Eckert. The Book Series / GEI Studies in International Educational Media Research

Volume 127

Alexandra Budke: Und der Zukunft abgewandt - Ideologische Erziehung im Geographieunterricht der DDR. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2010. 409 S
ISBN 978-3-89971-627-6

Since the end of the German Democratic Republic and with it the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the termination of the Cold War, efforts have been stepped up to define the real essence of the East German state and thus to understand and classify its consequences in economic, social, psychological and educational terms.
In this volume, Alexandra Budke analyses the school subject of geography, which was one of the major subjects besides civics and history, in which “civic, philosophical and ideological education” as defined in the curricula was imparted from a Marxist-Leninist perspective. The author examines to what extent geography lessons in East Germany were used to communicate and propagate the geopolitical interests of the state. Her detailed analysis of geography lessons enables her to assess whether school students were politically manipulated, and what options for action were perceived by the key actors in lessons – namely the teachers and the students – within the scope of the curricula imposed by educational policy.

Volume 122

Þorsteinn Helgason, Simone Lässig (eds.), Opening the Mind or Drawing Boundaries. History Texts in Nordic Schools. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2010
ISBN 978-3-89971-482-1

History textbooks often draw a line between nations, religions or ethnic groups. This also applies to history books from the relatively peaceful countries of Scandinavia, despite the fact that such textbooks are supposed to promote reflectivity, empathy and tolerance. Is this a contradictory undertaking? In this volume, scholars from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden analyse the construction of the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’ in Scandinavian educational media. At the same time they examine the role of the teacher, who not only communicates but also interprets the material conveyed by school textbooks. Through an analysis of the textbooks’ content as well as of interviews with history teachers from all the above countries, this volume investigates questions of national identity and multiculturalism, equality and difference, content and method, competences and values, as well as the tension between curricular aims and their actual implementation.

Volume 124

Augusta Dimou (ed.), "Transition" and the Politics of History Education in Southeast Europe. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2009
ISBN 978-3-89971-531-6

This volume, edited by Augusta Dimou, offers an overview over the developments in the area of history education in the erstwhile states of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Moldavia from the middle of the 1990's until today. Basis of all contributions is the process of bulding nations with its influence on history politics and school, within the framework of an encouraging, and yet contradictory, tranformation process. Additionally, the roles internationally active education figures and institutes play in the region is examined. Under which circumstances and with what means can reforms and interventions succeed long term in the area of education? In which direction are historical narratives moving? This volume's contributions seek to answer these, and other, questions. They give an insight into the complex tranformations in South East Europe's education sector from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Volume 125

Georg-Eckert-Institut (ed.), Grenzgänger.
Aufsätze von Falk Pingel. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2009.
ISBN 978-3-89971-711-2

This volume brings together essays from three decades. The first section addresses National Socialism primarily from the perspective of the regime’s victims, a topic to which Falk Pingel has always been passionately dedicated from a socio-political, educational and historical point of view. The second field of research explored by the essays in this book is German post-war history in its political, economic and social dimensions. Here too, the author moves beyond a more traditional (re)construction of the past to examine the role of historical scholarship as related to contemporary history and history didactics. This naturally leads to the third section, which focuses on textbook research. Anyone addressing issues concerning the dissemination of historical knowledge will sooner or later be confronted with the key medium of the school textbook. Falk Pingel has methodologically consolidated and developed textbook research, repeatedly emphasising the political responsibilities of academia, and thus transcending boundaries between research and politics, academia and education practice, states and cultures.

Volume 123:

Andreas Helmedach/Robert Maier (eds.), Zweierlei 1968?
Die Umbruchjahre 1968 und 1989 in deutschen und tschechischen Geschichtsschulbüchern. Göttingen: V & R Unipress, 2008. 205 Pages.
ISBN 978-3-89971-483-8

The jacket blurb reads: "While the interpretation spectrum for the epoch year '1968' in Germany with its student revolts ranges from a 'second foundation' of West German democracy through to reproach of leftist fascism, from the Czech point of view the cesura is clear-cut: The Warsaw Pact tank invasion sharply separated the 'golden 60s' and the 'Prague Spring' from the era of 'normalization' that meant direct repression for nearly 2 million Czechs and Slovaks."

The authors ask if there weren't still trans-block and trans-national phenomena such as a protest culture, new symbol systems and forms of expression; commonalities that bridged the gap between the epoch years of 1968 and 1989. The representations of these years in the instructional media of both countries is the question at the center of the analyses.