ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to define the nature and scope of the European Dimension — the cross-curricular element to be explicitly integrated into the National Curriculum — and to examine its implications for multicultural education. Even so, the average school pupil is more likely to associate the European dimension with a way of life than with what is offered by way of ‘high’ European culture. The implications for the syllabus of a European Dimension/European Awareness course are clear. Multicultural education taught through European Awareness must adopt the pedagogical approach of cooperative education. Successful teaching of the European Dimension can be measured by criteria evaluating the sophistication and nature of European knowledge and skills included or by the complexity of the multicultural concepts expected of the pupils. The National Curriculum as such does not explicitly restrict, but in the circumstances it is unlikely that the present generation of youngsters will experience a European Dimension beyond some extras in knowledge and exchanges.
