Edutopia - August/September 2008 - (Page 54)

learns as the w rld “Children had absolutely different knowledge of the same things.” are based on of⇒cial history, not on independent research. We don’t have historical history—we have political history.” divided. Macedonians and Albanians were always suffering, and were always victims of the neighboring powers. And they compete for who suffered more.” After students read the two versions of these historical events, they are asked to identify differences and similarities between them. The goal of the project is not necessarily to convince the students to change their minds—though that would be nice—but to open their minds even a little to the possibility of another point of view. A Mind Meld . . . Maybe To get a sense of whether this challenging innovation worked, I go to Gostivar, a predominantly Albanian town southwest of Skopje, where a group of about ⇒fteen students who had participated in the pilot program gather one afternoon at Gostivar High School. The town and school has both Macedonian and Albanian families—just the kind of environment calling for better relations. But what really put the program to the test was the social pressure the students felt from their own group, plus their knowledge of what their parents thought about the “other.” “Most of the facts we already knew,” says Agon, an Albanian teenager who speaks ⇓uent English, like all his classmates. “There weren’t any dif⇒culties with the material, but in an emotional sense there were some.” “As much as Albanians and Macedonians are together, we are apart,” adds Kelmend, also Albanian. “We speak together, but not as it should be.” Do they mingle at school? “We do hang out a lot,” says Agon. “Though when we go out, we go out with Albanian friends.” “We keep our distance,” interjects Kiril, a Macedonian. Do any of the Albanians feel they could present the Macedonian version of history now? “I have a concern how I’d be perceived by the group if I did that,” Kelmend replies. “I don’t think it would be appropriate to represent the Albanian point of view,” Ljubica, a Macedonian girl, declares. “We must respect each other because we live in a town with other ethnics,” Agon says. “We don’t have to love each other, but we can respect each other. We had respect for each other before, but not great respect.” “There’s no ‘little’ or ‘bigger’ respect,” Ljubica shoots back. “We saw the other side,” Agon concludes. “But I think in the end we’ll accept only our point of view.” “Just to ⇒ll in the other part of the picture,” Ljubica agrees. “To complete the puzzle.” Her use of the word puzzle seems to show that she knows not only that the picture is complicated but also that it needs to be complete. If this is no miraculous, sudden understanding of “them,” it is an indication that they may be more open to cultural coexistence than might have been true even a few years ago, and that an innovative teaching tool could help reinforce their realization that “they” are not so different. At this early stage, Petroska-Beska and Najcevska are not unduly concerned about how far these students could go with the new approach. “The process is more important than the product,” says Petroska-Beska. “For us, it’s enough that they have the space to realize their version of history might not be the whole truth.” e Erla Zwingle, a contributing writer for Edutopia, is based in Venice. History Versus Our Story The teachers are also divided along the same fault line: There is an Association of Macedonian History Teachers and an Association of Albanian History Teachers. “In Yugoslavia there was one history text that was translated into Turkish and Macedonian and Serbian,” Petroska-Beska explains. “This was written by “Every phrase in this region carries its own ethnocentric, emotional payload.” Macedonians and then translated and taught in Albanian. You can imagine what feelings this evokes among the Albanians.” Although the history textbook contains sections written by Albanian authors, in practice, Macedonian students are rarely exposed to them. Not all teachers were ready to change. “It’s one thing to develop the lesson, and another to develop the group that can work on it,” she says. “We selected ten high school teachers for this program—half Macedonian and half Albanian. They were paired—each to write their version and then switch to review the other’s. It was harder for Macedonian teachers to digest the Albanian version, because they had never been exposed to it. It was easier for the Albanian teachers with the Macedonian text because they were already more familiar with it.” But this is a radical change in many ways, and change isn’t always appealing. “The resistance ONLINEVIDEO from students comes from the fact that up until now they aren’t GIVE PEACE A CHANCE Learn how an elementary school resolves trained to work in this way, to conflict at compare perspectives and ⇒nd edutopia.org/peace-helpers-video similarities,” says one Macedonian teacher, Dimko Poposki. “This resistance exists also in the minds of the teachers,” says Dragi Gorgiev, from the Institute of National History. “In my opinion, they don’t believe in the method,” adds Irena Stefoska, his colleague. “They’re not used to teaching history from multiple perspectives. Of course there is prejudice. History teachers live in the same circumstances as others.” “We discuss a lot what ‘of⇒cial’ history means,” says Besnik Emini, an Albanian teacher. “We don’t have independent historians. So in the past, our government paid historians to write of⇒cial history, not true history. All the school textbooks 54 EDUTOPIA AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2008 http://edutopia.org/peace-helpers-video

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Edutopia Contents Up Front Feedback Dispatches Sage Advice Ask Ellen Head of Class Cool Schools Design: Building on Disaster What's Next Full-Service Schools In the Trenches Moral Aptitude Serious Gaming Behaveyourself.com Media Is the Message The Way of the Wiki A Match Made in Cyberspace Hail to the New Chief Rise of the Robots Disrupting Class As Others See Us Heart & Soul Pop Quiz: Moby

Edutopia - August/September 2008

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