HomeCompletedRussia (2003-2005)

Russia: Mosaic of Cultures

Project Overall aim

The project brought the urgent issue of the multicultural and multi-ethnic society in a constructive way under the attention of history teachers, teacher trainers, educational authorities, historians and media all over Russia. All these people were involved in an open debate about challenges, responsibilities and approaches. The project developed and offered an approach to address this issue in history education. It was an eye-opener for as well authorities as history educators involved in the project.

Project Objectives

To create consciousness about and diminish ethnocentrism, xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism
To raise interest, respect and tolerance between different nationalities, ethnic and religious groups
To raise awareness about the problems of national self-determination and ethnocentrism
To discuss openly the merits and drawbacks of national self-determination, using facts and arguments instead of myth and ideology
To diminish the ethnocentric Russian approach in history education
To initiate a balanced multicultural approach in Russian history education

Project goal

To develop educational materials matching these demands
To create a group of history educators in Russia working actively on these challenges and disseminating the results
To train teachers how to deal with multicultural society in the history classroom in a responsible way and provide them with teaching material
To create a wide network in Russia dealing with these challenges
To develop and strengthen the network of history educators in Russia
To support the existing History Teachers Associations strengthen newly founded Associations of History Teachers and encourage the foundation of new History Teachers Associations in Russia
To support the further integration of Russian history educators into the European-wide EUROCLIO network

Project Results

Educational publication
100-150 pages
10.000 copies
Ready to use for Russian classroom practice
Innovative and multicultural
With pedagogical and didactical recommendations
Teacher training
At least 300 history educators trained
Several tens of teacher trainers trained
Application of project materials and ideas in at least 10 teacher training institutes in Russia
Several 100 teachers are each year educated by these institutes
Each school year more than 30.000 Russian pupils will be educated with help of the materials and ideas of the project. This number will increase as more teachers will be trained every year
History educators network
A strong and active network of history educators over most of Russia
Organised history educators able and willing to innovate
Critical and constructive approach towards the role of history education in society
International relations and awareness of international developments in history education