Making sense…

MAKING SENSE OF THE PAST THAT REFUSES TO PASS

Recommendations for responsible teaching of the wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states 

  1. INTRODUCTION

It has been 20 years (in some cases even more) since the end of the wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states. [1] It was the biggest conflict in Europe after the Second World War. Its costs were enormous: human losses (including mass atrocities, ethnic cleansing, and genocide), refugees, depopulation, impoverishment and destruction of urban and rural settlements, economic infrastructure and cultural heritage. All these consequences still largely shape fragile and sensitive relations in and between societies and states of the region.

In respective societies, there are many different interpretations of the wars, especially their nature and causes. Some of these interpretations are used by political elites and promoted as official histories (i.e. through political declarations, commemorative practices, memorials, history textbooks, in some cases even by specific laws). Such direct state interventions in interpretations of the recent past have been part of the effort to re-construct and reshape ethnic and political identities. Once official histories have been established they tended to suppress, marginalize and exclude alternative representations, dissonant views and different experiences creating oversimplified and reduced narratives. They have also tended to set boundaries in the field of historical research and history teaching.

We, history education experts and practitioners from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia, are fully aware of this context and its influence on the learning and teaching of history. We have identified the following challenges in learning and teaching of the subject of history in primary and secondary schools in respective countries:

EDUCATIONAL AUTHORITIES & POLITICS IN POST-YUGOSLAV COUNTRIES

Educational authorities are directly dependent on the often-unstable political context. Their instability, short-term scope, and often lack of will and capacity, prevent substantial changes and reforms. This hinders objectivity and continuity in ensuring supportive context for responsible approaches to the most sensitive topic in history education.

HISTORY CURRICULA IN SUCCESSOR STATES

History curricula[2] in post-Yugoslav countries are content-prescriptive and reflect an ethnocentric perspective of history. In spite of the fact that all history curricula in these countries recognize the necessity of developing critical and creative thinking skills of students, this is only of a declarative nature. History curricula in respective countries actually hinder the use of teaching strategies and approaches aimed at bringing critical insights into the past and developing historical and critical thinking skills of students.[3]

WARS IN HISTORY CURRICULA AND TEXTBOOKS

In the years immediately after the wars, there was a moratorium on teaching the contemporary history in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in parts of Croatia (Danube-basin region), as a part of the process of peaceful reintegration. In Serbia and Montenegro, there was no formal moratorium, but any reference to the wars was avoided both in curricula and in textbooks.

During the last decade or more, topics about wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states were included in all curricula in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[4] The topic is most extensively covered in Croatian language curricula and textbooks, while in Serbian and Bosnian curricula it is rather presented as a list of events. However a mono-perspective approach and presentation of “our” single truth is a common characteristic of all history textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Selective approaches to facts, one-sided, simplistic, black-and-white interpretations, self-victimizing and heroic narratives are inherent to all history textbooks in BiH, and differences between the historical interpretations they convey, reflect the divisions between ethnic communities in BiH.[5]

In Serbian history curricula and textbooks wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states are represented in an extremely reduced manner. History textbooks address this issue mainly through a political, factual and chronological discourse, stressing the effects of the wars that afflicted Serbs (like military action “Storm” that initiated massive exodus of the Serbian population from Croatia) and particularly the NATO bombing of Serbia.

In Montenegrin history curricula, the breakup of Yugoslavia was first represented in 2003. Short, chronological overview of the topic present in textbooks consists of basic information about the war without any references to causes, severity of the wars, nor victims or perpetrators and is still in use to this day.

Out of all post-Yugoslav countries, the topic of wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states is covered most extensively in history curricula and textbooks as well as in dedicated teacher training programs in Croatia. Focusing on war in Croatia (the term used is Homeland War), Croatian history curricula prescribe not only the historical content to be taught but also to a certain extent also the historical interpretations of the events, people and processes covered. Textbooks in use vary in terms of interpretations they convey (some go well beyond the simplistic, heroic and self-victimizing narratives prescribed by curricula and some are completely in line with it). Textbooks also vary in terms of their didactic equipment (some textbooks are text-dominant with mainly repetition tasks for students and sources that are accompanied by interpretations, while others are source-rich with more complex tasks for students).  These differences reflect different understandings of the purpose of history teaching (history teaching for learning about historical inquiry against or history teaching for transmitting the appropriate interpretation to students). [6]

DOMINANT NARRATIVES OF THE WARS IN SOCIETIES AND HISTORY TEACHING

Emotionally loaded language often used in politics and in media is transferred into the classroom practices. Adherence to these master narratives hinders compassion for the victims of other ethnic groups and obstructs the cultivation of historical thinking. During the last 15 years contents, sources and materials (i.e. CDRSEE sourcebooks, the Supplement affair in Croatia) that attempted to challenge these dominant narratives led to resistance and rejections, not only by students and teachers, but also by educational authorities.[7]

DIFFICULTIES WITH TEACHING THE WARS

Teachers often find it difficult to teach about these wars in the classroom. Some choose to teach these topics in a prescribed and expected way out of various reasons. They follow requirements of relevant history teaching programs that are often used for ethnic homogenization. In some countries, a strong pressure on teaching this topic in a particular way is exercised from certain social groups, most notably war veterans and war victims. This is connected to the dismissal of historical inquiry and to the ignorance of contemporary approaches to teaching sensitive and controversial topics. Some teachers do not feel competent, safe, or supported enough by the educational system, school milieu or local communities to teach these topics in a way that includes critical thinking or open questions that would cross-examine dominant and contested interpretations.[8]

ABANDONED STUDENTS

Students are either exposed to simplified narratives and one-sided interpretations or not taught the topic at all. In both cases, they are deprived both of factual insights into war events and of opportunities to analyze, understand and evaluate different sources and interpretations of the events. Subsequently, without developed critical skills, necessary to approach this sensitive topic in a didactically structured and “safe” way, students are facing the influences of often-manipulative media, propaganda, and unambiguous public or personal narratives.

DIVIDED SCHOOLING SYSTEM

The system of ‘two schools under one roof’ is still found in more than 50 schools in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina[9] as well as in some parts of Croatia[10]. This language and ethnicity based division of pupils hinders inter-ethnic contact and understanding across ethnic boundaries. This naturally reflects on teaching about inter-ethnic wars and makes responsible, multi-perspective and critical approaches to sensitive and controversial issues less likely.

  1. Recommendations

In relation to the challenges identified, we want to explore possibilities to overcome them and foster history teaching that aims to nurture a critical understanding of the wars through cultivation of historical thinking as we find this essential for challenging manipulation and myths, as well as prejudices and stereotypes arising from them. We believe that history teaching should have a transformative role, not only in how past conflicts are perceived but also in building sustainable peace in this region.[11]

 In the process of developing recommendations for responsible teaching of the wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states, we explored guidelines, recommendations and educational approaches to the teaching of other sensitive and controversial topics, while keeping in mind the specifics of the experience of these historical events. We hold that some of these approaches can also be applied to teaching wars in question.

2.1. STAKEHOLDER RECOMMENDATIONS

It is of utmost importance that the goals of teaching about the wars are set in line with a commitment to building sustainable peace. It is also of substantial importance that all educational stakeholders follow these clearly identified and un-ambiguous goals.

 Nevertheless, formal education is only one of many sources of students’ knowledge of, and attitudes to the wars. Informal factors outside the classroom seem to have a very strong influence on students’ knowledge and attitudes. Films, commemorations, museums, cultural events, family stories and existing narratives constitute abundant sources of cultural capital that may help students better understand this complex past. On the other hand, they can also convey biases, over-simplified views, political claims, incorrect information or misconceptions that can have a major impact on how students interpret the past.[12]

If post-Yugoslav societies commit to teaching recent wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states, all stakeholders should ensure preconditions outlined below.

2.1.1. Teachers

  • When teaching these conflicts, teachers should uphold professional standards, and detach from personal, emotionally driven standpoints (outlined in the second part of these recommendations) because this is as much of professional as of public interest.
  • As professionals and responsible citizens teachers should acknowledge the public role of history and history teaching (especially when dealing with divisive, sensitive and controversial topics) by helping students:
  • Gain factual knowledge on those issues
  • Understand complexities of the past and its interpretations
  • Understand ways in which history is used to promote, legitimize and motivate diverse interests, ideologies and beliefs
  • It is highly recommended that educators reach out to organizations and individuals that provide professional development in expertise and resources related to the specific topic, as well as to the topic of mass atrocities and human rights violations to gain the necessary content knowledge and pedagogy. [13]
  • Teachers could use opportunities for:
  • Taking part in transnational, cross-border networking and exchange
  • Peer-learning
  • Making use of existing models and approaches of teaching sensitive and controversial issues

2.1.2. Other formal national and international educational stakeholders

Should:

  • Create safe and supportive environments for teachers and students to freely engage with sensitivities of the issue by:
  • Creating an adequate policy framework
  • Ensuring quality pre-service study programs for future history teachers
  • Encouraging and relying on professional autonomy of teachers
  • Ensuring quality mechanisms that enable all actors (state and non-state) to participate in quality professional development of teachers[14]
  • Developing a better connected general curriculum that provides space for teaching this topic in other relevant subjects (citizenship education, geography, social sciences, literature and similar)[15]
  • Developing a more open history curriculum
  • Provide various means of professional support to teachers through:
  • Insights into multi and inter-disciplinary approaches to the topic (such as history, psychology, social sciences, philosophy, educational sciences and other)
  • Make relevant literature and sources available for teachers in school libraries and online,
  • Produce teaching materials and provide opportunities for professional development based on these insights and in accordance with professional standards
  • Ensure that programs for professional development of teachers have a balance of two distinct elements: the development of the expertise within the subject area (“what” to teach) and teaching competences (“how” to teach)…
  • Provide opportunities for teachers – in curricula, teaching materials and professional development – to engage students in educationally safe environments with different experiences of people across war-inflicted areas (soldiers, civilians, different ethnic groups, minorities, refugees, women, children, diverse groups of professionals).
  • Support regional and international networking and cooperation of historians, history teachers and history teaching experts to foster exchange and innovation in teaching about the wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states.[16]
  • Basic requirements for bringing students to museums and memorial sites and planned support to educators in this should be ensured by educational authorities through:
  • Study visits to memorials and museums that invite critical engagement with the topic and freedom of interpretations should be supported. Financial, logistical and pedagogical support to site/museum visits should be ensured. For example, educators should have enough flexibility in their schedules to make site/museum visits possible.[17]
  • Opportunities for professional development that enable teachers for planning, implementation and evaluation of study trips to memorials.
  • Maximization of educational outcomes should be ensured through careful planning and cooperation with institution(s) concerned.
  • Acknowledge and respect teachers as professionals.
  • Uphold their professional standards.
  • Reconsider the existence of divided schools as it further hinders inter-group contact and consequently also understanding and learning about the wars beyond group dominant narratives.

2.1.3. Relevant societal stakeholders

  • Politicians, media, CSOs and associations dealing with legacies of the recent wars, museums and memorial sites should:
  • Contribute to creating safe and supportive environments for teachers and students to freely engage with sensitivities of the issue.
  • Restrain themselves from prescribing interpretations and\or monopolizing the right to interpret the past
  • Acknowledge and respect teachers as professionals
  • Uphold their professional standards

2.2. TEACHING AND LEARNING RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Help students gain factual knowledge about wars.
  • The study of any war raises difficult and challenging questions. As with any historical event, it is important to present historically accurate information. Describe how and why the wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states happened, in the context of European and world history. Address the chronological and geographic framework of events and the short and long-term causes and consequences in local, national and international contexts. Identify the roles of governments and institutions, as well as various members of society. Help students understand both the beginnings of wars as well as the events and peace agreements that led to resolutions of wars.[18]
  • Be aware that there are no simple answers to the complex questions, such as the nature of the war, the war guilt, causes and consequences of the war. Avoid simplified narratives that lead to superficial and stereotypical views of protagonists and events. Ensure that students have the opportunity to explore the complexities of the issue: the context and dynamics that led to wars, various factors that played a role (political considerations, economic difficulties, local history, European and world response etc.).[19]
  • Enable your students to gain a detailed, insightful knowledge about the topic, especially when they tend to judge certain events superficially, stereotypically and emotionally.
  • Beware of simplistic parallels and comparisons to other wars. Some parallels may exist, but each of them has its own unique characteristics of time, place and people.[20]
  • Define the key terms such as crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing, human rights, [21]
  • Emphasize that the war was not an inevitable outcome of the breakup of Yugoslavia. It happened because of decisions made by different actors (individuals, groups and nations) to act or not to act. These decisions could have been different. Students therefore need to be aware of the various choices that local actors and the global community had available before, during and after the war. [22]
  • Avoid generalizations, simplifications, and stereotypes. Be aware that the use of collective nouns such as “Serbs”, “Croats”, “Bosniaks” or “Montenegrins”, while to some degree unavoidable, can inadvertently reinforce stereotypes.[23]
  • Contextualize the history. A study of the 1990s wars should be placed in a wider historical and contemporaneous context. Analyze local and national, as well as European and world responses.[24]
  • Show positive actions taken by individuals who have spoken out against hate and crimes and/or rescued threatened and endangered people. Do not, however, overemphasize these actions, especially if they involved only a small fraction of people – it can lead to an inaccurate and distorted understanding of events. Similarly, “exposing students only to the worst aspects of human nature may foster cynicism”.[25]
  • Help students to understand how societies deal with the mass violence of the past after the war ends, how affected communities and survivors live with the legacy of mass atrocities, and how nations devastated by such crimes may be able to overcome conflict and achieve peace and stability.[26]
  • Help students develop historical thinking skills.
  • Provide students with opportunities to explore and analyze different sources, representations and interpretations of the recent wars. Encourage enquiry-based and problem-solving learning, as this is crucial for developing historical thinking skills, critical thinking skills, and skills of organization and communication of historical knowledge.
  • Help students understand concepts of time, space, causes and consequences, change and continuity, historical perspectives and interpretations.
  • Choose carefully your materials, according to pedagogical standards and appropriate to the age of students, to provide opportunities for students to develop historical thinking skills (how do we know about the past). Use primary and secondary sources such as testimonies, photos, diaries, trial records, official transcripts, original artwork, first-person accounts, archival movie footage, newspapers, or historiography.[27]
  • Engage students in critical analysis and reflection of sources – provide them with opportunities to decide why a particular source was made, who made it and why, to compare and evaluate different perspectives and interpretations of specific past events and issues, and evaluate arguments that are used to support certain information (or the lack of it). Ensure appropriate context for sources (the context in which the source was made and the context in which it is understood today).[28]
  • Take into consideration that students’ interpretations of the past are strongly influenced by popular history (films, popular journals, blogs, web-sites, family histories, street names etc.) and other media beyond textbooks and curricula. Provide them with opportunities to analyze and evaluate these types of interpretations and to compare them with interpretations in “official” school material.
  • Live testimonies and personal stories of those whose lives were affected by the war and violence provide a unique opportunity for teaching and learning. They are, however, particular and sensitive sources of information and their specific features have to be taken into consideration. Live testimonies are a historical source and should be treated as such – students should apply historical critique to what they hear. Direct contact with witnesses, however, may stir up emotions that might limit rational and critical reflection. Therefore, preparation and reflection should be carefully devised. Historical context, as well as basic understanding of oral history as a method should be a part of the research, as well as understanding that a testimony represents only one personal experience among many.[29]
  • Challenge dominant narratives
  • Help students understand ways in which history is being (mis)used to promote, legitimize and motivate certain interests, politics, ideologies and beliefs.
  • Challenge, discuss and deconstruct unsubstantiated assumptions, myths and master narratives by providing your students with facts, evidence, and arguments.[30] Engage them in critical analysis of such interpretations.
  • Explore with your students how the past is remembered, how historical narratives have been negotiated over time and how the way in which events have been remembered has led to further conflict and violence[31] (i.e. how the memory of the Second World War was exploited in the 1990s to stir fear and invoke aggression).
  • Do not use the memories of the recent wars to foster or create fears of today. Do not use the experience of wars in the 1990s as a pretext to send a message that different relations are not possible.[32]
  • Foster debate, self-reflection, and engagement
  • Encourage students to research and make connections between the past and the present, following the principles of methodology of history.[33]
  • Establish an open and trusting learning environment.[34] Acknowledge the role of the affective processes and be a facilitator instead of a lecturer. [35]
  • Do not enforce your own opinions on students. Provide them with opportunities to explore the role of emotions and beliefs and to express their questions, uncertainties, doubts, and conclusions. [36]
  • Encourage respectful but honest discussion, support well-argued contributions to the discussion and, depending on the situation, leave the conclusion open.[37]
  • Give students (and teachers) opportunities to explore their own backgrounds and identities and shape their own historical understanding. They should also understand how history contributes to the construction of individual and collective identities, and that identity is neither fixed nor immutable. Invariable, fixed, closed and exclusive concepts of identities should be deconstructed.[38]
  • Help students understand the violations of basic human rights that occurred during the war in order to challenge and enrich their own assumptions about human behavior, social and personal responsibility. Ideally, it should help them to develop into responsible, critical, engaged and active citizens who will be motivated and willing to take necessary actions. They would monitor for the warning signs of prejudice, discrimination and violence and act effectively and responsibly.[39]
  • Make responsible teaching and learning choices
  • When teaching about the wars in the 1990s, it is helpful to address three basic questions: 1. Why shall I teach about the topic? [40] What shall I teach about the topic?[41] 3. How shall I teach about the topic? (Adjust your teaching and learning approaches to the student group). In this section, we will address the third question.
  • Learn about the topic as much as you can before you start to teach, from different sources and different perspectives. Choose your sources of information carefully and make informed judgments about their quality and origin.
  • Ensure that materials and educational approaches used in the learning process are appropriate for the age of students.[42]
  • Choose your resources carefully and responsibly. Avoid sensationalist materials. Select images and texts that do not exploit students’ emotional vulnerability.[43]
  • Allocate appropriate time for instruction; do not rush through the content.[44]
  • Avoid activities that encourage only superficial (instead of deep) thinking and that can trivialize the subject-matter, such as dioramas, models, puzzles, word searches, scrambles, crossword puzzles and similar. Restrain from activities such as simulations, reenactments and role-plays because they can leave students with the wrong impression that they now know how people felt during the war.[45]
  • Do not justify, glorify or romanticize violence (especially when describing the experiences of soldiers, specific battles or war events).
  • Avoid emotional language; use terminology, vocabulary, names, and labels correctly, appropriately and consistently.[46]
  • Translate statistics into people. Each number, statistic, chart, or list depicts an individual. Show that individual people are behind statistics and emphasize the diversity of personal experiences within the wider historical narrative.[47]
  • Topics of war crimes, genocide and human rights violations must be taught with respect for each victim.[48] It is also important to be able to show respect and regret not only for harm done to one’s own group but for the harms done by one’s own group towards the members of other groups involved in a conflict.[49]
  • Avoid comparison of pain. Explain different reasons and circumstances that led to persecutions. While making these distinctions, respect all experiences of suffering. Avoid elevating the human suffering experienced in one context above the human suffering experienced in another, as well as nurturing the feeling of exclusive victimhood of only one group.[50]

GLOSSARY

GENOCIDE

The term “genocide” was coined by lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944., in an attempt to describe the destruction of a group of people on the basis of their purported race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. This new word, coined by the author, is made from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the Latin cide (killing). “Genocide” became an international legal term in 1948. Under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide adopted in 1948, genocide was defined in Article 2 as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”[51]

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

The Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (1945-6) was the first tribunal to prosecute “crimes against humanity”, and it laid the foundations of modern international criminal justice. Crimes against humanity are defined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as “Acts that are part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack: (a) Murder; (b) Extermination; (c) Enslavement; (d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population; (e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture; (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity; (h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender… or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; (i) Enforced disappearance of person; (j) The crime of apartheid; (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”[52]

WAR CRIMES

War crimes can be committed against a diversity of victims, either combatants or non-combatants. In international armed conflicts, victims include those specifically protected by the four 1949 Geneva Conventions, i.e. (1) the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field; (2) the wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea; (3) prisoners of war; and (4) civilian persons. War crimes are codified by the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and 1977 Additional Protocol I, article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; Article 2 and 3 of the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and Article 4 of the Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.[53]

ETHNIC CLEANSING

The Final Report of the Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 780 (1992) uses the term to describe “a purposeful policy by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”[54] Another definition is offered by P. Therr: “systematically organized, enforced removal, by violent means and usually permanently, of a group defined by ethnicity or nationality”.[55]

HUMAN RIGHTS

“Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status.  We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.“ (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations)[56]

REFERENCES

[1] With the term wars in Yugoslavia and its successor states, we are referring to all armed conflicts that took place in Yugoslavia and its successor states from 1990-2001.

[2] The term history curricula is used throughout the text when referring both to the teaching plans and programs and curricula.

[3] See for example articles referring to post-Yugoslav countries in: Koulouri, Clio in the Balkans: the politics of history education. 2002.

[4] Educational system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is characterized by the existence of three parallel ethnic educational systems based on three constituent ethnic groups (nations) and their languages (Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian). Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two entities: Republic of Srpska and Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina which is divided into 10 cantons. Serbian language curriculum is used in Republic of Srpska entity. Bosnian and Croatian language curricula are used in entity of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina depending on which ethnic community constitutes absolute majority in specific canton. Each of the 10 cantons in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina develops its own canton-specific curriculum. However, in some specific cases (like in cantons of Central Bosnia and Herzegovina and Neretva-Herzegovina where neither of the two ethnic communities constitutes an absolute majority) two curricula (Bosniak and Croatian) exist in parallel.

[5] Fond Otvoreno drustvo Bosna i Hercegovina, Obrazovanje u Bosni i Hercegovini: Cemu ucimo djecu? Analiza sadrzaja udzbenika nacionalne grupe predmeta, 2017.

[6]  Marić, Homeland war between Innovative History Education and One Truth, in (ed.) Bentrovato, Korostelina, Schulze History Can Bite, History Education in Divided and Postwar Societies, 2009.  and Koren What kind of history teaching do we have after 18 years in Croatia? in Dimou (ed.) Transition and the Politics of History Education in Southeastern Europe, 2006.

[7] More on Supplement Affair in Croatia: Dubljević, One past, several histories, Supplement for teaching recent history, 2007.

[8] Marić and Jovanović, Teachers on Teaching. How practitioners see the current state and future developments of history education in Western Balkans, 2017.

[9] This is the case in cantons in Bosnia and Herzegovina where neither Croats nor Bosniaks constitute an absolute majority. For more on this see for example: “Segregated Bosian schools reinforce ethnic divisions” https://iwpr.net/global-voices/segregated-bosnian-schools-reinforce-ethnic-division and “Divided schools in BH” UNICEF BH 2009. https://www.unicef.org/bih/Divided_schools_in_BHWEB_1.pdf

[10] This is the case in parts of Croatia that were peacefully reintegrated into Croatian legal and constitutional order (Danube-basin region).

[11] Adapted from COST, Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts , 2016.

[12] Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, Historical and memorial narratives in divided societies: history textbooks, memorials and museums , 2013.

[13] Pennsylvania department of education, Guidelines for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015.

[14] Marić and Jovanović, Teachers on Teaching. How practitioners see the current state and future developments of history education in Western Balkans g, 2017.

[15] Adapted from COST, Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[16] Adapted from Education for 21st Century, Recommendations Fostering human rights through deconstruction of stereotypes , 2016..

[17] Adapted from Education for 21st Century, Recommendations Fostering human rights through deconstruction of stereotypes, 2016.

[18]Adapted from U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Guidelines for teaching the Holocaust, 2013., Pennsylvania department of education, Guidelines for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015., UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017., COST, Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[19] U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for teaching about Holocaust, Pennsylvania department of education , Guidelines for Holocaust Teaching, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015., UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017. COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[20] Adapted from U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for Genocide Education

[21] Adapted from U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for teaching about Holocaust, for definitions look in the Glossary of the document.

[22] Adapted from U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust; UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[23] U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for Genocide Education, UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[24]  U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust , UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[25] U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Guidelines for teaching about the Holocaust, UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[26] UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[27] Adapted from Pennsylvania department of education , Guidelines for Holocaust Teaching, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015

[28] COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016., UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017., Pennsylvania department of education , Guidelines for Holocaust Teaching, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015

[29] Further reading: Stradling, Teaching 20th century European History, 211-256.

[30] COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[31] COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016., UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[32] Research has shown that most textbooks and curricula in the countries emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia tend to present the centuries-old history of the region predominantly as a history of conflicts among the warring parties from the 1990s wars. History of their mutual relations, however, was not only the history of conflicts – there were also long periods of peace and living together. Show your students these different experiences.

[33] History teaching can play a key role by providing a forum to confront difficult issues from the past that are controversial/contentious in the present. Making sense of the past requires taking into consideration both the ideas and beliefs of the people in the past and relevance of the past events for our contemporary attitudes and situations. COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[34] Learning and teaching about the difficult and sensitive topic raised by the study of the recent war often stirs strong emotions that may be difficult for both teachers and students to manage. UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[35] McCully , Smyth & O’Doherty, Exploring controversial issues in Northern Ireland, 1999.

and COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[36] McCully , Smyth & O’Doherty, Exploring controversial issues in Northern Ireland, 1999.

[37] Adapted from McCully , Smyth & O’Doherty, Exploring controversial issues in Northern Ireland, 1999. and COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[38] COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[39] UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[40] see General recommendations

[41] see sections I, II and III of  Teaching recommendations

[42] Pennsylvania department of education, Guidelines for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015., UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[43] Pennsylvania department of education, Guidelines for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015., UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.,  U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for teaching about Holocaust

[44] UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[45]U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for teaching about Holocaust, Pennsylvania department of education, Guidelines for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015., UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[46]U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for teaching about Holocaust, Pennsylvania department of education, Guidelines for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015.

[47] U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for teaching about Holocaust, Pennsylvania department of education, Guidelines for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015., UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.,  U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for teaching about Holocaust

[48] Adapted from Pennsylvania department of education, Guidelines for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015.

[49] COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[50] U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Guidelines for teaching about Holocaust, UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017., COST Recommendations for the History Teaching of Intergroup Conflicts, 2016.

[51] UNESCO Education about the Holocaust and preventing genocide, 2017.

[52] Ibid.

[53] Ibid.

[54] Ibid.

[55] Therr, The Dark Sides of Nation-States. Ethnic Cleansing in Modern Europe, 2014, 1.

[56] Pennsylvania department of education, Guidelines for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violation Education, 2015., 4.

 

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