Teaching Migration towards improved inter-ethnic relations in Republic of Macedonia

In 2009-2010 EUROCLIO has been working together with its Member Associations and with partner organisations EVROPAEVM and ISHA, the International Students of History Associations, to find out what humanities students, teachers and related public sectors consider is needed to structurally improve the status of the Migration-theme in teaching history, in the public’s general awareness of migration his tory and in academics interdisciplinary studies into the topic. The project is called “Connecting Europe through History. Experiences and Perceptions of Migrations in Europe” and it is co-funded by the European Union’s Europe for Citizens Programme. On October 26th 2010 the 8th public event in the series was held in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia and it was attended by 20 History Educators from all over the country, representing different ethnic groups in the country. Increasing the European dimension in History Teaching and making steps to an integrated curriculum were the focal points of the symposium, and Mr Mire Mladenovski, President of the History Teacher Association of Macedonia, led an active and engaged debate on the state of History Education in the Republic of Macedonia, which led to a commonly held conclusion that still many changes are needed in order to improve inter-ethnic relations and introducing more innovative teaching methods geared to improve pupils’ critical thinking.

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