This report, commissioned by the Unabhängige Kommission Antiziganismus and conducted by the Georg Eckert Institute, analyses the representation of Sinti and Roma in curricula and textbooks that were in use in 2019 in secondary schools in the 16 German federal states. The study covers the subjects of history, civic education and geography. It investigates topics of historical learning suggested by the curricula and the context in which Sinti*zze and Rom*nja are mentioned in the textbooks. But it…

Georg Eckert, the ‘founding father’ of the Institute for International Textbook Research that still bears his name, helped shape the field of textbook research, the educational landscape and international cultural policy in the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany. His larger-than-life personality had a lasting impact and his impressive life’s work endures. Georg Eckert has fascinated many academics, who have applied a range of distinct disciplinary and institutional perspectives to…

Interactive 3D testimonies are an innovative approach to recording and accessing accounts of survivors of the Holocaust. However, researchers know relatively little about the development, function and possible uses of this technology. The LediZ project, conducted by the University of Munich in Germany, examines the production process behind digital 3D testimonies as well as how people interact with them. The papers in this publication explore the communication structures involved in interactive…

Racism continues to present a persistent structural problem in Germany, as well as other countries, that affects all areas of society. It is therefore perhaps not surprising that German textbooks contain knowledge based on state-sanctioned racism. But to assume that simply revising textbooks will lead to ‘racism-free’ teaching materials or lessons critical of racism would be short-sighted. Because even critical textbooks must tie in with racist bodies of knowledge, lessons that are able to fully…

In our world today young people are increasingly influenced by social media and the information found on the internet. This exposes young people to different extremist ideologies and 'alternative facts' which they may bring into the classroom. This needs assessment is designed to identify what educators need in order to cope with these challenges and to address contested issues. It is part of the project ‘Learning to Disagree’ that aims at strengthening students’ social and civic competences…

This is a joint report commissioned by the Council of Europe to the Georg Eckert Institute in partnership with the Roma Education Fund which seeks to analyse the representation of Roma in curricula and textbooks currently in use in upper levels of primary and secondary schools across Europe. The study includes the subjects of history, civic education and geography from 21 member states of the Council of Europe: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech…

For a long time, educational institutions such as schools defined books as the preferred medium for learning. The article argues that schools, embedded as they are in a societies undergoing a digital change and experiencing concomitant change in the skills and competencies required of their members, bear a responsibility for teaching digital media practices in the classroom. The article focuses on the ‘digital revolution of textbooks’ and how it demands the transformation of former school…

The pioneering efforts of UNESCO and its partners to improve the quality of textbooks around the world have resulted in significant progress. With few exceptions, textbooks no longer function openly as tools of propaganda or as incitements to violence. Nevertheless, a growing body of international research on school textbooks has uncovered numerous, sometimes subtle, elements of texts that continue to nurture the formation of divisive stereotypes that might fuel discrimination, ethnic tensions…