The project ‘Transnational Approaches and Multi-Perspective Methods in History Education’ investigates transnational, multi-perspective approaches to European history and aims at fostering history learning in Europe by comparing different views of the shared experience of European development and events. The project will promote transnational presentations of history that include multiple identity constructs or indeed make them possible for the first time. The European Union is a historical ‘transnational’ idea. The project will develop best-practice models and make them available for history teaching in schools and adult education so as to open up a multi-perspective approach to complex historical events. The aim is to work towards a narrative of our common European history that retains unified and differing memories but allows a re-interpretation in particular of the ‘winner/loser’ dichotomies, given the central role of this and the perpetrator/victim perspective in history teaching. There is an increasing tendency, not only in Europe, to return to nationalistic ideas, which have an impact on democratic principles, attitudes to participation and integration, anti-discrimination and antisemitism. The project looks at how sociopolitical events in European history are presented from different national perspectives but also from the perspective of ethnic minorities and investigates new multidimensional forms of communication. But how can history be interpreted in a transnational network like the European Union? How can the stories of minorities, persons with a migration or refugee background and with limited potential for participation, be incorporated into a European narrative? How can an understanding for a transnational view of history be fostered in persons who are focused on nationalistic narratives and images? As we believe that an open approach to history is a better reflection of the context of many people in Europe, we would like to develop academic methods, formal, non-formal and informal approaches to education and artistic expression into a diverse portfolio of teaching and learning materials for adult education, education theory, initial and advanced teacher training and the teaching of art and culture. We will study historical narratives by the majority society, for example in schoolbooks, and compare them with the narratives of eyewitnesses from different nationalities, ethnic minorities or marginalised groups in society. As history is conveyed not only through written and oral narratives but also through pictures and other visual media, the focus is on visual forms of communication – a documentary play that will enrich the theatre world of Timisoara, an exhibition in Konavle and a video documentary. All best-practice examples, detailed descriptions of all methods and all other products of the strategic partnership will be clearly described and available on the digital method platform. The project language is English. The project partners come from Austria (2), Germany, Belgium, Romania, Sweden, Poland and Croatia. The partner organizations are: University of Klagenfurt, AT (coordination) Research Centre for the History of Minorities, AT Sprachendienst Konstanz, DE EU WAREHOUSE, BE Asociatia Solidart, RO Norrköpings Stadsmuseum, SE Instytut Tolerancji w Łódźi, PL Museums and Galleries of Konavle, HR
We assumed that other educational and cultural institutions in Europe are also increasingly working with learners whose transnational life contexts correspond to an open form of history consideration that we do not find in standard history textbooks. Our aim was to develop a portfolio of learning experiences and teaching guides for adult educators, teacher trainers and arts and culture mediators that can meet these new demands. First, we had to test suitable methods ourselves and then share them with other institutions in Europe. The resulting portfolio of methods should enable learners and teachers to understand biographical narratives in their historical and social context and to integrate them into the teaching of history. Creative approaches such as editing video clips, curating an exhibition and processing in the form of a theatre performance should deepen the engagement with the narratives. The transnational comparison of textbooks also helps to put national narratives into perspective. It was also important for us to learn from the contemporary witnesses of all partner countries about their contribution to European history.
Seven cultural and educational institutions from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Poland and Sweden worked on the project "Transnational History" with the aim of developing a common understanding of "transnational history" and trying out methods for looking at historical events from different perspectives. For the EU and its member countries are heterogeneous. They gather autochthonous ethnic minorities and majorities as well as people who have migrated or had to flee. Educational and cultural institutions therefore work with learning groups whose experiences go far beyond national historical narratives, because their biographies anchor them in transnational spaces. To do justice to this, we believe that "European history" must always be renegotiated. It should take into account different national perspectives, but also include the perspectives of minorities and migrants within nations. Starting from biographical narratives, we interwove scientific approaches with artistic forms of expression and tested a range of methods, which we describe and make publicly available on an online platform for imitation.