The Project for the Coordination of Textbook Research, Development and Comparison in South-East Europe was established in 2000 and came to an end in 2009. It formed part of the broader initiative for reform and cooperation inaugurated by the Stability Pact for South-East Europe.

It strived to lend support to the diverse processes of local educational reforms in primary and secondary education, as well as to promote the incorporation and integration of South-East Europe into the wider European educational agenda. In addition, it worked towards strengthening and facilitating cross-border communication and exchange between the various countries and regions of South-East Europe. Finally, it aimed at enhancing the transfer of new didactical and pedagogical know-how and skills in the fields of history, geography and civics. Yet this gave rise to conflicts about textbook authorization.

In order to achieve the above objectives we worked closely with multiple and diverse cooperative partners who are active in the field of education, such as ministries and pedagogical institutes, textbook authors, researchers and scholars, teachers, curriculum planners and editing houses in the region. Through a number of separate initiatives and activities we tried to ensure that recent development in textbook research has an impact on pedagogical practice. We cooperated closely with a series of international and regional organizations such as the OSCE, CoE, Euroclio, the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe, and the Allianz Kulturstiftung.

The project included Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro, Slovenia, Macedonia (FYROM) and Moldova. Our agenda comprised two principal aspects:

1. The project provided for a number of scholarships destined exclusively for researchers from South-East Europe. The scholarships provided for a one-month sojourn at the Institute, allowing researchers to conduct research and collect materials at the Institute's library.
2. We organized conferences, workshops and summer schools dedicated to different themes of historical and didactical interest. The project desired to mediate between various educational agencies and actors in an effort to more effectively link academic expertise with teaching practice itself.

Stability Pact 2009

In 2009, activities concentrated  on the publication of teaching resources on the war 1992-1995, which until recently was not touched on by textbooks and in the classrooms. Five authors from Bosnia-Herzegovina had produced "Slike novije proslosti" - BiH za vrijeme 1992-1995.g" [Pictures of the recent past - BiH between 1992-1995]. The  booklet was presented to teachers and educational officials during a seminar in Sarajewo at the start of the school year 2009/2010. Partly, participants judged the time ripe to tackle the war at school, partly they still expressed reservation and pointed to problems and dangers of this topic, which thus remains an issue.

The scholarship program connected with the project was continued 2009.

Stability Pact 2008

In 2008 the Georg Eckert Institute's activities in south eastern Europe focus on evaluating past activities and ensuring the sustainability of measures for educational reform in the field of history teaching.

The evaluation of the project consists in a summary of findings and a critical assessment of international intervention in south eastern Europe. It aims to analyse developments in the field of education and history teaching from the early 1990s onwards. All those who have worked on the project in the past or at present, including external experts, will contribute towards a publication of the results. The team of authors met in May 2008 in Bled (Slovenia).

In addition to the evaluation of the project, further activities are carried on with partners, especially those from Bosnia and Hercegovina (BaH), in order to ensure sustainability and participation. The seminar that brought together authors in 2007 led to the formation of small working groups which will develop in the course of 2008, in close cooperation with project members,  alternative materials concerning controversial topics from recent history (the history of BaH since 1992). We also carry out with the support of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Hercegovina a pilot study about the reception of new history textbooks in BaH.

The fellowship programme of the Georg Eckert Institute, which enables researchers and partners to devote time to their research projects, will continue in 2008.

Activities 2008

6-7 February: Meeting of the project members with the Education Officers of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Hercegovina for preparing the pilot study (Sarajevo, Banja Luka)

8-9 February: 1st Workshop withe the authors' team from BaH for producing alternative teaching materials dealing with the history of BaH since 1992 (Sarajevo)

April: Drawing up of an expert report on the representation of contemporary history in history textbooks of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the OSCE
English version / Bosnian version / Serbian version / Croatian version

29 May - 1 June: Meeting for editorial work on the book „Transition“ and the Politics of History Teaching in South-East Europe“ (Bled)

20 June: 2nd Workshop with the authors' team from BaH (Sarajevo)

4-6 August: Final meeting of the authors' team with the project members for presenting and discussing dissemination strategies of the produced alternative teaching materials (Braunschweig)

21-24 August: Invitation as expert to the Euroclio Final Project Seminar „History in Action – preparing for the Future. Common approaches for Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia and Serbia” (Sarajevo)

Stability Pact 2007

In 2006, the work on a new generation of textbooks for Bosnia and Hercegovina was begun when the implementation of the guidelines for history and geography textbooks was introduced. Although this project is still ‘work in progress’, the first results demonstrate a clear improvement in the textbooks, particularly regarding methodical and didactical issues.

Evaluators and teachers as well as other pedagogical staff (e.g. school inspectors) have also been involved in the general process of assessing and implementing these newly developed textbooks, which should be used in the classroom as early as the school year 2007/2008. They are the target group of a new series of training seminars in the year 2007, which is intended to guarantee a holistic reform process.

The research-grant programme has turned out to be one of the successful means of creating a sustainable training system for the textbook authors. The grant holders were able to develop networks with other grant holders from South-Eastern Europe alongside their own research, thus fulfilling one of the three main goals of the project.

Within textbook reform in Serbia (centred on the publishing hous Platoneum), we plan to develop a series of history books offering multiple perspectives and a European orientation in the year 2007.

Perspectives:
We plan to reflect upon the experiences of the Georg Eckert Institute’s work in South-Eastern Europe in a concluding publication. Close attention will be paid here to history tuition in the countries of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia and Slovenia.

Activities 2007

February 2007: CoE/GEI Seminar for Textbook Authors in BaH.
April 2007: CoE/GEI Seminar for Pedagogical Institutes in BaH.
June 2007: GEI/OSCE Seminar for Textbook Reviewers (Geography and History) in BaH.
August 2007: Conference and Workshop for History Textbook Authors in BaH.
cf.: [conference report] [presentations on the situation of historiography and history textbook writing in BiH and Croatia: Bronza, Kamberovic, Koren]

Stability Pact 2006

In Bosnia-Hercegovina, the activity focus was placed on the concrete implementation of guidelines on writing history and geography textbooks through training seminars for textbook authors.

In Serbia, the process of educational reform at state level has been greatly hindered by political insecurities. The GEI has supported two projects by evaluating teaching materials (e.g. the Ethno-Historical Guide to Serbia) or by holding lectures and seminars connected to textbook reform and centred on the publishing house Platoneum.

One area of the Stability Pact Project focused on activities in the Republic of Moldova, especially on the continued support of the textbook revision process in 2006. From 13th-17th December, a conference at the GEI on the subject of The Interwar Period in Bessarabia in Historiography and the Textbook aimed towards improving transfer between academia and the school. The results of this conference were published in Moldova in 2007 in a format similar to a teacher’s handbook.

The part of the project focusing on Macedoniaconcentrated for the most part on observing the process of curricula and textbook revision in the subject of history, which was introduced in 2004 and completed in 2006. Closest attention was paid to including Albanian history in the curricula and textbooks.

Activities 2006

January 2006: Workshop for Textbook Authors of the Republic of Moldova
February 2006: “Training Workshop for History Textbook Authors from Bosnia and Hercegovina”
June 2006: Seminar: Evaluation of the “Ethno-historical guides” of Serbia
September 2006: GEI/CoE-Seminar for History Textbook Authors in BaH.
October 2006: GEI/OSCE Seminar for Geography Textbook Authors in BaH.
November 2006: Seminar: Evaluation of the “Ethno-historical guides” of Serbia
November 2006: Seminar: “Textbooks in multiethnic societies”
December 2006: Workshop: “The Interwar Period in Bessarabia in Historiography and Textbooks” in cooperation with the Moldova Institute of Leipzig
December 2006: GEI/CoE Seminar for History Textbook Authors in BaH. 

Stability Pact 2005

The project included a large international conference, organised by the Georg Eckert Institute. The conference participants included all education ministers from Bosnia-Hercegovina, textbook experts from Croatia and Serbia as well as textbooks and curricula experts from the German education ministries. The goal of the conference was not only to locate textbook reform in Bosnia and Hercegovina within the larger South-East European context, but, above all, to consult with both education ministers on the guidelines for future history and geography textbooks presented by a commission of experts, and ideally to agree on a text to be signed in Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Since 2005, support has been given to an innovative textbook project in Serbia. It is the aim of the Ethno-Historical Guide of Serbia to produce new alternative materials on the history of the diverse minorities in Serbia, and to present them in a new form of synthesis. To this end, the Institute organised a training workshop for the seventeen representatives of these minorities who are also co-authors of the new textbook.

A further section of the project deals is examining the subject of “Albanians in the Minority/Albanians in the Majority” in Macedonia, Kosovo, Southern Serbia and Montenegro.

Activities 2005

February 2005: Conference with Ministers of Education of Bosnia and Hercegovina: “Recommendations for the Writing of History and Geography Textbooks in Bosnia and Hercegovina and Experiences in Neighbouring Countries”
May 2005: Workshop: “Evaluation of History Textbooks in Kosovo”
July 2005: Training Workshop for Texytbook Authors: “Ethno-Historical Guide of Serbia”
December 2005: “Workshop for Textbook Authors of the Republic of Moldova”

Activities 2001–2004

April 2001, Workshop: History Education and Textbook Development in Bosnia and Hercegovina
September 2001, International Summer School in Braunschweig: "The Balkans in Europe"
May 2002, Workshop: "Minorities in the Educational Systems of South Eastern Europe"
November 2002, Seminar: Evaluation of Recent Teaching Materials in Serbia
September 2003, Conference: "History Curricula in South East Europe"
September/October 2003, Workshop: "Conceptualizing Bosnian History"
November 2003, Conference: "Teaching War? Alternative Historical Sources to the Understanding of War in Ex-Yugoslavia"
September 2004, International Summer School: "Mindmapping in Textbooks and Curricula: Borders and Border Regions in the Southeastern and Greater European Area" 

Public sphere / Press

• "Jasenovac - an uneasy site of memory. The difficult remembrance of the victims of the concentration camp", published in the Dutch newspaper "Trouw" on 22 December, 2007, on the basis of an interview with Dr. Heike Karge [PDF file]

• Press release of the Georg Eckert Institute, 17 October 2007: "Comment on Recent Public Discussion with Regard to History Textbooks in Tuzla Canton, BaH" [PDF file]

Publications

• Dimou, Augusta (ed.), “Transition” and the Politics of History Education in South-East Europe, Göttingen: V&R unipress 2009
  

• Karge, Heike, Steinerne Erinnerung – versteinerte Erinnerung? Kriegsgedenken im sozialistischen Jugoslawien, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (2008, in preparation).
• Karge, Heike, Discursive Constructions of “Resistance“ and “Victims of Fascism“ Within the International Federation of Resistance Fighters, in: Rutar, Sabine (ed.), Southeastern Europe as Social History. Towards a European Framework of Exploration, Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden (2008, in preparation)
• Katarina Batarilo/Volker Lenhart, “The Education System in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, in: Döbert/ Hörner/ von Kopp/ Mitter (eds.): The education systems of Europe. Dordrecht: Springer 2007, p. 128-145 
•  Karge, Heike, “Im Reservat der Zeit. Kriegserinnerung und Schule im sozialistischen Jugoslawien”, in: Höpken, Wolfgang (ed.) Kriegserinnerung und Kriegsverarbeitung in Südosteuropa. Zum Kulturellen Umgang mit Gewalterfahrung auf dem Balkan, München 2007, in press
• Karge, Heike, Practices and Politics of World War Two Remembrance (Trans-) National Perspectives from East and Southeast Europe, in: Pakier, Gosia and Stråth, Bo (ed.): Politics of Commemoration. The Search for the Past and the Shaping of a European Culture (2007, in preparation)
• Karge, Heike, Dalla “memoria congelata” allo scontro del ricordo: i monumenti commemorativi della II Guerra Mondiale nella Jugoslavia di Tito”, in: Memoria e ricerca. Rivista di storia contemporanea Vol. 21 (2006), 81-99
• Karge, Heike, “Offizielle Narration trifft lokale Praktiken. Kriegsgedenken und Denkmalsbau in Jugoslawien”, in: Beyer, Barbara; Richter, Angela (ed.), Geschichte (ge-) brauchen. Literatur und Geschichtskultur im Staatssozialismus: Jugoslavien und Bulgarien. Berlin, 2006, 91-111
• Pingel, Falk, “Einigung auf ein Minimum an Gemeinsamkeit - Schulbuchrevision in Bosnien und Herzegowina”, in: GWU (2006) H. 9, p. 519-533
• Dimou, Augusta, What’s in a Name? The Untold Story of Southeastern Europe in Greek History Textbooks. In: Helmedach, Andreas (ed.), Nur ein Pulverfaß? Südosteuropa im Schulbuch, Hannover 2005 (Studien zur internationalen Schulbuchforschung, 116).
• Dimou, Augusta, “...and then the Prince kissed Sleeping Beauty”. Some thoughts on popular narrations of the Liberation Wars in the Balkans. In: Jahrbücher für Geschichte und Kultur Südosteuropas, 6 (2004).
• Karge, Heike, “Tra euforia, moderazione e isolamento: l' Europa nei testi scolastici di storia delle repubbliche della ex Jugoslavia”, in: Pingel, Falk (ed.) Insegnare l´Europa, Torino 2003, p. 479-525
• Karge, Heike, “Between euphoria, sober realisation and isolation”, in: Clio and the Balkans. The politics of history education, Thessaloniki 2002, p. 203-231

• Katarina Batarilo, “Pädagogischer Umgang mit bewaffneten Konflikten am Beispiel friedensbauender Geschichtscurriculumrevision in Bosnien-Herzegowina”. In: Özkan Ergen/Volker Lenhart (ed.): Konflikt und pädagogische Intervention. Frankfurt 2003, S. 115-125 
• Katarina Batarilo/Volker Lenhart, “Bosnien-Herzegowina”. In: Döbert/ Hörner/ von Kopp/ Mitter (ed.): Die Schulsysteme Europas. Hohengehren 2002, S. 49-60.
• Rutar, Sabine, “Bildungsreform in der Republik Serbien”, in: Internationale Schulbuchforschung 24 (2002), p. 315-321
• Karge, Heike and Helmedach, Andreas (Eds.), “South-East Europe - Minorities in textbooks”, International Textbook Research 23 (2001) 2
• Xochellis, Panos D. and Fotini I. Toloudi (eds.), “The image of the ‘other’/neighbour in the school textbooks of the Balkan countries”, Athens 2001
• Karge, Heike, Istraživanja školskih udžbenika u Jugoistočnoj Europi. Problemi, projekti, perspektive, in: Fleck, Hans-Georg; Graovac, Igor (eds.) Dijalog Povijesničara-Istoričara 4, Zagreb 2001, 17-29
• Karge, Heike, “Schwärzt die Seiten”. Nach dem Krieg: Bildungspolitik in Bosnien-Herzegowina, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Feuilleton, 14.3.2001
• Karge, Heike, “’Bestimme Genitiv und Akkusativ: Seid ihr euch eures Verbrechens bewußt? Die Drina flußabwärts trieben ermordete unschuldige Menschen.’ - Eine Studie zu post-jugoslawischen Schulbüchern,” in: Südosteuropa von der Krise zur Transformation, edited by Cvetana Todorova and Edgar Hösch. Aus der Südosteuropa Forschung, vol. 12, 2000, p. 73-78
• Karge, Heike, “History after the war: Examples of how controversial issues are dealt with in history textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina“, in: UNESCO Newsletter International Textbook Research Network, no. 9, 2000, p. 40-45
• Höpken, Wolfgang, “’Vergangenheitsbewältigung’ in Südosteuropa - Chance oder Last?” in: Internationale Verständigung. 25 Jahre Georg-Eckert-Institut für internationale Schulbuchforschung, edited by Ursula A. J. Becher and Rainer Riemenschneider, Hannover 2000 (=Studien zur internationalen Schulbuchforschung, vol. 100), p. 253-269
• Höpken, Wolfgang, “Textbooks and reconciliation in Southeastern Europe”, in: Culture and reconciliation in Southeastern Europe, Thessaloniki 1999, p. 67-87.
• Karge Heike, “Geschichtsbilder im postjugoslawischen Raum: Konzeptionen in Geschichtslehrbüchern am Beispiel von Selbst- und Nachbarschaftswahrnehmung”, in: International Textbook Research vol. 21 (1999), p. 315-37
• Höpken, Wolfgang (ed.), Öl ins Feuer? Schulbücher, ethnische Stereotypen und Gewalt in Südosteuropa, Hannover: Hahn 1996 (Studien zur internationalen Schulbuchforschung, vol. 89) 

Contact:

Katarina Batarilo (affiliated)

Heike Karge (affiliated)