Reforming the History Curriculum in Poland: the Good Change Strikes Back
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
070 Liberal Education: A Way Forward Reforming the History Curriculum in Poland: The Good Change Strikes Back DARIA HEJWOSZ-GROMKOWSKA Liberal Education: A Way Forward 071 “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” —George Orwell, 1984 DO WE REALLY NEED HISTORY cludes the history of minorities, issues that EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS? are deemed controversial, and it usually What is the purpose of teaching history in promotes global and national citizenship. schools nowadays? This question became Conservative policymakers tend to support a central point of a debate about history national history, omit disputable problems, education in many Western countries and and disseminate the idea of patriotism. is widely discussed in Poland. It is not a sur- prise, then, that policymakers are trying There is still a belief that history education to reform the curricula to adapt to transi- remains one of the tools used for nation- tions in societies. We need to remember building. Will Kymlicka (2002) points out that multiculturalism, globalization, and that people as members of a particular a weakening of a nation-state are huge society are “more likely to make sacri- challenges to school systems. For instance, fices for others if these others are viewed ethnic and minority groups in most of the as ‘one of us’”. If we assume that history Western countries want to include their education is one of the tools in the na- cultures and histories into the school and tion-building process, the next question university curricula. In these circumstanc- worth asking is: why would citizens need es, there is no doubt that many educational history education? Keith Barton and Lin- systems need to be constantly ready to da S. Levstik (2008) identify three major reinterpret the aims of citizenship and his- reasons: to develop knowledge and skills, tory education in the context of global and to develop commitment, and to develop multicultural challenges. loyalty. At the same time, they also notice that it is a controversial issue whether his- According to the adherents of conflict tory education “can, or should contribute theory, schools reproduce the social order to citizenship.” and transmit the ideology of the dominant group. The education system is susceptible Hence the question, why do we need his- to political changes. Every government has tory education? Or to be precise, what its own vision of political history that gets kind of history education do we need? promoted through the school system. Pro- The debatable issues usually concern the gressive and liberal politicians usually try amount and the balance between national to find consensus among different groups and world history, which historical fig- of society. The school curricula, then, in- ures should be discussed as national he- 072 Liberal Education: A Way Forward IS CURRICULUM REFORM IN POLAND NECESSARY? The growing body of literature suggests2 THE GROWING that young people are not interested in BODY studying history because they do not see the relationship between past and present, and OF LITERATURE as a consequence, they do not refer this re- lationship to their lives. Stephen J. Thornton SUGGESTS THAT states that the main goal of history educa- tion in American high schools is to prepare YOUNG PEOPLE students for college rather than educate them3. The same situation happens in Po- ARE NOT INTERESTED land, where schools put emphasis on exams, IN STUDYING forgetting the main goal of education. HISTORY BECAUSE According to the critics of standardized tests, the process of learning has been THEY DO NOT SEE reduced to the measurement of how well schools meet the state standards. The THE RELATIONSHIP holistic development of a young person was replaced by an achievement-orient- BETWEEN PAST ed approach expressed by test scoring. From this perspective, the school sys- AND PRESENT, tem exhibits a simplistic approach toward teaching and learning. It is necessary to AND AS A CONSEQUENCE, equip students with the ability of critical thinking, to enable them to cope with THEY DO NOT REFER the complexity of the world and to pro- THIS RELATIONSHIP tect them against becoming merely the subjects of global corporations or other TO THEIR LIVES institutions, including the state. The second area of criticism (in most Western countries) covers the issue roes, which victory should be promoted, of exclusion of minority groups from and which events emphasized. The cur- the official history. According to Gloria rent debate on history education in many Landson-Billings (2005), official curricu- countries focuses on the key objectives la “treat all students as if they were white, of teaching as such, as well as the place of minorities in the curricula or the role of nari (2008) “Unlearning the Official History: Agency and Pedagogies of Possibility”, [in:] Ideologies in Education. “academic history”, the methods and tech- Unmasking the Trap of Teaching Neutrality, (eds.) L. I. niques of teaching, and the role of moral Bartolome, Peter Lang: New York. learning in the history course1 in particular. 2 Noddings, N. (ed.), (2005) Educating Citizens for Glob- al Awareness, Teachers College Press, New York. 1 Davies, I. (ed.), (2011) Debates in History Teaching, 3 Thornton, S.J. (2005) “Incorporating Internationalism Routledge; K. C. Barton, L. S. Levstik (2008) “History”, Into Social Studies Curriculum”, [in:] Educating Citizens [in:] Education for Citizenship and Democracy, (eds.) for Global Awareness, (ed.) Noddings N. Noddings, J. Arthur, I. Davies and C. Hahn, Sage, London; P. Gou- Teachers College Press, New York. Liberal Education: A Way Forward 073 middle-class, natural-born citizens”. This approach may result in a situation where the individuals who lack those features may feel marginalized and will probably never be able to develop civic virtue and identity. From the postmodern perspective there ON THE BASIS is a perpetual and discursive struggle for the recognition of the correct version of OF AMERICAN the “truth”. The conservative approach criticizes the inclusion of histories of vari- AND BRITISH ous groups in the official curricula. On EXPERIENCES the basis of American (e.g., Gounari 2008, Hahn 2008) and British (Osler 2009) ex- WE MAY periences we may observe that policy- makers (especially the right wing) perceive OBSERVE THAT the history of a nation-state as the main source of national identity and as the very POLICYMAKERS core of history lessons. Moreover, those who criticize the homogenous narrative (ESPECIALLY of history and question controversial vic- tories are accused of and labeled as being THE RIGHT WING) unpatriotic. PERCEIVE Analyzing the political debate on changes THE HISTORY in the history curriculum in Poland, we can also observe that politicians from the right OF A NATION-STATE wing do not accept any “other” version of the “truth” and they are strongly convinced AS THE MAIN that “their” vision of the past is the only one to be accepted. On the other hand, politi- SOURCE cians from the center and left have a pas- sion for relativism and so they are some- OF NATIONAL times losing ground and baseline pursuing IDENTITY the chaotic historical policy. AND AS THE VERY The last area of the criticism of history in schools refers to the teaching methods CORE OF HISTORY which are incapable of developing criti- cal thinking in pupils. Young people are LESSONS accused of being ignorant in the sphere of historical knowledge and it is claimed that our societies suffer from historical amnesia. The chronological narrative method cannot develop critical thinking and does not provide knowledge about 074 Liberal Education: A Way Forward connections between the past and the present (Barton and Levsitk 2008). Giving the students only facts and dates is one HISTORY ITSELF thing, but learning about a wider context of the problem is another. If only the for- IS OFTEN mer is in place, education may prove su- perficial. A POLITICAL MATTER In order to develop critical thinking among students, methods such as analyzing mul- tiple sources, problem-solving, conflict- history textbooks for the given educational solving, negotiation, discussion, drama, stage, the students did not reach the units roleplay, or field trips are recommended by dealing with the most recent history as the experts. end of the school year approached. Young people had acquired knowledge about an- HISTORY CURRICULUM REFORM cient Egypt and the Middle Ages, but they BY CIVIC PLATFORM have very limited knowledge of the part of In 2009, the Polish government intro- history which most affects their lives. For duced changes in the national curriculum instance, when I discussed this problem for lower secondary schools (three years with my university students who were at of gymnasium). In 2012, this was followed school before reform, the majority of them by upper secondary schools. It seems that admitted that they were interested in the policymakers have taken the contempo- history of communism and the breakdown rary criticism toward teaching history into of the regime in Poland after 1989, but they consideration. They have paid attention have never been taught about it in school, to the teaching methods in order to teach thus confirming the absurd organization of students how to acquire historical think- history in the curriculum. ing skills. However, this division was under attack in In 2012, there was also an attempt made 2012 by some history teachers and op- to link the past with the present and to in- ponents of the changes. They were afraid troduce critical thinking in schools – which that a new curriculum would decrease resulted in the introduction of the approach the number of history hours, what did labeled as “creating historical narratives”. not happen. The students who choose More attention was paid to 20th century science as their major in the upper sec- history, which had been treated very super- ondary school still participate in a “His- ficially in the former national curriculum.