Samenvatting

A world without internationalisation has become unthinkable in 2016. Internationalisation plays a big role in our daily lives, mostly unconscious. It would be beneficial if school pupils familiarised themselves with this phenomenon, because of the effects of internationalisation on society,. The concepts of internationalisation could easily be taught in secondary education in combination with field experiences. A number of secondary schools share this vision and have started to implement internationalisation in to their curriculum.
Teaching in internationalisation could adopt various forms. It could include European history and its institutions, world citizenship, intercultural communications, internationalisation at home, or exchanges. Several projects have been established to internationalise the school curriculum, so there are broad scale possibilities to add an international angle to the learning continuum.
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences has never paid attention to the internationalisation of secondary education as it was outsourced to organisations, working groups and individuals. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences believes that the freedom of education should be respected and accordingly, the internationalisation of secondary education does not have to meet any set criteria. Secondary schools are allowed to implement internationalisation at their own discretion.
While the national government neglects the internationalisation of secondary education, the European Union is supporting and stimulating it in an outstanding and pro-active way. The European Union’s Maastricht Treaty stipulates respect for stimulation of diversity in several fields, notably the mobility project, Erasmus+. Erasmus+ allows anyone involved in education to undertake an academic exchange for a certain period.
In this thesis, several professionals in the internationalisation of secondary education were interviewed and asked if they would favour an education policy on the internationalisation of secondary education. The outcome is that first and foremost the freedom of education should be respected. In addition, an education policy is desirable, as long as it supports and stimulates the educational developments. The interviewed experts reject an education policy on internationalisation that restricts opportunities for the internationalisation of secondary education. It is recommended to adjust teacher training college, as teachers in training are not taught in implementing internationalisation in their classes. It means that teachers need to attend additional courses in order to be able to teach their school pupils in internationalisation.