1st Regional “History that Connects” Summer School

Why is this conference needed?

Reforming History Education in the Western Balkan in an uphill struggle in which much responsibility is dealt to civil society. EuroClio has worked over 15 years with History Teacher Associations in the various countries. With this summer school EuroClio is aiming to SOLIDIFY REGIONAL COOPERATION among History, Heritage and Citizenship Educators in the Western Balkan, and also to provide new energy and inspiration to the widened and strengthened core team of innovators and change-makers.

EuroClios work for innovative and responsible history, heritage and citizenship education fits within the framework within the Ljubljana Process II on the following elements:

• A common regional approach
• The bottom-up implementation of change through capacity building
• Cross-sector partnerships

History, heritage and citizenship education that goes beyond the textbooks and the walls of the classroom also helps to BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN FORMAL AND NON-FORMAL education and creates flexible pathways for learning, thus contributing to the personal, social and professional development of young people. Moreover, innovative on-site learning of history at heritage sites, memorials and museums increases local ownership of cultural heritage, thus contributing to a PARTICIPATORY APPROACH to cultural heritage rehabilitation as a factor of SOCIAL COHESION, as well as INNOVATION.

Building on our past experience on this topic, specifically in the project Multi-faceted Memory within the Reflecting Remembrance Programme, the World War 1 Module for Historiana and the Annual Conference in 2014 in Ohrid, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia we aim to address the question: how to address a shared history through cultural heritage in a multicultural society.

With this Regional Summer School on innovative on-site learning targeted to history, heritage and citizenship educators we aimed to help them integrate the promotion of cultural heritage in their educational practice, using REGIONAL EXAMPLES OF BEST PRACTICE in on-site learning on a selected set of cross-cutting themes (Oral History, Serious Gaming, Immersive/Situated Learning, Every-day Life History, Experimental History and Archeology, Human Rights, Augmented Reality, etc.).

The Summer School took place in Šipovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, from 12 to 15 August 2015.