ABSTRACT
When the Education Reform Act became statute in England and Wales the structure and organisation of the curriculum was, for the first time, enshrined in a prescribed manner. The Whole Curriculum was to embrace the Basic Curriculum together with cross-curricular themes, skills and dimensions which were collectively known as the cross-curricular elements. In earlier analyses of the cross-curricular themes several issues which characterised the cross-curricular themes and which contributed to the incoherence in the school curriculum were identified. Some spectators might view the Europeanisation of the curriculum as a novel but subversive idea which would struggle to achieve any sort of credibility. The chapter argues that rather than looking back teaching and learning should be taking place in an atmosphere of looking forward. Looking forward, that is, to what membership of the European Union would contribute positively to young people in this country, through enhancing their inter-cultural understandings and lessening their xenophobia.
