"Migrations in the 20 th century and their consequences – ways forward for history lessons within a European context"

II. The Council of Europe project: Learning and Teaching about the history of 
Europe in the 20th Century
Dr Carole Reich (responsible for the Council of Europe project) and Claude-Alain Clerc 
(Chairman of the project steering group) described the objectives of the project "Learning and 
Teaching about the history of Europe in the 20th Century". The project, which will run for a 
number of years, was approved at the 19th session of the Standing Conference of European 
Ministers of Education held in Vienna, which placed deliberate emphasis on the importance of 
history teaching with a European dimension for a Europe developing in unison. The beginning 
of the 21st century is the ideal starting point for considering content for the teaching of last 
century's history. In particular, the Council of Europe Education Committee laid down the 
following aims for the project
3
, which was to help young people to:
-
understand the forces, movements and events which have shaped Europe in the 20th 
century,
-
understand the historical roots and context of the main challenges facing Europe today,
-
develop skills enabling them to 
- think for themselves amidst the wealth of information now available on the Internet;
-
deal critically with statements and historical interpretations;
-
take in others' views and recognise and comprehend any differences;
-
detect errors and prejudices in historical representations.
To achieve those aims, seminars and symposiums have been held and documentation 
produced, covering themes such as the introduction of new information technologies (Andorra, 
1999), using archives and museums (Brussels, 1998), "Use and misuse of history" (Oslo, 1999) 
or questions of basic and further teacher training
4
. The 
Georg-Eckert Institut für internationale 
Schulbuchforschung
(Georg-Eckert Institute for international textbook research) in 
Braunschweig has produced a comparative study of the presentation of central themes in 
history textbooks in different European States
5
, which identified progress and innovations as 
well as shortcomings in the incorporation of the European dimension.
In addition, a series of publications providing assistance for the practical work of history 
teachers in the 47 member states of the European Cultural Convention is being produced.
Among those in preparation or at planning stage are:
-
a history teacher's manual;
-
aids for history teaching on the themes:
-
women in 20th century Europe;
- nationalism in 20th century Europe;
- population movements in 20th century Europe;
- the use of feature films (with a filmography);
- teaching about the Holocaust; 
3
The aims are set out in detail in document CC-ED/HIST (96) 14
4
Documentation on events and further details of the project are available on the web-page 
http://culture.coe.fr/hist20/
5
Cf DECS/EDU/HIST20 (99) 2

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9
-
case studies for the incorporation of cultural history and the Internet; 
-
studies on the use of innovative methods such as simulations of the Paris Peace 
Conference and the Peace of Westphalia. 
The full results of the project are to be presented in October 2000, at the Conference of 
European Education Ministers in Krakow (Poland). They should provide inspiration for teaching 
programmes and textbooks and impetus for the development of basic and further teacher 
training and are to be made available to help teachers shape their teaching content and 
methods.