The Project has brought together specialists on history and history teaching during the development of the project product the Teacher Resource Book: “Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Country, Every Day Life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia 1945-1990.Yugoslavia between East and West” and the extensive training scheme, to discuss an approach to promote a Critical Awareness towards the past.
All work was directed to make history educators, teachers and students reflect on how history contributes to issues such as Mutual Respect, Peace, Stability and Democracy. Material development, as well as trainings, was the result of true collaborative writing and preparation based on equality, clear argumentation and multi-perspectivity. The publication and additional materials are products of shared thinking, common debate, collaborative writing and collective production. It also supports the ongoing national and regional discourse about the aims, role and opportunities for the subject school history in modern global society.
The book gives teachers in the region tangible ideas how to teach about a recent regional past, with its controversies and sensitivities, and it assists students in understanding that their regional history helps them to understand the world they live in and to support them with skills and competences to act in the future as an active and responsible citizen. The extensive national training programme has furthered these principles, was based on a collective regional framework and used regional trainers.
Project Aims
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Overall objective(s): To support the regional development of History and Citizenship Education in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia to promote Collaborative Values, Critical Awareness and Mutual Respect, Peace, Stability and Democracy.
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To enhance the quality of history education in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia and make it contribute to reconciliation.
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To enhance national and international cooperation, communication and network of history educators in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.
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To reinforce civic society in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia by creating sustainable and professional History Teachers’ Associations.
Results
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- Representatives of three constitutive peoples of Bosnia were able to work together in a positive setting, creating a common history
- Collaboration was possible with the neighbouring countries of Serbia in the field of history, despite of the fact their recent common past was hostile and violent
- Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Country. Every Day Life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia between East and West 1945-1990, alternative curriculum and teaching tool, published in hard copy publication in Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and English.
- EuroClio Special Report, Five years of projects in the Former Yugoslavia
- Professional capacity building among more than 500 History Educators in the region on innovative ways to teach history and citizenship, based on sources and multi-perspectivity, critical thinking and active learning approaches.
- A wide understanding for information technology as tool for educational communication and publication and as class room tool.
- Establishing visible History Educators Associations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, which are also in 2013 active being able to sustain a network in the wider area of the countries as before
- A re-established and renewed regional Historians and History Educators network
- The History Educators Associations in Serbia managed to become a more serious and relevant partner for the dialogue and cooperation both among officials and history teachers
- A greater international awareness through international expertise and opportunities to go abroad.
- Spread the principle of life-long learning as basis for high quality education
Coordinators
Executive Director, EuroClio – Inspiring History and Citizenship Educators
Lieke van Wijk
Project Manager, EuroClio – Inspiring History and Citizenship Educators
Jonathan Even-Zohar
Project Manager, EuroClio – Inspiring History and Citizenship Educators
Dagmar Kusa
Project Manager, EuroClio – Inspiring History and Citizenship Educators
Contributors
Local coordinators
Bosnia-Herzegovina:
Edin Veladzic
Melisa Foric
Bojana Dujkovic- Blagojevic
Edin Radušic
Boro Bronza
Croatia:
Karolina Ujakovic
Svjetlana Vorel
Serbia
Ljiljana Lazarevic
Emina Dautovic
International Experts:
Benny Christensen
Jelka Razpotnik
Mire Mladenovski
Thomas Notz
Authors:
Goran Miloradovic
Denis Detling
Bahrudin Besirevic
Milija Marjanovic
Kiti Jurica Korda
Darco Bencic
Vesna Dimitrijevic
Marjia Naletilic
Elma Hasimbegovic
Zvezdana Petrovic
Radina Vucetic
Ivan Dukic
Darko Karacic
Slavojka Beštic-Bronza
Midhat Spahic
Velibor Vasovic
Hrvoje Petric
Hrvoje Klasic
Snježana Koren
Zvjezdana Marčic – Matoševic
Press
TeacherTV Documentary: “Teaching History in Bosnia-Herzegovina”: [su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED8hT-mKCoQ” width=”480″]
Awards
The Project ‘History in Action’ received in 2009 the second prize of the Euro-Mediterranean Award for Dialogue Between Cultures awarded by the Anna Lind Foundation and Fondazione Mediterraneo for its highly-esteemed work on dialogue for peace and coexistence.
The innovative collaborative history teaching textbook Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Country‐, Everyday life in Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, 1945‐1990 Yugoslavia between east and West received in 2009 the Erasmus EuroMedia Country Medal for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Erasmus EuroMedia European Seal of Approval for outstanding media publications that deal with European values.