Teachers On Teaching: How Practitioners See The Current State And Future Developments In History Education Across The Western Balkans

Résumé 0

Following many studies that looked into history curricula and history textbooks in the Western Balkans region, what actually happens in the classroom is mostly left unexamined. For example, it is unknown how teachers approach curricular expectations dictated by the state bodies; in which ways they use, and would like to change, the teaching materials prescribed by the educational authorities; how different elements of their societal context determine the ways they deal with difficult topics in their classroom; whether the history teaching paradigm has shifted from lecture-dominant to learner-oriented and how pedagogy has shifted from one narrative transmission to narrative analysis. Furthermore, given the fact that in the Western Balkan region there have been many international interventions in the field of history teaching, what has been the effect? To try to outline the answers to these questions, together with history teaching experts and practitioners from the region, we developed a large-scale mixed-method study looking into needs of history teachers. The principal technique of the data collection through an online survey was complemented with focus groups of a selection of history teachers, stocktaking sessions and experts interviews in each country. A total of 793 teachers participated in the survey; around 400 teachers participated in the stocktaking sessions; 40 teachers in focus groups and 14 history education experts completed expert interviews. History teachers from Albania (66), Bosnia and Herzegovina (210), Kosovo* (67), FYR Macedonia (113), Montenegro (115) and Serbia (222) gave their assessment of the current state and the needs in history teaching in their country through the survey specifically designed for this purpose. Through the combination of the aforementioned quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection we set out to explore several issues. Firstly, we aimed to grasp teachers’ perceptions of their participation in, and level of, democracy in schools and educational systems. Secondly, we wanted to grasp their experiences of employment and professional development procedures. Thirdly, we wanted to explore if the prevailing teaching practices correspond with policy expectations of learner oriented and competence based teaching that would consequently foster critical engagement with counter narratives and controversies. In the end, we aimed to explore if teachers’ individual characteristics, their self-perception in the context of schools, educational systems and society, and their understanding of history didactics influenced their practice of teaching controversies. The same topics were explored in more depth by focus groups consisting of history teachers and by history teaching experts that gave their view of the situation and specifics of the context in all six countries. Additionally, we aimed to test the avoider-risk taker continuum model of teacher’s roles when facing controversial topics. We looked into several factors determining whether history teachers will take a role of the avoider, container or the risk taker in approaching the contested topics. Moreover, we examined how certain individual characteristics (e.g. religious adherence and level of education) and school characteristics (e.g. urban/rural and mono-cultural/multi-cultural environment) affected the teachers’ position on the continuum. Understanding teachers’ views and practices can help us understand how teaching controversial topics in a way that dismantles biased and one-sided interpretations can be fostered. This contribution can help improve history teaching in the Western Balkans, but also expand our knowledge of the processes of dealing with troubled pasts in post-conflict societies around the world.