Webinar – Analysing Controversial Figures: Putting a Strategy to the Test

Is it possible to develop an educational resource that can be adapted for use by teachers and students in many different educational contexts? This question has been the driving force behind the work that James Diskant has done with EuroClio and practising teachers and master students from five different countries during the last year.

During this webinar, Jim, along with Steven Stegers, will share the fruits of this work with the wider EuroClio community and ask for feedback, suggestions, and support. The webinar is centred around the teaching strategy “Analyzing Controversial Historical Figures to Understand Why they are Perceived so Differently“. The origin of this strategy was a lesson plan made by Melisa Foric as part of a EuroClio project addressing sensitive and controversial topics in the former Yugoslav region. In this lesson, students learn how Gavrilo Princip, known for his assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was seen by others during and after his lifetime. Gentian Dedja, who authored the strategy, found that the same strategy could be applied to teach about other controversial figures as well. This assumption is what Jim and the rest of the team are now testing.

So, what can you expect from the webinar?

• To learn more about the teaching strategy and to see how it has been applied to different historical figures: Cristoforo Columbo/aka Christopher Columbus, Vlad III, known as the Impaler (Țepeș), of Wallachia, Martin Luther, Louis XIV of France, and Catherine II (the Great) of Russia.
• To understand how the development and testing of teaching strategies fit into the bigger strategy of EuroClio.
• To be challenged to think of other historical figures for which the strategy could be applied.
• To be asked to give some feedback (about teaching strategies in general and this example in particular) and to pilot the materials (which we see as the ultimate test and hope some participants are able to do).

As a bonus, the participants will get access to all the student and teacher materials that have been developed so far.