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sion about historical selection, perspectives and learning

outcomes there also emerged a unique project of support,

training and eventually collaborative writing of freely avail-

able and translated educational resources, written by and

for history teachers and about history which is multilay-

ered and has multiple perspectives, and thus is not owned

by one group of people.

From the very beginning of the organization its found-

ing members, with a lot of support and guidance from

the Council of Europe and through common projects

in EUROCLIO, have been able to bring history teachers

in many more countries together to help them establish

history teachers’ associations. But this was not simply a

process of legal registration and networking. The idea that

teachers should not only be in the classroom to deliver the

curriculum and prepare students for their exams, but that

they may also be an important part of active civil society

and even an independent community of professionals

who could take charge of their subject, was not common.

Through our common projects, history teachers – as indi-

viduals and collectives – have been able to increase their

capacity to democratically promote their beloved subject,

but also to be critical against its political abuse. Being

able to easily access and work together across borders

has helped to provide legitimacy and access to expertise

when needed, and working together on the production of

joint educational resources has demonstrated the reality

that history does not stop at the border and that a lot of

it shared.

One of the best examples here is the association called

EUROCLIO HIP BiH. HIP stands for Historia, Istorija and

Povijest – words which mean ‘history’ in Bosnian, Serbian

and Croatian, the three languages that come together in

Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). This association was established

during early EUROCLIO activities in 2004, but it took

another year for this enthusiastic and multicultural group

of history educators to have their association legally regis-

tered – such a procedure did not yet exist in the country

just 10 years after the war. Ten years after being estab-

lished, having constructively participated in many different

projects and having reached out to over half of the coun-

try’s history teachers in a positive way, the association is

now working together on the most difficult part – recent

history. Once more we see genuine intercultural dialogue

– not to establish a definite version of history as ‘truth’, but

to allow students to understand how their parents’ genera-

tion saw their respective ‘other’ through the media before

the war, and how that influenced the decisions that people

made once the spark was lit. This is not dialogue for the

sake of dialogue, but critical thinking which promotes and

sustains a mindset for dialogue.

Based on over 20 years of field work, in 2014 the dele-

gates of EUROCLIO’s member associations unanimously

approved EUROCLIO’s Manifesto on High Quality History,

Heritage and Citizenship Education. This is becom-

ing a guiding document. Of course there are no fixed

commandments; rather, there are carefully put together

recommendations for an innovative and responsible

approach to the learning and teaching of history – one

of the most politicized and politicizing subjects taught in

schools worldwide.

From 2015 onwards, EUROCLIO seeks to work more

closely together with civil society partners all over the world,

including Facing History and Ourselves, the International

History Non-Governmental Organization Forum, the Georg

Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research and

the Network of Concerned Historians.

In the end, we seek to welcome all history teachers in

the world to join our family, so that together they may

find ways to overcome differences. Ultimately the goal is

to achieve a sustainable peace. What is needed for this is

a change in what society thinks matters in history. Not

(only) one long story of important white males making

critical political and military decisions, but (also) all the

perspectives that are in the shadows, and new themes

which help students to understand both how the complex

world around them came to be, and how history might

help them to creatively and sustainably address the chal-

lenges to build a better future. How? History starts with a

question which sparks an investigation into sources, which

deliver evidence for arguments. In the case of intercultural

dialogue, what we want to know is how we can best live

together in diversity. Looking into history with this ques-

tion in mind, we find countless episodes in our shared

human past where this was challenging and where these

challenges were resolved. In this way, history is no longer

the monster under our bed, but rather a useful tool for

progress – and this is the key that history teachers hold.

EUROCLIO has worked closely with member associations to organize more

than 40 international conferences and over 90 national and regional training

and development courses

Image: EUROCLIO

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