Through the revision of textbooks and curricula, the education sector has made an invaluable contribution since the end of the Second World War to the success of European reconciliation and understanding, and has strengthened international willingness to cooperate, both within Europe and beyond. The standards adopted as a result of international textbook and curricula revision have, in recent years however, been criticised or called into question through nationalist or xenophobic discourse in numerous European countries. The negotiating power of the official European (education) policy-making organs, which has been a key attraction of European expansion and its capacity for international cooperation, has been hindered by the increasing influence of nationalist movements.
Against this backdrop, numerous bilateral textbook and curriculum revision initiatives have expressed a desire for multilateral exchange and collaboration and for the joint development of curricula and teaching materials. A return to coordinated and sustainable revision activities seems, therefore, both necessary and expedient. The European Forum for Reconciliation and Cooperation in History and Social Sciences Education (Reconciliation Forum, EFREC) will coordinate and guide this process in close collaboration with existing partners and with newly established international partners.
- Aims
EFREC aims to bring together the different formats, organisational forms, spheres of activity, methods and products encompassed by the various European initiatives in the field of textbook revision. It keeps members abreast of new developments and enables a regular exchange of information. EFREC is also coordinating the preparation of a medium-term programme of work within the framework of an institutionalised European forum for reconciliation and revision activities related to education.
- Methodology
The first step in this process is to produce a consolidated overview of the activities of state and civic initiatives in Europe in the field of education for international understanding and cooperation. A questionnaire was developed by the project team for this purpose, which provides them with information about the type of organisations, fields of activity, methods and products, and their relevance to education policy.
Anyone active in the field of education-related bilateral or multilateral cooperation is invited to fill in the questionnaire and send it to efrec@leibniz-gei.de. All responses are much appreciated!
- Questionnaire (PDF)
EFREC’s objective is to strengthen networking and the exchange of information between organisations. To this end it organises conferences and regional workshops. The Reconciliation Forum works closely and participatorily with partner initiatives to develop guidelines for bilateral and multilateral curriculum development and textbook work.
EFREC is constructed around a digital infrastructure that systematically collects and makes available information on products and projects in international textbook work. EFREC develops workshop programmes based on the experiences and needs of the partner initiatives and in close cooperation with them, that will strengthen transnational approaches in different historical regions of Europe and support new projects of bilateral and multilateral educational media production.
- Results
EFREC continually updates the results of its research on bilateral and multilateral initiatives of curriculum development and the elaboration of educational media. The project team has so far been able to identify over 100 initiatives associated with international textbook work worldwide. Of these, 71 in Europe alone work bilaterally or multilaterally. The responses to the questionnaire received so far show that the majority of the initiatives are active in Eastern and Southern Europe, work in the area of history and are concerned with the production of textbooks, curricula and teaching materials. Talks were held with representatives of approximately 20 initiatives in 2021 regarding the establishment of joint work projects and the configuration of the network
First EFREC Conference
The inaugural conference of the European Forum for Reconciliation and Cooperation in History and Social Sciences Education took place on 26 and 27 April 2022. Representatives of state and civic initiatives in the field of education-related reconciliation and revision activities from Europe, Africa and Asia discussed their experiences and shared their perspectives on the following topics:
- Which conflictual topics can be defined for work on curricula and textbooks, in direct relation to violent conflict, in post-conflict societies and in relatively stable, peaceful societies?
- Which forms of results have proved particularly advantageous for which specific constellations of bilateral and multilateral work on textbooks, or have results met with criticism from those involved?
- Which organisational forms have been chosen for which specific projects related to bilateral and multilateral work on textbooks and curricula reform? Do specialist commissions supported by national governments cooperate with civil initiatives or are they in conflict?
- What kind of digital infrastructure would be expedient for sustainable curricular and textbook revision in Europe? Would it be worthwhile and desirable to include an archive of international projects and results in our digital infrastructure?
- Conference programme (PDF)
- Conference report (PDF)
Second EFREC Conference
Under the motto "Learning from the past for the future? What kind of history textbook does Europe need in the 21st century?", the second EFREC conference will take place in Paris on 15 and 16 September 2022. The aim of the conference is to discuss new educational media for European history lessons together with historians, representatives of the social sciences and teachers from Germany, Poland, France, Moldova and Ukraine.
At the conference, experiences from the work on the German-French and German-Polish history textbook project will be exchanged and framework conditions, concepts and contents for current transnational teaching materials will be brought into discussion. We will explore how European history is told in transnational educational media and look at possible implications of their practical use in school contexts in EU countries.
The conference is organised jointly with the Scientific Centre Paris of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Centre for Historical Research Berlin, the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute and the Institut des sciences sociales du politique (CNRS-Université Paris Nanterre - ENS Paris-Saclay).
- Conference details and programme (PDF in German)
Third EFREC Conference
On December 9 and 10, 2022, GEI and its partners will organize a third EFREC conference: "New Perspectives for European Cooperation in History Education: A plea for collaborative curriculum development and educational media production (Romania - Moldova - Ukraine)". The EU accession process of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, initiated with the successful candidacy, offers a unique occasion to give voice to the expectations of educational policy makers, academics and history teachers in Moldova, Romania and Ukraine and to put forward for discussion their ideas for a readjustment of history education using new educational media in a comparative perspective.
At the EFREC workshop, we will exchange views on what is needed at the educational policy level for school and historical education in Moldova, Romania and Ukraine and what perspectives and innovative didactic ideas these countries offer in terms of European cooperation in the field of curriculum development and educational media production.
The conference is organized in cooperation with Ion Creanga University of Pedagogy from Chișinău in the Republic of Moldova and will take place in hybrid form.
Policy Brief
The GEI Policy Brief 02/2023 "The European Forum for Reconciliation: A new Format for International Collaboration and Research on Educational Media" provides an overview of the challenges for the work of bilateral and multilateral initiatives in textbook work that have been observed since the 2000s. In addition, the text describes how the multilateral cooperation network for historical-political education in Europe is facing these challenges and provides insights on EFREC's previous activities and initial results.
