Activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Cyprus, September, 2008

On the 27th of September in Nicosia, in the Buffer Zone, was held Teacher's training seminar fotr the History teachers of Cyprus under the title“ Intercultural dialogue and Hitstory Teaching“. Seminar was organised by EUROCLIO (European Association of the History Educators) in cooperation with 8 associations and syndicates of the history educators of the Greek and Turkish Cypriots, supported by UN Action for Cooperation and Trust. Seminar was second in the row of three planned seminars for 2008. on Cyprus, and at the same time preparation for the great, international 16th Annual Conference of the EUROCLIO „Taking the Perspective of the Others: Intercultural Dialogue and History Teaching)“ planned for April 2009.

Seminar, that gathered both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, was based on the topics of intercultural dialogue and diversity, respect, tolerance and social justice, and it was aimed, beside the professional improvement, to explore possibilities for the inter communal and interethnic cooperation and dialogue on Cyprus. As a part of the seminar there were organised three parallel active workshops. Turkish Cypriot Tahir Gökçebel and Greek Cypriot PAvlos Pavlou together made a workshop “How to teach sensitive issues from the Cypriot History. Case 1571.”, where they touched different perspectives of the same event by Turkish and Greek historians. By the moderator’s statement workshop had to show and explore the possibilities of establishing future cooperation and dialogue of the history educators on the divided Cyprus.

Second workshop titled ”How to teach history in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. Common approach for the different perspectives” was given by Melisa Forić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) i Emina Živković (Serbia). Through this workshop trainers presented the joint project of the history teachers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, “History in Action. Preparing for the Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia” which lasted five years, and resulted with publishing alternative teaching material for the history teaching on everyday life in Yugoslavia 1945-1990, which connects all countries included in the project.

Third workshop was made by Jelka Raspotnik (Slovenia) and Denis Detling (Croatia). Workshop “Concentration Camps after the war”, which was one of the workshops presented in the material of the project History in Action. Preparing for the Future of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, where they touched the issues if the collective guilt and persecution the Germans after 2.nd World War in Yugoslavia. Last two workshops were the example for the cooperation in the post conflict societies on the issues of the common history topics. Workshop leaders exchange some of their experiences and presented some ideas for the possible cooperation for the Turkish and Greek Cypriots, which seems very possible without any doubt. In that favour speaks the fact that division on the ethnic groups during the workshops by the interpreters, for the easier performance of the workshop, caused dissatisfaction on both sides, and the will for the joint work was present all the time. After this example, what else we can say about the success of the seminar and about future coopration on Cyprus.

Denis Detling, prof.

  Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Country, Every Day Life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia 1945-1990. Yugoslavia between East and West. Modern regional history in 20 active lessons

In the last months the EUROCLIO/MATRA 2005-2008 project History in Action – Planning for the Future, a Regional Approach for the Learning and Teaching of History in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia has promoted its publication: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Country, Every Day Life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia 1945-1990.Yugoslavia between East and West in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. The book is a Teacher Resource Book, applicable in Secondary History Education in the countries involved.

Last year a common German/French history textbook was actively promoted by German and French politicians and diplomats. It was big news: two once sworn enemies were able to publish a history textbook, applicable in the upper secondary educational systems in both countries. It had also been a big educational challenge, as the French system is centralised, and the German system is totally decentralised. Therefore this book is supposed to cover not less than 17 different history curricula. A major effort and the results were welcomed as a major success. And there is more: the authors even claim that their book could also be considered as a foundation stone for a future common European school history textbook. However the last war between these former enemies was already more than 60 years ago, and can we really talk about a common, transnational textbook? Is the book L’Histoire/Geschichte the result of team work, and collaborative writing? What are the criteria for such production?

At the time the German/French history textbook was promoted, a younger generation of history educators and historians in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia were already for some time working on creative common teaching materials, which would be applicable in the history classes in their respective countries. Today the results of their efforts is available in the three local languages, and I would like to explore in how far this publication Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Country, Every Day Life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia 1945-1990.Yugoslavia between East and West qualifies as transnational history publication and also to be considered as a foundation stone for a future common European school history resources development.

The authors of this book worked under the Umbrella of EUROCLIO, the European History Educators Organisation. EUROCLIO views history as an important school subject for the political and civic development of young people. It is the most structured channel for developing historical awareness of societies. EUROCLIO aims supporting the development of History and Citizenship Education by promoting collaborative values, critical awareness, mutual respect, peace, stability and democracy. Its work has 3 target areas: Life Long Learning of the professional group encouraging innovation, Intercultural Dialogue through co-operation, communication and networking and Participatory Governance, creating and supporting independent professional organisations.

Modern history education aims on active learning and the development of competencies such as critical thinking, gathering and processing information, and communicating and cooperating. In this manner the organisation contributes to building well informed and able citizens. In the 15 years of its existence, EUROCLIO has been working with European history educators to implement these goals in every day school history practice. Members of the Organisation are 63 organisations from 46, mostly European countries, linking 40.000 history educators. The elected International Board has members from, Greece, Iceland, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Ukraine and United Kingdom. The EUROCLIO Advisory Board counts among its members internationally well known historians and politicians. EUROCLIO has its headquarters in The Hague, The Netherlands.

A group of academic historians and history educators from Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia showed, late 2003 in Sarajevo, Bosnia, prudent interest to start working together. Despite the fact that the recent wars were less than 10 years ago, that there were still considerable frictions in the region, and that they all had first hand experiences related to these recent conflicts, they were thinking about the possibility of a common publication for school history. In 2004 they embarked on an ambitious project to produce a common Teacher Resource Book for the three countries The group prepared a series of 20 active lessons related to the history of Yugoslavia between 1945 and 1990. A narrative of a vanished country that is still part of the culture of the present school students, as their parents, grandparents and teachers all tell stories about that country, in which they once lived.

The group was required to follow the EUROCLIO method, which requires the participants to observe rules such as to be aware that history is based on facts and sources as evidence but that a story is always an interpretation. That the profession has to strive for truth and objectivity, however there is not one single truth as the past is multi-perspective and complex. And that history is not only high politics but also the story of ordinary people, including women and members of minority communities.

Modern school history, according the EUROCLIO method, has also a strong emphasis on innovative methodology and pedagogy. In order to achieve cross border cooperation EUROCLIO requires of the teams trust, common ownership and a shared understanding, together respecting procedural values such as dignity, toleration, and a respect for reasoning. With such approach the educational materials are based on shared thinking and collaborative writing.

Of course the project encountered quite a number of difficult challenges: what about the language and a title for the book; what about the proportion of politics or the use of the name Yugoslavia; how to address sensitive issues like crimes against humanity or Kosovo; how to design questions which enhance higher order thinking and finding a relevant format for the book or how to develop engaging assignments for students and to how to overcome different temperaments of the people involved? With this book you see the fruit of careful thinking, negotiation and rethinking and the long searches for those materials, which were considered appropriate to teach topics such as We belong to Tito, Tito belongs to Us; We or Me or about the Position of Women in Yugoslavia.

With the publication Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Country, Every Day Life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia 1945-1990.Yugoslavia between East and West, EUROCLIO would like to support the national and regional discourse about the aims, role and opportunities for the subject school history in a modern global society and to give teachers in the region tangible ideas how to teach about a recent past, with its controversies and sensitivities. The publication would like to motivate students and to show that understanding their regional history helps to understand the world they live in. And also to support them with those competences, which will enable them to act as active and responsible citizens. And last but not least EUROCLIO hopes to demonstrate with this book that trans-border and trans-national history publications can modify the traditional approach to school history, where national suffering and achievements are bloated, and poor behaviour is disregarded. This teacher resource book wants to present the recent past of Yugoslavia for young people and their teachers, which was divers, multidimensional, complex, interesting and multi-perspective. Just like ordinary life.

Joke van der Leeuw-Roord, EUROCLIO Executive Director

  Dear Ambassador Karel Vosskueler, EUROCLIO Board, Colleagues and Friends.

Dear Ambassador Karel Vosskueler, EUROCLIO Board, Colleagues and Friends.

Yesterday, when we made our trip to Herzegovina I noticed a very attractive country site and beautiful cultural heritage. However there was no chance to avoid the fact that it was only recently a war zone: all the sites we visited were brand new.

In my talks I had with several of you during our trip I noticed anger, disappointment and indignation about the way national and international authorities handled the after war and present (political) situation in the region. All these feelings were about others: people not doing things they ought or were supposed to do, or doing them in the wrong way.

It made me more than ever aware why, as Dutch Ambassador Karel Vosskuhler put it, our project was such an exceptional project. Here we had a group op history and history education professionals who independently, on their own as it was said today, decided to do something about issues related to history education, where they were dissatisfied with in their respective countries.

The group members were unhappy about the quality of history education in their respective countries, both on the level of content as on the level of methodology. The history curricula required intense knowledge of facts, especially related to political history, and offered little insight in the history of everyday life of ordinary people. And it also almost skipped addressing issues related to about contemporary history. But there was more, also the methods of teaching were unsatisfactory. The classroom approach was generally instilling students with knowledge through ex cathedra teaching, without any opportunities to reflect and think about multiple stories and interpretations. However this group of people was also unhappy about the lost communication and cooperation after the wars in the region. And last but not least they also noticed that their professional voice was hardly heard and that educational authorities decided on everything without contacting or consulting the people working in the field.

The last days the seminar participants have reflected in how far this five year long cooperation has been able to satisfy the expectations of the project. All agreed that important steps are made towards the national and international networking and cooperation. In two countries, Bosnia and Croatia, History Educators' Associations were established. And for Bosnia, contrary to the general tendency, observed by Mr Vosskuhler, this Association was, after a lot of difficulties, established on a State, and therefore on a national non segregated basis. The already existing Serbian Association has grown during this period, and has improved its democratic procedures. The regional network has been established and is growing. People meet, work together but also have found opportunities to meet in their free time and even celebrated holidays together.

The influence of the project on History Teaching in the region is generally acknowledged. The new ideas are slowly but clearly receiving more and more acceptation in history textbooks and teacher training.

And certainly the project contributed to the improvement of individual professional capacities. In the reviews colleagues mentioned amongst others the capacity to speak in public, to act as a trainer, to work in groups, to overcome stereotyping, to speak English and have acquired a variety of ICT skills.

It would be too unrealistic to say that the projects only gave positive achievements and benefits.The lasting challenges and negative issues have also been addressed during this seminar. There was a general disappointment about the lack of support and acceptation of the results by national authorities, although there are differences between and even within the respective countries.

The participants of the project would have liked to have reached out to more colleagues. They estimated to have reached only 10% of the professional history educators. However as this mean at least 500 colleagues in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, I certainly think this is still a respectable outreach. The participants expressed also the aspiration to have been able to involve more countries in the region.

And perhaps the most important deficiency was the observation that the project only has begun to address the controversial and sensitive issues and the white spots in the history of the region.

In the last session, when we discussed the personal, Associations, Countries and Regional benefits, the session monitors captured the results of the project very well: the seminar illustrated that the achievements, the benefits and the challenges are very similar for all three Associations. And that demonstrated the similarity in situation for history education and civic society in these three countries and probably the region.

I dare to say that if we had these presentations with including other, let say Western European Countries, that we might have come to rather similar conclusions. Many of what happens here in the Balkans is not so much different from what happens elsewhere in Europe. And that of course is precisely the raison d’étre for EUROCLIO: a common effort facing the many challenges for history education.

The main conclusion of these days is, however, that the project has started a very important process, and that much is already achieved. However we are only half way. All seminar participants have stressed whole heartedly the willingness to continue the cooperation. But they are convinced that they cannot do that without help from others.

We are very happy that for the last five years we had such support. For the first two years the Danish Foreign Ministry helped us to create the fundaments of this cooperative project. And the Dutch Ministry of Foreign affairs enabled us to produce the book Ordinary People in an Extra Ordinary Country, Yugoslavia between East and West, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia between 1945 and 1990 and provided us opportunities to disseminate it on a national, regional and international level.

However we should not forget the special role of HOTEL SARAJ in Sarajevo. The place, which brought us together in the very early days of the project. And, which throughout the project supported us with its attentive and supportive staff. And they did not only give us moral and physical support, we also received hard financial support as they always gave us the very attractive prices, we once negotiated in the summer of 2003.

We have decided to hand out diplomas to all participants. We have chosen a special wording for these diplomas to show our appreciation.

We refer to the difficult circumstances, you encountered through the lack of understanding of people in the region that this project really had potential.

We speak about your civic courage, as you had concern about losing your jobs and about the (negative) reactions from other colleagues, politicians and media.

We recognize your professionalism, as you demonstrated a strong sense of responsibility towards upgrading the quality of the profession to “European standards” and the willingness to tackle the role of history in the region.

And finally we identify your innovative and inquisitive mind as you were open for new ideas and willing to learn. As it was said today, you were determined to demonstrate that Life Long Learning is something normal and even attractive for people in the (history) teaching profession.

I congratulate all project colleagues from Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia an Serbia with the very good results of their work but even more with their open and courageous attitude to break with the general feeling in the region that nothing can be done.

You did it!

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 23 August, 2008. Joke van der Leeuw-Roord, Executive Director EUROCLIO

  Seminar, Bihać, 27.-28. juni 2008.

Piše: Bahrudin Beširević

Seminar za nastavnike historije zajednički organizovan od strane Misije OSCE-a u BiH i Vijeća Evrope je održan 27. i 28. juna 2008. godine u Bihaću. Na seminaru je predstavljen Priručnik za nastavnike historije i prateće radionice.

Učešće na seminaru je uzelo 60 nastavnika i profesora.

Na ovom seminaru je ispred Udruženja EUROCLIO HIP BiH učestvovao Bahrudin Beširević, profesor u Srednjoškolskom centru u Cazinu. Tom prilikom predstavljen je nastavni materijal „Obični ljudi u neobičnoj zemlji“, „Jugoslavija između istoka i zapada“, „Svakodnevni život u Bosni i Hercegovini, Hrvatskoj i Srbiji 1945-1990.“

Udruženje EUROCLIO HIP BiH se zahvaljuje Misiji OSCE-a u BiH i Vijeću Evrope na ukazanoj prilici za promociju navedenog Euroclio priručnika i čestita na uspješno organizovanom seminaru i spremnosti za dalju saradnju.

  Kozara, hotel Monument, 23 - 25. juni 2008.

U okviru seminara/edukacije nastavnika za nastavni predmet in Action - Preparing for the Future.  Common Approaches for BiH, Croatia and Serbia"  koji je finansijksi podržan od strane Ministarstva spoljnih poslova Kraljevine Holandije.  Glavni akcenat prezentacije je bio stavljen na predstavljanje knjige Obični ljudi u neobičnoj zemlji.  Jugoslavija između Istoka i Zapada.  Svakodevni život u Bosni i Hercegovini, Hrvatskoj i Srbiji 1945 - 1990.   Tom prilikom je učesnicima seminara, mahom su to bili profesori istorije, podjeljeno oko 40 knjiga nastalih u projektu.

Ispred Udruženja Euroclio – HIP BiH seminaru je prisustvovala Bojana Dujković – Blagojević.

  Jajce, 20-22. juni 2008.

Organizacija CDRSEE - Center for Democratisation and Reconciliation iz Soluna je oganizovala treninge za nastavnike istorije iz BiH.  Jedan od ciljeva treninga je bio i predstavljanje dodatnog nastavnog materijala, koji je izdala ova oranizacija.  Više informacija na www.cdrsee.org

Predstavnici Udruženje nastavnika istorije EUROCLIO - HIP, Bojana Dujković - Blagojević i Bahrudin Beširević su bili pristuni na ovom seminaru, i zahvaljujući dobrim odnosima sa organizatorima, koji su nam u programu seminara dali prostor od jednog sata, uspješno predstavili organizaciju, projekat "History in Action - Prepariing for the Future.  Common Approaches for BiH, Croatia and Serbia"  koji je finansijksi podržan od strane Ministarstva spoljnih poslova Kraljevine Holandije.  Glavni akcenat prezentacije je bio stavljen na predstavljanje knjige Obični ljudi u neobičnoij zemlji.  Jugoslavija između Istoka i Zapada.  Svakodevni život u Bosni i Hercegovini, Hrvatskoj i Srbiji 1945 - 1990.

Zapisnik sačinila: Bojana Dujković - Blagojević.

  REPORT ON PROMOTION OF THE ADDITIONAL TEACHING MATERIAL „ORDINARY PEOPLE IN EXTRAORDINARY COUNTRY- YUGOSLAVIA BETWEEN EAST AND WEST. EVERYDAY LIFE IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, CROATIA AND SERBIA 1945-1990“ AND TEACHER TRAINING SEMINAR FOR THE HISTORY EDUCATORS, Mostar , 16 -18 May 2008.

Association of the history teachers and proffessors of Bosnia and Herzegovina EUROCLIO-HIP BiH, for the first timeorganized seminar for the history teachers and professors in the area of Herzegovina. Seminar and teacher training was organized in the frame of the project History in action-Preparing for the future, of the EUROCLIO MATRA project and it was aimed for promotion of the additional teaching material – book “ Ordinary people in extraordinary country”. Seminar took the place in Mostar from 16-18 May, in Hotel Ero. Seminar attended around 40-history teachers, mostly from Herzegovina and other places of Bosnia and Herzegovina, members of the association.

Seminar was opened with a welcome speech of the president of the Association Edina Radušić, after which the participants could know more about EUROCLO organisation and the activities of EUROCLIO-HIP BiH from the presentation of Edin Veladžić. Project coordinator Melisa Forić gave short presentation of the project „ History in action- Preparing for the future“ and on the book „Ordinary people in extraordinary country”.

Parallel workshops from the workshop collection are given by Marija Naletilić and by the guest from Serbia Zvezdana Petrovic, during the morning and afternoon session. Workshops „Od analfabetskih tečajeva do kompjutera“ and „Ko ima dolare kupa se u moru, a ko nema doma u lavoru “ participants found very interesting especially because they are dealing with the issues from the everyday life which are very poorly presented in the actuall history textbooks in B&H. Both workshops were marked with the highest grade in the evaluation questionaire.

Last session was aimed for the reflections on the material and seminar as well as to some discussions on the issues that the teachers meet in their teaching process. There were a lot of questions and interesting remarks. Seminar had a great inspiring and positive cheerful atmosphere. Participants were very positive towards it and found seminar very usefully especially because these kinds of the trainings and events for the area of Herzegovina are very rare. Seminar received average grade of 4.6 in the evaluation questionnaire.

  REPORT ON PROMOTION OF THE ADDITIONAL TEACHING MATERIAL „ORDINARY PEOPLE IN EXTRAORDINARY COUNTRY- YUGOSLAVIA BETWEEN EAST AND WEST. EVERYDAY LIFE IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, CROATIA AND SERBIA 1945-1990“ AND TEACHER TRAINING SEMINAR OF THE EUROPEUM PROJECT „ CONNECTING EUROPE TROUGH HISTORY“ - SEMINAR IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA Doboj, 11 and 12 april 2008.

In the frame of the project History in action-Preparing for the future, of the EUROCLIO MATRA project and of the project EUROPEUM 2008, “Connecting Europe through history”, EUROCLIO-HIP BiH (Association of the history teachers and proffessors of Bosnia and Herzegovina) organized seminar for the history teachers and professors. The event took place in Doboj on April 12 of the 2008. in hotel Integra Doboj (the programme is attached-1-pg.4). There were present 50-history teachers all around Bosnia and Herzegovina, members of the association, as well as the representatives of the Pedagogical Institute of Republic of Srpska , representative of the OSCE education department of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the guests, colleagues from the Serbian association of the history educators EUROCLIO-UDI ( participants list).

Seminar was opened with a welcome speech of the Bojana Dujković-Blagojević, project coordinator who also gave the presentation of the project and a presentation of the book that was promoted for the first time in this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since the most of the participants first time on the seminar organized by the EUROCLIO-HIP BiH, they could hear something more about Association itself and about past, present and some future activities in the presentation given by Edin Veladzic, board member.

Parallel workshops on the material were given by Bahrudin Beširević and Milija Marjanović, two of the textbook authors, during the morning and afternoon session, so all the participants could attend them. Workshop 1 „Mi ili ja (We or Me)“ by Bahrudin Beširević about the issues of collective identity and individualism of the ordinary people in Yugoslavia, many of the participants found very interesting for the long debate and presenting different perspectives. And workshop 2 „Socijalizam bez ljudskog lika “ (Socialism without human face) by Milija Marjanović, reflecting on the crisis and especcially sensitive issues of the last decades of Yugoslavia provoked some more burning issues. Both workshops were marked with the highest grade in the evaluation questionaire.

Before the lunch one session was dedicated to the the EUROPAEUM project, which has been presented by the Melisa Foric, secretary of the Association. The participants are introduced to the aims and goals of the project, with a future planned activities and a topic of the 2008. "Human rights in Europe? -Tolerance, Democracy, Citizenship, Critical thinking and Multiperspectivity as European Values".

For this event we provided key note speaker prof. Samojko Cvijanovic, who teaches History and Democracy and civic education in the Medical School of Doboj to make an lecture. He made a lecture on the topic “Democracy and human rights in the history education of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. He presented general topics included into the curricula, and make a comparisment in the approach of these topics for the European and National level. He prepared an overview of the development of the democracy and human rights trough history. This overview was presented very originally in the second part of the seminar by the students of the Medical school of Doboj (Vera Gojkovic, Mirjana Babic, Igor Grabovac, Mladen Medan, Natasa Peric, Marko Lukic). They prepared several small sketch- plays on the different issues like Constitution of Athens, Magna Charta Libertatum, Bill of rights, Universal declaration of human rights, UN declaration etc. from the European history, as well as the examples from the national history Declaration of the Banus Kulinus, Law of the emperor Dusan, Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina etc. They explained that this is the usual method that they use in the classroom for learning about these and similar topics and showed how the lack of the content about the human rights in the history textbooks can be exceeded with a original and active methods of working with the students. In the end lecture was accompanied with a good discussion about the presented issues and it was great opportunity for the participants to share some of their experiences and views on these issues, especially regarding the practice. Also the participants gave their comments on the Questionnaire „ Human rights in History “, that some of them filled earlier and large number filled on the seminar.

Last session was aimed for the reflections on the material and seminar as well as to some discussions on the issues that the teachers meet in their teaching process. There were a lot of questions and interesting remarks specially given by the representative of the Pedagogical Institute of Republic of Srspka, as well as from the representative of the OSCE. Seminar had a great inspiring and positive cheerful atmosphere, and received average grade of 4.8 in the evaluation questionnaire.

  EUROCLIO ANNUAL CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION REPORT, Bristol, March 31st -April 5th 2008

Elma Hašimbegović

The Fifteenth Annual Conference of Euroclio, entitled „The Past in the Present: Exploring Identity, Diversity and Values Through History Teaching“, was this year held in Bristol (England) from March 31st until April 5th. The participants from Euroclio member countries were hosted by University of the West of England where the major part of the conference program was held.

In this working part variety of lectures and workshops were offered varying in quality and usefulness. It was interesting to find out more on education and new history curriculum in England as well as about some new history projects going on there. Quality of the lectures depended on the lecturers’ ability to keep the attention of the audience. The lecture on history education in conflict situation: the case of Israelis and Palestinians, given by professor Eyal Navah, was particularly inspiring.

However, the workshops were more interesting part of the working sessions because the participants could more actively get involved in different activities. Chance to run workshops was given to students of the University of West of England which is, in my opinion, very useful for them as the future educators, and including them in the program is to be greeted.

School visits, as a regular part of the annual conferences, is of great importance for getting better insight of the education system of the host country. I visited an elementary school in one of the suburbs of Bristol and met a school director and some of the students there. Unfortunately, we had no chance to see the history lesson nor any other lesson because it was not working day for the school (?). Anyway, we had a nice conversation with some students which helped us to get more information on their school activities, hobbies, etc.

The fourth day of the conference was dedicated to on-site learning at the National Trust houses in Montacute and Barrington Court. We spent a nice day there, although the selection of the Barrington court (with its gorgeous gardens) for on-site learning (for history education) is not very clear.

The greatest compliments go to Mr. Dean Smart and his assistants in organizing the conference, especially for a dinner he organized at the University which helped us to feel a taste of England. However, there were some flaws of the conference which were nothing to do with the hospitality and efforts of the organizers but were due to organizing the conference in expensive places such England for sure is. Not full service in restaurants and the accommodation (rooms were too narrow and hotel restaurant was not enough for all guests) were not satisfactory.

Also, the idea of having all facilities on one place is much more plausible, i.e. to have conference program and accommodation with meals not far from each other. Experience from some other conferences (Malta, for example) goes in favor of this idea. One of the shortcomings was that conference program and hotel were on two different distant places and it was quite exhausting for participants to stay more than 12 hours (working activities plus lunch and dinner) in the building of the University. This is just an observation to help Euroclio in future planning of such events.

  Report on the General assembly of the Association of the history teachers and professors EUROCLIO – HIP BiH & Promotion of the additional teaching material and teacher training seminar „Ordinary People in the Extraordionary country“, Sarajevo, 1 and 2 February 2008

From the 1st to 3rd of February in Sarajevo was organized seminar for history teachers and professors of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the frame of the “project History in action-Preparing for the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia” with a General assembly of the EUROCLIO-HIP B&H- Association of the history teachers and professors of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the realization of the project mutually participated historians from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, working trough their professional associations, with a scientific and financial support of the European Association of History teachers EUROCLIO and donors of the Dutch and Danish government. Teacher training was also planned as a first promotion of the project and a book- additional teaching material titled “„OBIČNI LJUDI U NEOBIČNOJ ZEMLJI, Jugoslavija između istoka i zapada; Svakodnevni život u Bosni i Hercegovini, Hrvatskoj i Srbiji 1945.-1990.“ (Ordinary people in Extraordinary Country. Yugoslavia between East and West. Everyday life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia 1945-1990.”. Seminar attended about 80 participants all over Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the guests from Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Netherlands.

The event is opened with a official public promotion of the book on February the 1st in 19 00 (7 p.m.) in Hotel Saraj. About the project and the book spoke Joke van der Leeuw Roord, executive director of EUROCLIO Organization, dr. Vera Katz, scientific associate of the Institute for History in Sarajevo, Edin Veladzic, project coordinator and a board member of EUROCLIO-HIP BiH and Melisa Foric, Secretary of the EUROCLIO-HIP B&H. With numerous members of the Bosnian teachers association, we were proud to had support of the guests: H.E. Mr. Mr. Karel E. Vosskühler, ambassador of the Embassy of Kingdom of Netherlands and H.E. Mr. Ramiz Bašić, ambassador of the Montenegro, as well as the representative od Slovenian Embassy, and representatives of OSCE, educational department mr. Klod Kieffera and Aleksandra Janković, and mr. Senad Šepić, from the ministry of civil affairs of the Bosnia and Herzegovina and mr. Husein Panjeta from the Ministry of foreign affairs. Promotion was very well recognized from the media, electronic and written, and positively presented in public.

Second day of the seminar started with a plenary where Joke van der Leeuw Roord executive director of EUROCLIO Organization gave a presentation of the EUROCLIO- Association and Organisation and presented some of their actual and upcoming activities, and Edin Velazic presented some of the activities and plans of the EUROCLIO-HIP B&H for the past period.

Participating in the parallel workshop during the noon and afternoon session, “Once upon a time in Yugoslavia” (“Bilo jednom u Jugoslaviji”) by Darko Benčić, and „Mens sana in corpore sano”, Elme Hašimbegović“ by Elma Hašimbegović. Participants could get known better with a sources used and presented in the book considering issues of Everydaylife and standard of living in Yugoslavia 1945-1990. Great attention was given to the workshop „ Goli otok“ by Ljiljana Lazarevic and Emina Dautovic, where the participants using role-play game could presented one politically quite senssitive issue. All the workshops are awarded with a highest grade by the evaluation questionairre.

Last session was reserved for the General Assembly of the EUROCLIO-HIP B&H Association, where the report for the last period was adopted, ellections for the board members were held, and members have disscussed about some actall topics and future activities and possibile projects. According to the proposed lists in the Board were elected: Bojana Dujković- Blagojević (Banja Luka), Melisa Forić (Sarajevo), Marija Naletilić (Široki Brijeg), Edin Radušić (Sarajevo), Boro Bronza (Banja Luka) and in the Adviser board: Edin Veladžić (Sarajevo) Samojko Cvijanović (Doboj), Zvjezdana Marčić Matošević (Sarajevo).

Seminar had a very positive working atmosphere. Participants evaluated it as a very useful and interesting, and presented ideas as a very inspiring for their work. Seminar was graded with average grade 4,8 by the evaluation questionnaire.

 

 

 

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by: compis@bih.net.ba