1-3 July 2011 - Teacher Training Workshop in Subotica. The JHP keeps up its pace in Serbia, with its upcoming workshop in Subotica on 2-3 July! The workshop, funded under the IPA programme of the European Commission, will welcome 29 teachers and provide them with an opportunity to learn about the JHP methodologies and familiarise themselves with the workbooks. The participants will be assisted in creating their own model lessons based on the training, so as to consolidate their new skills for further use in class. As with all the JHP workshops, the training will aim at allowing history teachers to provide their pupils with participative, balanced and critical lessons, to foster tolerance and mutual understanding among the next generation of SEE citizens. The workshop, implemented in cooperation with the Croatian National Council in Subotica, will be guided by Goran Miloradovic, from the Association for Social History (Belgrade). Mr. Miloradovic, CDRSEE's long-standing partner and experienced trainer, will work jointly with Kresimir Erdelja, key member of the History Education Committee, and member of the CDRSEE's implementing partner (HUNP) in Zagreb.
June 2011 - JHP in Montenegro. Montenegro is one more country which will join the JHP and which will, in its own language, offer to its teachers and students a new manner of understanding history. Two prominent Montenegrin historians, Zvezdan Folic and Dragutin Papovic, are editors of the Montenegro language edition which will be printed by the end of the year. It is also our pleasure to collaborate with the Ministry of Education and the Institute for textbooks as a co publisher. Click here to read the whole article and see the video files.
30 May -1 June 2011: Set up meetings in Tirana, Albania. CDRSEE kick started the next phase of the Joint History Project (JHP) in Albania, with a series of meetings with partners and local authorities. More specifically, the CDRSEE met important actors in the education sector such as the Center for Democratic Education and the History Teaching Association in Albania, as well as the Educational Advisor of the Prime Minister and the Head of European Integration at the Ministry of Education. The aim of these meetings was to draw up an action plan that will ensure successful implementation of the JHP in an inclusive and cooperative manner. The JHP in Albania strongly benefits from the valuable contributions of its local representatives Mr. Helian Demiri, who is the Editor of the Albanian language version of the JHP Alternative Educational Materials and Dr. Valentina Duka from the Faculty of History and Philology at the University of Tirana.
The joint history project has been made possible through the kind financial assistance of the
following:
Dr Peter Mahringer Fonds,
The Royal Dutch Embassy in Athens,
Two anonymous donors,
Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture,
UK FCO,
Swiss Development Agency,
Cyprus Federation of America,
Winston Foundation for World Peace
The JHP is a long-term participative project that brings together historians, teachers, pedagogues, CSOs and students to work together towards the emergence of democratic and peaceful societies in the region, through multi-perspective history education.
The aim is to revise ethnocentric school history teaching by avoiding the production of stereotypes, by identifying attitudes that encourage conflict, by suggesting alternative teaching methods, and by promoting the idea of multiple interpretations of one event. History that instils values of academic rigour and critical analysis would serve as a solid basis for democracy, reconciliation and tolerance in Southeast Europe.
The JHP is divided into two sections, one overseen by the Academic Committee, first chaired by Professor Maria Todorova and currently chaired by Professor Fikret Adanir, and the other overseen by the History Education Committee, chaired by Professor Christina Koulouri, with Professor Halil Berktay and Dr. Dubravka Stojanovic as Vice-Chairs.
Share your opinion of the JHP with us, as has Mr. Boris Blažević from the Club Alpbach Croatia:
"The books of the Joint History Project remind me on my school time when I used to live in Berlin, especialy on history classes held by the famousdr. Krause. They give objective information, it is the reader who is invited to make his own opinions and put the puzzles together to create the big picture. Precised questions lead you tothink in more than one direction and in my opinion this method makes the books so special.Through this method of learning and teaching, the Joint History Project has a big impact on not only how we understand our history, but also how we perceive the world."
"...and you, parents, give your children an education, teach them to read and write. Do what you have to do to set up a school and find a teacher. It would be better to leave them poor and educated, rather than rich and illiterate."
Kosmas the Aitolian (1714-1779) as quoted in Workbook 1 - The Ottoman Empire.
