The Outline of the Project is an internal document, which determines
the main issues to be studied and focused within the further activities of the project,
mainly during the first Seminar and the Final Evalution/Debate Workshop,
on the basis of the proposals and suggestions received from partner organisations.

History represents an important aspect in civic education of any social group. The historical memory, transmitted through different traditions, actions as the most important reference for the members of a group. Historical memory serves as an element for mutual identification and making difference in relation with other social groups. The region of South-Eastern Europe has a peculiar historical background, usually considered as being exclusively conflictual, dominated by intolerance and misperceptions. This historical background contributes nowadays into shaping the collective identities in the region.

Next to other similar initiatives, the present project is addressed to the students who are studying within the SEE academic environment. The project is designed to promote a direct dialog between undergraduates and postgraduates students and professors. These are in order to find solutions for the ways of teaching/learning the "national histories" and "idea of Europa" in the context of the tremendous political and social changes of the last decade in South-Eastern European countries.

Students are the target group of the project from two point of views:

• they are the future disseminators of ideas and trainers for the mass of the pupils who will be the next generation of adults and citizens. For this reason, their educational background represents a permanent object of concern for any social group.
• students are the present beneficials of the academic environment. They may act as important mutual actors in the dynamic process of setting up the "curricula" and the orientation of educational tools to more practical activities.

The project intends to concentrate on the methodology of teaching history and the contents of the curricula developed in the process of learning. For this reason, the topics of this outline are organised in three domains: sources and resources; methods and approaches; historical themes and topics. Being a youth initiative, without a strong experience, we prefer to take into consideration the whole spectrum of the educational system, from the different types of pre-academic learning processes towards the university system. The future development of the project will introduce nuances in relation to the above mentioned levels of difficulties and perceptions.

Topics to be discussed on the project:

1. Sources and resources

The general idea of the sources of information is very important to be mooted.

1.1. Visual:

- maps (the importance of mental maps): Textbooks and other sources use maps with determinant roles on pupils’ orientation. These maps remain as like stamp in peoples’ minds.

- cultural artefacts (buildings, statues, graves etc.) are usefull instruments for studying the local and regional history, the influences from a region to another.

- images: paintings, photoes, reviews etc offer concrete proves from a historical and geographical context.

- television: documentaries; news programmes; drama, soap and situation comedies are certain sources as reflections of the past and ways to understand changes in public attitudes.

1.2. Oral history is the recording and analysis of spoken testimonies about the past. It focuses on:

- the shared knowledge of the past which was passed down from the previous generation (oral traditions)

- a narrative presentation of events within an individual’s life which have helped to shape that life and give meaning to it (an oral biography)

- the personal reminiscences of an individual about certain events, issues or experiences they lived through at some tine in their past

- oral eye-witness accounts recorded during or immediately after an event.

1.3. Written sources:

- text-books continue to be the most influent instrument in teaching history in schools/pre-univesitary. Their style is the common reference for everybody. The traditional style consists in a simplistic narrativism, over-detailed and chronological, with a few number of images from the questioned context.

- secondary literature is the "critical" source of information but some times very impregnated with subjectivism.

- fiction-type literature reflects the dreams, utopias, cultural needs of the peoples etc.

2.  Methods and approaches

2.1. Memorization – Understanding.

The present method in use consists in "memorization" the informations. The lack of correlation of the sources of informations has as following the low capacity of orientation and quick decisions of every individual.

2.2. Multiple causes – multiple effects.

People prefer to "discover" one cause for a given situation, the one which raises nearer to their eyes. Also, people usually "see" only one consequence of an event. This way of receiving informations allows manipulation of the public attitude in certain critical moments.

2.3. Diversity behind the compact images. Every text is a summary of a complex social situation, presented as being coherent and compact. However, behind the images are the Stories of every human being, which may be approched from a lot of perspectives: cultural, economic, social, political etc.

2.3. Multiperspectivity (the study from different points of view).

People usually do not see with the eyes of the "Other", because they are not accustomed to do so. For this reasons, their identity is usually based on some mere objects, events, stories etc. they fetishize and do not accept any open and critical discussion on them.

2.4. Comparative perspective (identification and differentiation) is a way to observe the similarities and nuances of different context. Something that may look natural in one context may be proved as subjectivist interpretation in others.

2.5. Out-of-school learning opportunities are ways to identify the importance of historical memory in everyday life and the importance of everyday life in history.

- local history is a way to study the architecture of buildings, the street names, the monuments, the ways in which the town or the village has developed, the peculiarities of the quarters, the everyday customs, whether or not and how war-damages have been removed or reconstructed exactly as they used to be before the war, if the traces of war were maintained etc.

- biography of a local personality – the occasion for studying the context, the relationships of a person with other people and to emphasize on the subjectivity of every opinion.

- urban and/or rural archaelogy of modern times may be a way to study the customs and traditions of a given group that may be "enemy" or "friend", etc.

2.6. New technologies for supporting information:

- Internet is a fabulous medium for finding informations: on-line news, archives etc.

- chat is a way to ensure a direct, in real time, dialog between people from different regions that may never meet each other.

- DVD/Multimedia supports.

National histories: the central theme of the project considers the "national histories" in South-Eastern Europe. The "national history" is the omnipresent way of teaching and learning history. Why is that situation? How may be changed? Are there any alternatives? Possible answers to these questions may be formulated by…

Looking Inside: the situation of minorities (based on the criteria of sex, age, religion, ethinicity etc.), the local and regional history.

Looking Outside: the regional dimension: Balkans; Europe. The practice of "national history" avoid to strength the importance of regional and inter-regional human relationships.

The subject of the lectures in Seminar and Workshops will not reffer to the whole spectrum of problems, only to particular ones. The lectures are intended to be models for similar analyses.

Participants are invited to observe the peculiarities of the discussed subjects in their active environment, to analyse the situation and to promote open discussions and practical activities related to the above themes and others they discover.