In search of the thread(s): traces of the colonial past of the European integration project in the European Schools’ archives

Looking at Europe’s past, recent research has acknowledged its imperial and colonial features; however, such features are not always explicitly and consciously stated in the hopeful stories on the origin of European identity and the European integration process. The present paper looks at the European Schools searching for traces of the aforementioned colonial past and mentality in order to grasp a more complex image of the ideas of European identity and diversity promoted in this transnational institution and in the educational paths they provided. Approaching the archives and sources in the attempt to multiply space, the analysis carried out focuses on discourses, articles and blurry images and reveals some faint traces and threads that lightly undermine an apparently univocal and dominant narrative of the European Schools and the educational and diversity model they propose while taking a first step towards “decolonising the mind”.