Dealing with the Past in History Education

The work on dealing with the past in history education is done by a small group of people with a strong commitment to promote sustainable peace. It takes civil courage to challenge the problematic fixed points of view and ask critical questions in order to create empathy and mutual understanding. They are often obstructed or resisted by people in power and suspect to negative reactions by people who believe that only their interpretation is true and leave no room for alternative views.

The advantage of this project is that it will empower civil society actors to continue their work on historical dialogue, transitional justice and conflict transformation. The project will involve practitioners across a variety of regions that normally are unable to meet and learn from one another. The project partners will be able to learn from specialists that are working in the field of dealing with the past and adapt the lessons learned to promote responsible history education, so that more history educators can work to build more peaceful societies on a day-to-day basis.

Specific expected outcomes are:

• Building capacities of civil society actors with a core mission to use history education as a tool for societies to deal with the legacies of a violent past, for conflict transformation and prevention and ultimately reconciliation. For EuroClio, it is important to empower organizations involved in these spheres of education because it increases the impact of our projects. Capacity building allows these civil society actors to be more effective when acting independently and with partners, and encourages international cooperation and coordination.
• These civil society actors will have larger networks because of this project. They will reach more individuals through direct and face-to-face contacts; their social capital will increase, as well as their reach and capacity to act. As these organizations become larger, they have a greater impact on their societies.
• The members of the global core group, the host organizations and other stakeholders connected will gain new insights and expanded their knowledge base on how to implement strategies related to dealing with the past through history education.
• The public-at-large will have access to an online repository (the knowledge base) of relevant practices, policies and projects that can be used for advocacy and monitoring to further develop the field, and learn from the project via regular blog posts.
• Through joint advocacy and media outreach, the project will result in increased awareness of the “abuse of history” in society as an obstacle for peace and stability amongst representatives of political parties, civil society organizations, professional volunteers, educational authorities (including inspectors, curriculum developers, and examiners), and other actors responsible for policies.
• Through additional events organized by partners and other stakeholders they will be able to increase the use of teaching tools that promote responsible approaches to history education that have the potential to transform and prevent conflicts.
• The study visits will make it easier for the selected civil society organizations from the core group and the host organizations to meet with policy makers.Special reports of the study visits can be found here.

 

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Senada Jusic

Senada Jusic is a historian, history teacher, author of the book “Yellow building by the river Miljacka” and co-author of pedagogical modules and materials such as “Latin bridge” and “Monument in Motion”. She is a post-graduate at Sarajevo Faculty of Philosophy, Department of History. She is a board member of EuroClio-HIP, the history teachers’ association of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has cooperated with institutions within the sphere of history (Sarajevo Institute of History, Historical Archive in Sarajevo) and other organizations (EuroClio, ZFD, HIA, Anne Frank House, Women to Women, CDRSEE). She is currently working on the reform of the history curriculum as a member of the commission for the reform of the curriculum of the Sarajevo Canton.

Meena Malhotra

Meena graduated from Art College and set up a graphic design studio in the early years of her career. An inherent passion for the arts and social concern, children and education brought her to The Seagull Foundation for the Arts where she heads the PeaceWorks project. She has been instrumental in giving the project the shape it has today and international recognition. PeaceWorks received the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Award in 2010.

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Clara Ramírez-Barat

Clara Ramírez-Barat is the Director of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) Educational Policies Program. Before joining AIPR, she was a Senior Research Associate at the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), an organization with which she worked for more than fours years after having served for two years as a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow. At ICTJ, Clara’s research focused on different aspects of transitional justice with a special interest on media and the cultural sphere. More recently, Clara worked on the intersection between transitional justice and education, both by developing an adolescent-friendly version of the Kenyan Truth Commission’s final report and as part of a broader two-year research project on Transitional Justice, Education, and Peacebuilding. Born in Madrid, Clara obtained her Ph.D. in 2007 at University Carlos III of Madrid with a thesis on transitional justice and also holds an M.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University (2002). She is currently based in São Paulo, Brazil.

Olesya Skrypnyk

Olesya Skrypnyk is a Project Administrator at the All-Ukrainian Association for History Teachers in Ukraine “Nova Doba”. She administers the project “Integration through Dialogue” in Lviv, Ukraine. The Project’s goal is, to overcome cultural and regional differences based on different life experiences, memories, attitudes to historical past of Ukraine and visions of its present and future development. The project aims to achieve its goal through integration of educational and psychological support to children who suffered from the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea. Olesya holds a BA in English Philology, and an MA in Sociology from the Ivan Franko University of Lviv.

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Ineke Veldhuis-Meester

Ineke Veldhuis-Meester stood at the threshold of EuroClio in 1993. From the start she has been part of the Historiana Learning Team, developing innovative and multi-perspective learning activities. Currently she works for the project “Decisions & Dilemmas” on why European cooperation ‘was hot’ after World War II. Her basis is teaching History and Civics in a Dutch secondary school/gymnasium and at the International School in the Netherlands. For 18 years Ineke was responsible for the Pedagogy of History teaching at Groningen University, in initial and in-service teacher training. Throughout her teaching life she has been a trait d’union between the University historians’ world, and the Association of Teachers in History and Civics in the Netherlands (VGN); from 1997-2000 she served in the National Board. Her interest in assessment led to constructing national history exams at the National Institute for Assessment and Measurement (CITO). With ‘a gang of four’ she implemented a new examination system for History in secondary education throughout the Netherlands. From 1991-1999, in publications and workshops, it was a decade of fun and inspiration, with Joke van der Leeuw. After retirement she continues to serve as expert in History Education in Council of Europe and EuroClio projects; her field of interest is multi-perspective History teaching and innovative methodology, the shaping of historical consciousness in collective memory and remembrance today.

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 Marios Epaminondas

Marios Epaminondas has studied Pedagogics(ΒΑ), Art and Design Educatıon(ΜΑ), History(ΒΑ) and Educational Leadership(ΜΑ). He has worked as a teacher, museum animator, history text book author and teacher trainer. Currently he works in the Office for European and International Affairs of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus. He has been a coordinator and/or a trainer/facilitator in several projects with themes related to history teaching, human rights education, intercultural learning and youth empowerement. He is currently a Board Member of the ‘Association for Historical Dialogue and Research’.

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Michael Robinson

Michael Robinson has been a secondary social studies teacher for the past 21 years. Since 2003 he has taught grades 9-12 at Houston High School in Germantown, Tennessee, where he teaches Advanced Placement Human Geography, Contemporary Issues, and Facing History and Ourselves. In 2010 he was named the National Council for the Social Studies Secondary Teacher of the Year, and in November of 2011 he was an Outstanding Educator in Residence (OER) at the Academy of Singapore Teachers (AST). He was also the recipient of the 2009 and 2012 National Council for Geography Education Lesson Plan Award.

Khaled El-Masri

Khaled El-Masri is a supervisor and head of department of human sciences at the Lebanese International School, located in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, a holder of BA in Islamic Jurisprudence, and currently pursuing MA courses in education at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. Khaled has a 20 year-experience in the educational field. He has been training teaching skills to colleagues at his workplace and teachers from different Lebanese regions. In addition, he is member of the Lebanese Association for History and NEP trainer on Historical Thinking. Khaled is deeply engrossed in the curricular and pedagogic issues and concerns of teaching history.

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