The next generationHistory education in Serbia and young peoples’ understanding of the violent Yugoslav breakup

Resumen

History education is where the official narratives about the past are transmitted to the future generation. The importance it has for the worldview of young people is undisputed. Its relevance is recognized by an abundance of recommendations and guidelines produced by international organizations such as the Council of Europe and UNESCO. Within the history education processes, young people are taught about the past. However, they are also trained to understand how history "works", how historians know what they know, and develop critical moral reasoning about the past. The content they are taught and how it is approached in the classroom concerns society members and captures the attention of many researchers, generating ample social controversy and academic debate. All of these questions become even more contentious when we look at societies with a recent history of violent conflict. Conflicts, especially intractable ones, are known to cause long-lasting socio-psychological changes in these societies, and history education is recognized as one of the societal practices that can facilitate or hinder the reconciliation process. However, employing history education to pursue peace and a harmonious future does not come without specific challenges. One of the arguably most essential aspects is how past violence is represented, taught, and narrated within the educational process. In this respect, Serbia represents a specifically meaningful case study. During the last decade of the twentieth century, it was, in one way or another, part of several wars that marked the Yugoslav breakup. While it currently maintains regular diplomatic relations with most of the past opponent countries, it still does not recognize the independence of Kosovo. The violence that ended twenty years ago is already included into history education curricula, and new generations learn about these events every year. What and how they are taught about these events will, to a large extent, shape Serbian society's future. Research on history education in post-conflict societies mainly focuses either on history textbooks, history teachers, or (history) students. The current thesis combines these main research traditions as well as different methodological approaches through three separate but interconnected studies on the case of Serbia. In study one, Intercultural Education in Post-Conflict Societies: Historical Narratives of the Breakup of Yugoslavia in Serbian High School History Textbooks, the complete corpus of Serbian high school history textbook lessons about Yugoslav breakup is analyzed. It employs thematic analysis to identify themes of the ethos of conflict and discourse analysis to establish an extent to which the textbooks narratively normalize violence. The study shows that textbook narratives indeed contain identifiable themes of the ethos of conflict and narratively normalize violence. Possible conceptual relationships between the two theoretical frameworks are explored, and the limitations of the intercultural education framework, especially in the case of history education in post-conflict societies, are discussed. Study two, Controversy in the classroom: how history teachers in the Western Balkans approach difficult topics, focuses on history educators in the Western Balkans. This mixed-method study included surveying a sample of 793 history educators from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, as well as interviews with 14 history education experts. The study aimed to identify which topics history teachers find difficult to teach and what factors are connected to how they approach them in their everyday practice. In addition, the study represents the first quantitative exploration of the avoider – risk-taker model. Findings show that history teachers in Serbia find the Yugoslav breakup to be the most challenging topic they face in the classroom and that they are often confused about whether and how they should approach it. In addition, the results shows that teachers who engage to a greater extent in risk-taking are less religious, more educated, and more often members of national organizations that deal with history education and training. Study three, The Next Generation: Nationalism and Violence in the Narratives of Serbian Students on the Breakup of Yugoslavia, addresses (history) students' narratives about the Yugoslav breakup. In-depth interviews and small-group discussions were used to elicit narratives from 31 young people with no direct experience or memory of war. As in study one, thematic analysis was used to identify themes of the ethos of conflict and discourse analysis to establish an extent to which participants narratively normalize violence. The findings show that participants' narratives contain themes of the ethos of conflict and narratively normalize violence. Similarities and possible connections between textbook narratives and student-produced narratives are subsequently discussed. In sum, the findings in this thesis show that history textbooks, as well as young people, employ narrative mechanisms that normalize past violence and contain identifiable themes of the ethos of conflict. As mediators of these narratives, Serbian history teachers frequently take themselves entirely out of this equation due to political and societal factors that influence teaching controversial topics in post-conflict societies. Considering the contemporary debates in the field and the findings of this thesis, it is possible to say that history education about the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in Serbia insufficiently develops students' historical thinking skills, thus making it difficult for students to use what they learn in school to develop a critical moral stance towards the past. This is especially worrying in a specific politically unstable post-conflict context that requires them to make political decisions, frequently related to how recent violent history is understood and the moral judgments they make in this process. Keywords: History Education, History Teachers, History Textbooks, Students, Young people, Serbia, Violence, Yugoslav breakup