: Using Structured Academic Controversy to Develop Multi-Perspectivity in the Learner

Purpose: This study had two main objectives: The first was to explore the extent to which a group of University lecturers feel that they are prepared to deal with controversial issues in their classrooms. The second was to elicit their views on a didactic approach known as Structured Academic Controversy (SAC). SAC is a constructivist teaching strategy intended to aid the learner in developing their views on controversial issues and in understanding alternative views with the ultimate aim of locating a compromise position. Method: A qualitative intervention was designed to introduce six university academics from diverse specialisms to SAC by way of reflective engagement with it in the role of learners. Findings: The participants in this study deal with controversial issues frequently and several feel ill-prepared to do so. They identified several challenges associated with the use of SAC. These relate primarily to class size and curricular overload. However, despite the challenges, the participants all recognized the potential value of such approaches in developing multi-perspectivity, critical thinking, listening and negotiating skills in the learner. Future larger-scale, longitudinal studies in a variety of cultural contexts are needed to develop approaches which can facilitate those approaching controversial issues in their classrooms

Ren? Schickele, Alsace and the question of cultural identity : a study of Hans im Schnakenloch and Das Erbe am Rhein

THESIS 7421My thesis entitled, \u27Rene Schickele, Alsace and the Question of Cultural Identity. A Study of Hans in Schnakenloch and Das Erbe am Rhein\u27 is a comparative investigation into issues of politics and cultural identity in Alsace under German and French rule with the First World War acting as the divisive line between the two experiences. The first part of the thesis examines cultural issues centred on differing Franco-German definitions of nationhood and the varying auto-and hetero-images they produced of one another?s collective identities. This examination highlights in particular how these rival nations used such arguments to justify their claims on Alsace up to the outbreak of World War I. This discussion serves as the backdrop for the study of Rene Schickele\u27s wartime drama Hans in Schnakenloch which addresses the impact of such Franco-German rivalries on Alsatian self-definitions of cultural identity. The second part of this thesis examines the situation in Alsace under a change of rulers when it becomes a part of the French nation. Again issues of cultural identity and the political situation are examined here as a necessary precursor to understanding the political and cultural aspects of the trilogy of novels written by Rene Schickele which focuses on Alsace in the 1920s