This interview, conducted by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS), introduces the Hi-Story Lessons platform, which promotes multiperspectivity in history education. Featuring insights from Maria Naimska and Urszula Bijoś, the conversation highlights the platform’s resources, its response to challenges like disinformation, and its plans for future development to support educators across Europe.
Among many definitions of multiperspectivity in education, there is one which accentuates the importance of getting to know the views of one’s neighbour countries on the same historical events. Such is the approach adopted by the educational platform Hi-Story Lessons, an initiative of the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS). With its carefully curated educative packages and expertise in innovative teaching methods, the platform aims to foster multi-perspective dialogue on common history already from the level of basic school education. Coordinated initially by Maria Naimska, and since 2022 by Urszula Bijoś, the platform addresses the challenges of fostering such dialogue in an era of increasing disinformation and growing political polarisation.
What is Hi-Story Lessons?
Urszula Bijoś: Hi-Story is an educational platform, designed for teachers and individuals involved in both formal and informal education, including teachers, educators at memorial sites, and local politicians. On the platform, they can find resources in six languages that simplify their teaching experience, including ready-to-use materials, animations, photo galleries, and lesson plans organised into eight chronological categories, covering periods from pre-World War I to the end of the Cold War in 1991. Additionally, we offer two methodological categories focused on various teaching methods and educational materials aimed at combating disinformation.
How do you select materials for the platform? Can they be adapted to the curricula of individual countries?
Urszula Bijoś: Our materials are not designed to fit individual national curricula for two primary reasons: curricula change frequently, and our materials present the histories of multiple countries. Our goal is to highlight historical aspects often overlooked in textbooks. For example, we cover topics like the Holodomor (the Great Famine in Ukraine from 1932-33), or the history of the Roma and Sinti peoples. These subjects may not be included in national curricula, but we believe they are crucial and worthy of discussion as part of our effort to promote lesser-known topics from 20th-century history.
Maria Naimska: We had been contemplating the creation of an educational platform for some time, and the opportunity to realise this idea arose in 2015. Technically, we started by gathering materials on key historical events in the involved countries: Poland, Germany, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. We invited historians and educators from these countries to collaborate, tasking each national group with selecting 30 events from the 20th century that significantly shaped their country’s history. Additionally, we chose 30 international events that connected these national histories.
Next, we aimed to enhance this foundation with infographics and animations. Our first animation was a ten-minute film about World War I, produced in English and in our partners’ national languages. It has garnered around one million views, making it the second most-watched animation on this topic, following the BBC’s production. In our later productions, we decided to focus on complex subjects that are typically represented dryly and which lack visual materials, for example economic issues like the Great Depression of 1929, or the Marshall Plan.
The platform has already proved its ability to react to contemporary political developments and to transfer skills that help teachers tackle them in the classroom. Can you name some examples when Hi-Story showed how history knowledge can be used to address present issues?
Maria Naimska: A good example of this kind of practice may be a set of materials focused on disinformation, produced in 2021 by the ENRS Strategy Department. It was especially relevant at that time due to Russian propaganda and Vladimir Putin’s article, published in the American magazine The National Interest on the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. This educational package has been included in the Hi-story Lessons. It is composed of articles, lesson plans, and worksheets addressing disinformation from the Russian Federation and analysing its tools, among them deep fakes, information bubbles, and information warfare on Twitter.
Urszula Bijoś: Recently, the ENRS has launched an information campaign about the history of the Second World War, which will culminate on May 8, 2025, on the eightieth anniversary of the war’s end. During this campaign, an important theme for the Hi-Story Lessons will be the question of collecting eyewitness accounts of historical events. We want to prepare materials that will assist teachers who will be working with students on this topic, discussing, for instance, what is oral history, or how to conduct a good interview. In our work, we follow two pathways: on one hand, we deliver knowledge about specific historical topics, and on the other, we focus on methodology. While creating lesson plans or educational materials, we incorporate various new teaching methods, such as long table method or a mind map.
Looking ahead, what challenges do you foresee for the platform?
Urszula Bijoś: The primary challenges are educational, affecting schooling throughout Europe, such as the length of texts and the volume of written content our audience can absorb. Whether it is slides or interactive mind maps, information is still presented in textual form. We aim to provide contextualised historical knowledge, highlighting nuances and complexities, while simultaneously covering the histories of multiple countries. This inevitably results in extensive written content, whether in a Word document or another format. Regardless of how we present the information, the author’s intent remains paramount.
Also, the increasing political polarisation in Europe complicates our ability to agree on a shared interpretation of history. Each of us is shaped by our educational system and national historiography. While our team values its international composition and diverse perspectives, this diversity can create challenges at the educational level. Even when we create comparative content across five countries, it remains uncertain whether, for example, a teacher from Hungary is interested in the Polish perspective.
Additionally, there’s a misconception that if something is available online, it can be accessed by anyone worldwide. In reality, our content reaches only a small audience. Therefore, we strive not to get overwhelmed by this scale, avoiding the assumption that if something is online, it’s universally accessible. The internet is already saturated with webinars, meetings, and materials, making it challenging to effectively reach our audience without significant financial investment in promotion.
Maria Naimska: I believe that Hi-Story is fundamentally about accountability. Anything you do with children carries immense responsibility. What they learn now will impact their perspectives in 20 or 30 years, influencing how they interpret history and engage with the world. When we established the platform, our goal was to support open educational resources. As a public institution, all our materials are free and of exceptional quality. In my opinion, it is crucial to broaden the repository and to show teachers how to access these resources.
What are your plans for the next future?
Urszula Bijoś: This year we have launched a revamped version of the platform. Its aim is to serve as a repository for teachers, enabling them to quickly locate chronologically organised materials in their preferred language. To inform this redesign, we conducted a focus study at the end of last year, which included a survey completed by a hundred individuals and in-depth interviews with some of our target audience. We learned what teachers need, and their feedback directly influenced the site’s redevelopment. Respondents value Hi-Story for addressing topics such as totalitarianism and the distinctions between totalitarian regimes and democratic systems. They praise the high-quality animations, along with the graphic materials and lesson plans, which they can download for classroom use. Notably, teachers expressed a desire for more PowerPoint presentations featuring a simple format of one image accompanied by one caption, as this format is effective in a school context. They also indicated that their primary goal is to foster critical thinking skills in their students, which has shown us in which direction to follow.
Another goal is to expand the community of users and contributors to the platform. Hi-story Lessons is designed and updated by a large team of content creators, researchers, communication specialists, and my colleagues from ENRS, who consistently help us test and discuss new solutions. I would like to continue this collaborative approach by inviting diverse parties. Currently, we are planning to establish a small working group of teachers who can provide valuable feedback on our materials. We would also like to form a team of five coordinators from five ENRS countries, who would meet monthly to brainstorm about the materials needed and to share the perspectives of these nations.
Interview conducted by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS)
