A critical pedagogical Eurovision euphoria : the potential of the Eurovision Song Contest to promote values propagated by the European Union within formal learning contexts

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether Eurovision Song Contest (ESC)-related texts, which are texts based on elements of popular culture, can serve as effective pedagogical tools, so that while teaching curricular content they may simultaneously help students to critically reflect on values propagated by the European Union (EU).

The paper presents data from the “Learning through the Eurovision” research project which I coordinate as part of my work as a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. The collected qualitative data includes fieldnotes, lesson plans, lesson observations and teacher and student feedback. These are analysed adopting a social-semiotic (Cremona 2017) and thematic (Creswell 2014) approach.

As a conclusion, the paper suggests that these ESC-related texts, when used critically and with other texts based on popular culture, are effective both as pedagogical tools through which students can learn curricular material, as well as to help students critically evaluate values propagated by the EU. However, this happens gradually and requires a slow, step-by-step process.