Abstract:
The report discusses various challenges of teaching history
in Georgia; it is substantiated that the development of students'
general human values and their competencies is possible during
school education, and history teaching plays a special role in
this. Therefore, this field of education should be a priority of the
state.Since history „play a vital role in the promotion of fundamental
values, such as tolerance, mutual understanding, human
rights and democracy“, teaching democratic values in history
lessons is one of the best ways to achieve this goal.
The report is based on the basic documents of the Council
of Europe, as well as research on Georgian, European and American
history textbooks, existing history curricula, and scientific
literature on the subject.
The results of the study showed that the lack of modern teaching
skills at different levels, which is needed to ensure quality
intercultural education, remains one of the main challenges
of the post-Soviet education system. The great efforts made within
the reform of the educational system in our countries are
not enough in this direction, because the development of historical
education depends on the value system and the educational
environment. Therefore, it is necessary to implement fundamental
changes, proper training of teachers, as well as a better
understanding of the Soviet past (in post-Soviet countries),
which will help us realize the goals of teaching history.
The report offers specific recommendations, namely, creating
appropriate curricula and writing appropriate history textbooks
based on them; Both the creation of a historical narrative
necessary for the establishment of democratic values, as well
as the use of teaching methods to develop critical, independent
thinking. This can be achieved through the close cooperation of academic
historians and history teachers. It is the duty of academic
historians to create sufficient resources to explore issues that
are not properly explored in our history, such as the contribution
of ethnic, religious minorities, the role of women in history,
various types of relationships within the country, sensitive issues,
especially in modern life, etc.
Equally important is the purposeful training of history teachers
so that they can properly teach social and political problems
in a multicultural society, including sensitive issues, and
raise tolerant generations.
Finally, it is necessary that "decision-makers implement
existing European and national recommendations, support interdisciplinary
approaches in education and modify the evaluation
of curricula in accordance with the necessary changes/recommendations".
