Since the Interwar Period, history teaching is considered simultaneously an important source of international conflict and a means of overcoming it. Textbooks and history lessons undoubtedly play a vital role in the creation of mental maps and stereotypes. Other nations are constructed as enemies, rivals, partners, or even friends. This continues to be important even in the era of digital mass communication. Historical narratives transmitted in the authoritative context of educational systems possess a high level of political power – and their influence extends to millions of students without any realistic chance of avoiding it. It is therefore highly plausible that their perception of and their attitude towards other nations or groups will be affected in some way by the “lessons” learned in history classes, thus influencing their participation in processes of international decision-making (for the majority of them as voters, few of them as decision-makers). In other words: History teaching matters for issues of conflict and peacebuilding. By combining the specific approaches and competences of peace research and history didactics in an international conference we want to shed some light on some of today’s most relevant questions:
- How can we evaluate the impact of history teaching in conflicts and processes of peacebuilding compared to other factors?
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Quelle: http://histrhen.landesgeschichte.eu/2020/02/peaceteachingbonn-concept/
