Sharing European Histories

The Evens Foundation launched the Sharing European Histories initiative in partnership with EuroClio to support innovative projects and pioneering teaching strategies that help young people understand the complexity, multiplicity and transnationality of European history.

The past is often a source of conflicting interpretations rather than easy consensus. Nonetheless, historical identity is central to relations between states and people in the here and now. We believe that opening up a space to engage with the dissonant and often conflictual nature of European history is the first step in discovering common positions or overcoming divisions while acknowledging existing differences.

In 2018, we launched a first open call for applications. This method allowed us to keep an open mind regarding projects and ideas that answer the real needs of educators and researchers working in the field. We received a wide range of ideas and project proposals from all over Europe. In close consultation with an international expert group, we selected and invited five individual contributors and two projects to further develop their teaching strategies and projects.

The individual contributors – Gentian Dedja (Albania), Juan Carlos Ocaña (Spain), Elisabete Pereira (Portugal), Helen Snelson (UK) and Joanna Wojdon (Poland) developed their proposed teaching strategies for engaging with European history, making them accessible and user-friendly for history educators across Europe. The selected strategies include using object biographies, analysing historical figures, deconstructing commemorative practices, studying the roots of important ideas and exploring personal life stories to understand the complexity of history.

The two projects that were selected for a grant were launched in Autumn 2019. The Croatian History Teachers Association worked with local history hubs as an innovative model for students and teachers to learn about the imperial legacies in, and diversity of, the region through exploring local heritage.

The EUscreen Foundation and the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity aimed to promoted critical historical thinking among young people through the development and testing of three new interactive learning activities based largely on audiovisual archival content coming from the EUscreen collection in their project (Re)Viewing European Stories. The proposed activities, now completed, focus on changing borders and migrating individuals as a result of regional, national or international conflicts in Europe.

The Sharing European Histories teaching strategies are availble in different languages on the website of EuroClio.

The Evens Foundation launched the Sharing European Histories initiative in partnership with EuroClio to support innovative projects and pioneering teaching strategies that help young people understand the complexity, multiplicity and transnationality of European history.

The past is often a source of conflicting interpretations rather than easy consensus. Nonetheless, historical identity is central to relations between states and people in the here and now. We believe that opening up a space to engage with the dissonant and often conflictual nature of European history is the first step in discovering common positions or overcoming divisions while acknowledging existing differences.

In 2018, we launched a first open call for applications. This method allowed us to keep an open mind regarding projects and ideas that answer the real needs of educators and researchers working in the field. We received a wide range of ideas and project proposals from all over Europe. In close consultation with an international expert group, we selected and invited five individual contributors and two projects to further develop their teaching strategies and projects.

The individual contributors – Gentian Dedja (Albania), Juan Carlos Ocaña (Spain), Elisabete Pereira (Portugal), Helen Snelson (UK) and Joanna Wojdon (Poland) developed their proposed teaching strategies for engaging with European history, making them accessible and user-friendly for history educators across Europe. The selected strategies include using object biographies, analysing historical figures, deconstructing commemorative practices, studying the roots of important ideas and exploring personal life stories to understand the complexity of history.

The two projects that were selected for a grant were launched in Autumn 2019. The Croatian History Teachers Association worked with local history hubs as an innovative model for students and teachers to learn about the imperial legacies in, and diversity of, the region through exploring local heritage.

The EUscreen Foundation and the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity aimed to promoted critical historical thinking among young people through the development and testing of three new interactive learning activities based largely on audiovisual archival content coming from the EUscreen collection in their project (Re)Viewing European Stories. The proposed activities, now completed, focus on changing borders and migrating individuals as a result of regional, national or international conflicts in Europe.

The Sharing European Histories teaching strategies are availble in different languages on the website of EuroClio.

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In January 2022 we have iniated the second phase of Sharing European Histories.
Five new teaching strategies are being developed and will be launched in Autumn 2022.

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A new series of teacher training sessions based around the Sharing European Histories teaching strategies will roll out across Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia in November and December 2022.​

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A series of webinars to show how to contextualise the Sharing European Histories teaching strategies will start in Autumn 2021.​ Follow our social channels to stay updated.

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The translations of the Sharing European Histories teaching strategies are underway and are being uploaded to the website once prepared. Please see the available languages here.

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We are happy to present a short animation created to promote the Sharing European Histories teaching strategies. Enjoy watching the animation here and thank you for sharing!

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The EUscreen Foundation and the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity have finalised their project (Re)Viewing European Stories, to promote critical historical thinking among young people through the development of three new interactive learning activities. For more information, please visit the website here.

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The first teaching strategies were released in October 2020. As they are not linked to a specific subject, they can be applied to many different topics in history curricula and are widely adaptable for educators across Europe. Read more

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It was decided to organise the train the trainer about the teaching strategies online in May-June 2020 to be able to still organise the national trainings in the second half of 2020 or the beginning of 2020.
The Annual EuroClio Conference will also take place online from 31 October to 29 November 2020.

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Due to the current health crisis the Annual EuroClio conference in Belgrade where the teaching strategies would be presented, has been postponed to 10-14 November 2020.

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The third meeting of the working group took place on 7 & 8 February at our office in Antwerp. During this meeting our individual contributors presented the ideas for their workshops at the Annual EuroClio Conference that will take place in Belgrade in April 2020.

Together we were looking for the best and most engaging ways to frame and present innovative teaching strategies that we have been working on. We also agreed on the big lines of the format for the publication and next steps of common work.

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Call for trainers in Sharing European Histories
We are looking for history educators interested in organizing a training in their respective countries to introduce the new history teaching strategies developed by the team of Sharing European Histories. The Train the Trainer session will take place on 2 April 2020 during the next EUROCLIO conference. Find out more.

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On 30 & 31 October 2019 the team of (Re)Viewing European Stories gathered at the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute/ FINA (Warsaw, Poland) to kick-off the project and start the co-creation process.
Read more about the meeting on the EUscreen blog.

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The second meeting of the working group took place on 27 & 28 August 2019 in The Hague and was hosted by EUROCLIO.
Read more about the different strategies the contributors and participants shared with each other during this peer-review meeting.