About

Project Summary
Our Research
Our Outputs
Project Summary
Our Research
Our Objectives

Project Summary

One of the underlying issues for populist movements in the EU, such as Brexit, is a general detachment of citizens from both national and EU politics. This project suggests that citizenship education and a better understanding of the EU are essential to promote an informed and critical debate about Europe without resorting to populist messages which are often grounded in misinformation or so-called ’alternative facts’.

EUACADEMY proposes to promote active citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education. The main aim of this project is to establish a new EU Academy (EUACADEMY).

Beside Teacher Training, we facilitate a series of public events allowing scholars from across Europe to share their research with one another and engage in broader debate with key decision-makers and the general public.

We will disseminate research findings through traditional academic publication channels such as books, articles or working papers, as well as through our webinars and workshops.

Our Research

Brexit has been arguably the most important political event in the EU since its creation, bringing new challenges for the relations between the UK and Ireland, as well as for the future of the EU as such. While Ireland is often regarded as one of the most enthusiastic supporters of European integration, a ‘good European’ with a pro-integrationist attitude, knowledge about the EU amongst the Irish public is low. This ‘knowledge deficit’ is perhaps related to Ireland’s self-perception as a small peripheral member state.

Our purpose is to analyse how to provide good citizenship education with strong civic values in Ireland on the topic of the European Union, which could be replicated elsewhere in the EU and could help overcome the challenges posed by Brexit and preserve Irish Membership of the EU.

EUACADEMY aims to support active citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education.

Our Objectives

EUACADEMY pursues the three following objectives:

First, to provide high-quality research-based, comprehensively multi-disciplinary teaching on a wide variety of EU integration issues as part of CPD training.

Second, to provide a foundation by which academics and students alike are beneficially influenced via a series of innovative blended and distance learning formats on a range of multi-disciplinary themes.

Third, to offer a series of outputs by which a wide cross-section of motivated members of civil society can be viably informed of the rich variety of contemporary EU developments alongside the students.

EUACADEMY aims to show that it is possible to teach the EU to a priori ‘non-EU friendly’ students and make them enthusiastic about this subject. Our argument is informed by our experience of teaching various modules on the European Union, including an EU simulation based on the problem-based learning (PBL) approach.