ABSTRACT
At a time when researchers in science education in Europe are establishing their own association for research in science education, it may be fruitful to raise some critical questions about what we share and what might be our possible differences. Also, when many European countries are moving towards a union, it is easy to consider that uniformity and similarity are our aims. My own underlying views run contrary to this perspective. Rather, my main point will be that our strength lies in a large diversity and variation in, geographically speaking, a very small area of the world-namely Europe. I will argue the great cultural diversity combined with small geographical distances is the strength that should be utilized, not something that we should try to smooth out and remove. In fact, we should learn to treat both similarities and differences as a strength to be utilized.
