Multi-perspectivity in history lessons
The five-day winter school on ‘Multiperspectivity in history teaching’ was held from 6 to 11 December at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute, and brought together eight history teachers, textbook authors and policy makers from Moldova and Ukraine. The winter school was organised as a hybrid event (partly online and partly in person) and observed strict Corona hygiene rules. The participants conducted research in the library and discussed the production and content of history books in Germany, Moldova and Ukraine. Their different experiences and perspectives enabled them to illustrate important aspects of history teaching from multiple perspectivest: including the different perspectives of academic textbook research, the depiction and commemoration of persecuted groups in textbooks, the treatment of controversial and sensitive topics and the possibility for reflected historical awareness. During the winter school the newly founded ‘European Forum for Reconciliation and Cooperation in History and Social Sciences Education’ was also discussed, and Professor Fuchs encouraged those taking part to contribute to the network.
The winter school, which was financed by the German Federal Foreign Office and organised by Dr Vasile Dumbravă and Dr Simona Szakács-Behling on behalf of the Moldova-Institut Leipzig (MIL), built upon a collaboration that has existed for several years. In October 2018, researchers from the GEI were invited by the MIL to take part in seminars about curricula development and history textbooks, held in Chişinău (Moldova) and Chernvtsi (Ukraine). Teachers from Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus and the Russia Federation reciprocated in November of the same year by taking part in workshops on teaching history critically to strengthen democracy, which were held in Leipzig and Braunschweig. In May 2019 this collaboration was continued with a seminar called ‘Curricula development, challenges and innovative approaches in current textbook production’ where eight Moldovan textbook authors worked on part of a new history curricula for the Republic of Moldova.
