Aiming to bring together conflicting views in the search for common ground, the Confronting Memories programme was first created as an initiative of the Civil Society Forum to confront the unilateral perspectives of World War II offered by national school textbooks. The Confronting Memories team has hosted conferences, seminars and webinars for teachers from different countries, published educational materials, and organised exhibitions. Now, the programme’s scope has been expanded to include the creation of a new pedagogical guide, ‘Teaching sensitive history: conflicts in the post-Soviet space’.
I spoke to Christoph Sproul, a project manager for the Confronting Memories programme, to discuss the importance of applying a multiperspective history education to post-Soviet space, the methodology behind the Confronting Memories programme, and what attendees of the EuroClio Annual Conference can expect from his workshop.
Confronting Memories: aims, motivations and importance
‘The typical way that people approach history education is through military history’, Christoph begins, when I ask about the idea behind Confronting Memories. If you’re learning about World War II, this generally means a focus on military victories, with individual countries focusing on relevance to their own national positions. It was the differences in how World War II is taught in the national curriculum of each country that first motivated the creation of the Confronting Memories programme, which sought to reintroduce the multifaceted nature of the conflict into history education. The programme developed multiperspective approaches towards history education, with the aim of developing critical thinking among students and providing quality lesson materials to history teachers.
Teaching sensitive history: conflicts in the post-Soviet space
Central to a multiperspective history education on conflict is the objective to ‘foment critical thinking and get people to become democratic citizens through their history classes’, explains Christoph. It is the relevance and importance of creating democratic citizens in post-Soviet space that has stimulated the programme’s extension – ‘it has this urgency because we see that those issues are playing a role now’.
The Confronting History programme is further motivated by the need to overcome the lack of available teaching materials in the region. For instance, in the Armenian context, Confronting Memories ambassadors reported a lack of available lesson materials on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which limits teachers’ abilities to disseminate a multiperspective education. This is where the Confronting Memories programme steps in, by collaborating with pedagogical consultants to develop an approach and methodology that can be introduced directly into classrooms. It is particularly relevant to a region in which the risk of disinformation makes the need for critical thinking ever more important.
Confronting Memories methodology and multiperspectivity
What makes the Confronting Memories methodology so valuable for teaching about historical conflict is its continual focus on multiperspectivity. As Christoph explains, the Confronting Memories programme’s new pedagogical guide based on post-Soviet conflict includes a wealth of lesson materials that were developed using an ‘international dialogue approach among many teachers’ in the relevant countries. Where possible these materials were developed alongside the Confronting Memories programme’s ambassadors, resulting in the collaborative development of materials in an international context. As such, educators using the teaching methodology endorsed by the Confronting Memories pedagogical guide will be able to truly teach beyond the typical national narrative.
Towards democratic competences: a value and attitude-based history education
How, then, is a multiperspective, value and attitude-based education beneficial to everyday life? To understand, I question what Confronting Memories means exactly by its ‘value and attitude-based’ history education. Christoph explains that whereas the tendency is to focus on military history, the Confronting Memories lesson materials focus on multiple sources so that students are taught to understand conflict by looking ‘not just [through] the one lens, but [at] economic, social, cultural’ and other approaches too.
It means that students are introduced to a range of perspectives, an education that focuses on the values and attitudes prevalent at the time rather than the memorisation of facts. Thanks to the Confronting Memories methodology, students are encouraged to understand the key motifs that underlie the life of the person experiencing the historical event. It is this understanding that is vital to the formation of democratically minded citizens. As Christoph establishes, students are voters, citizens, and employees. The ultimate aim of education through this methodology is not just part of the ‘front line towards the war on information’, but as a ‘preventative measure towards democratic decay’.
Annual conference workshop – Teaching sensitive history: conflicts post-Soviet space
The Confronting Memories methodology will be presented at EuroClio’s annual conference through the workshop ‘Teaching sensitive history: conflicts in the post-Soviet space’, run by Christoph and his co-host EuroClio Ambassador Benny Christensen. Participants will be introduced to a lesson plan and classroom activities from the recent pedagogical guide that uses conflicts in the post-Soviet space as examples. One unique element of the Confronting Memories programme, Christoph shares, is its commitment to an ongoing evaluation process through working directly with ambassadors in the relevant countries. Workshop participants are further encouraged to share their own critical insight into the methodology.
To finish, I ask Christoph to summarise the most important takeaway that EuroClio workshop participants stand to gain. His answer underlines the helpful collaboration and critical insight into the methodology and multiperspectivity on offer, as well as specific materials in the context of developing history students’ democratic competences. The fostering of democracy, it seems to me, is a pretty good reward for workshop participation.
Christoph Sproul has a background in education and international cooperation, and is a project manager for the Confronting Memories programme at the Civil Society Forum. Christoph will be co-hosting a workshop at EuroClio’s Annual Conference 2025 on the application of the Confronting Memories methodology to conflict in the post-Soviet space. You can purchase a ticket here.
For more on teaching sensitive and controversial issues, see also EuroClio publications ‘Dealing with parents when teaching sensitive and controversial issues’ by Bjorn Wansink and Mikhail Mogutov and the ‘Monument(al) Challenges Toolkit’
Interview by Anna Roizes
