European Association of History Educators

Between 15-17 January the Second Project Workshop for coordinators, authors and experts in the EUROCLIO/Matra project "A Key to Europe, Innovative Methodology in Turkish School History", brought together 66 history educators from across Turkey, representing teacher-training institutes, as well as primary and secondary schools. The workshop, "Developing Educational Material – From theory to practice" was held at the  Büyük Abant Hotel in Bolu region, Turkey. The workshop was very active with plenty of debate and participation from those present. Workshops and presentations from Michael Riley (Director, Schools History Project, UK) and Elise Storck (Teacher-Trainer, Leiden University, NL), as well as EUROCLIO Executive-Director Joke van der Leeuw-Roord were well-received by the participants. Further to this, there were group presentations from a range of Turkish participants chaired by local coordinators Dr. Semih Aktekin and Dr. Mustafa Öztürk, and academic advisor Dr. Bahri Ata. Under "Read more" you can find more information. A draft report is available for download here.

After a very concentrated meeting in Antalya, in October 2009, 66 History Educators from across Turkey, representing Teacher Training Institutes, as well as schools – primary and secondary – will meet in Bolu, Turkey, on 15-17 January. The Project A Key to Europe, Innovative Methodology in Turkish School History, so far has been very productive, and in this workshop, the project team will be able to see each other’s drafted educational material, express their opinions and ideas, so that the work can be continued in a positive and common direction, with regards to the key questions, activities and sources. One of the challenges the Project Management faces is how to bridge the gap between academics and teachers to work for the same aim and a common goal to understand the different aspect in achieving the goal. In addition, the project management will use this event to continue to raise awareness of the importance of the implementation of theory into practical school history. International Trainers at this workshop will be Michael Riley (Director of School History Project, UK) and Elise Stork (Teacher Trainer at Leiden University, NL). Download here the  Programme and for more information, please contact Jonathan Even-Zohar at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dr. Ahmet Simsek from Turkey represented EUROCLIO-Matra Project “A Key to Europe” at the Networking European Citizenship Education (NECE) Conference, organized by the The Federal Agency for Civic Education Education (Germany), The Federal Ministry for Culture (Austria) and The Institute for the Arts and Political Participation in Vilnius on 3-5 December, 2009. During the Conference Dr. Ahmet Simsek saw strong evidence for the inclusion of art and music for citizenship education. There were many good examples of interesting approaches to citizenship education on display in the congress.  In his report he concluded that citizenship education is still far too often produced on the basis of local-cultural approaches.  In reality, citizenship education in European countries should be intercultural and multicultural in a European-perspective. Download the full report

Between 15th and 17th of January, representatives of the Anne Frank House International will be participating in EUROCLIO workshops in Bolu, Turkey.  The workshops are part of the 3 year EUROCLIO/Matra Project in Turkey, A Key to Europe: Innovative Methodology in Turkish School History. The representatives of Anne Frank House will be Barry van Driel (NL) and Cihan Tekeli (NL). Barry van Driel is an expert in international curriculum development and teacher-education. He is also a senior education adviser to organizations such as UNESCO and the OSCE. Cihan Tekeli works as a Humanity in Action fellow at the International Department of the Anne Frank House Amsterdam. He is also a student of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands.  With participants in the workshop also from the UK and Georgia, the event in Bolu promises to be engaging and a useful opportunity to address some of the challenges facing multicultural education in Turkey, and the rest of Europe.