From September 21-25, history teachers from 13 different countries such as Georgia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal and Slovenia gathered in Oslo to discuss and analyze the image of the other in history lessons. The seminar is the first European Seminar in the Council of Europe Pestalozzi Program, and co-organized with The European Wergeland Centre. The sessions were facilitated by Fabio Del Cavallo, Tahany Shemeis and Klaus Edel.

By providing excerpts from their countries’ text books, images used in the text books, and also images of themselves, the 20 participants and the facilitators deconstructed and discussed stereotypes, biases and prejudices represented in the different contributions. Starting with the personal images, the participants were confronted with what others interpret and read from a specific setting, posture etc.

After dealing with the personal images, the participants went on to work with the text book images and text excerpts. Group work with following plenary sessions and discussions were meant to enhance the teachers’ competences in dealing with the image of the other, both when it comes to first impressions of yourself and the people around you, and also when digging deeper into a specific text and/or subject. In this seminar, the focus was on the Cold War, 1989 and the years 1967/68.

During the seminar, the groups also chose a concrete history book text to work with and rewrite, to get rid of stereotypes and biases. The groups later designed a 30 minute lesson about one of the three focus areas, and taught the rest of the participants, using discussions, film clips, printed images and texts.

It was an intense week for the participants, but the feedback given to the facilitators and the EWC proved that the sessions were of great value for the teachers and that they had a good experience in Oslo. 

The Official Seminar Report will soon be available here.