Enlarged partial agreement

Observatory on History Teaching in Europe

History is taught as part of a compulsory multidisciplinary course, “Nature and society”, over two years at primary level (ages 9-10). Throughout lower secondary education, students are required to take “History” with a final assessment and have the option to also take the course “Everyday life in the past”.

At the upper secondary level, students choose to follow strands with distinct subject concentrations. All students in general education take “History” in the first year at this level (age 15). Students taking the socio-linguistic profile and mathematics profiles thereafter take “History” for three and two more years respectively. General education also offers the elective courses “Individual, group and society” in the first two years at upper secondary level (ages 15-16) as well as “Religion and society” and “Introduction to geopolitics” in the last two years (ages 17-18). Students at art and music schools are required to take “History” for three years (ages 15-17).

For students in vocational education, the inclusion of history depends on the duration of their programme. The two-year and four-year programmes require students to take “History” for two years (ages 15-16) while the three-year programme requires this for the first year only. Under a pilot profile from 2010, vocational education students have the option to study a selected historical topic for three years (ages 16-18).

Teaching takes place in Serbian or any of the eight minority languages (Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, Ruthenian and Slovak). Schools for national minorities follow the public curricula but include additional content on the cultures and histories of the respective minorities. Private schools follow the same history curricula as public schools.

The Serbian education system is outlined by the Law on Education (2017), and each subject’s curriculum, including history, is designed to be outcome-oriented. Teachers have a certain degree of flexibility, and can choose content that they consider appropriate and be creative in their teaching process. The only state-imposed limitations on teaching are the aims and objectives of history teaching, some major general themes, some key first-order and second-order concepts, and the learning outcomes defined by curricula. The education authorities reported that minority groups also participate in curriculum development, although representatives of civil society organisations do not.

The authorities report that minority groups (cultural, ethnic, linguistic, national, religious or sexual/gender) are included in the history curriculum.

 Curricula workstation by GEI (History curricula search by country)

The assessment methods teachers are required to use are essays, oral presentations/ exams, knowledge-based questions, source-based questions, multiple-choice questions, PowerPoint presentations, written reports and research projects.

End-of-stage examinations are taken for the compulsory lower secondary course “History”, which are set at the national level.

End-of-stage examinations assess the following fields of knowledge: historical content knowledge and historical thinking competences (e.g., critical analysis and evaluation of evidence, formulation and justification of historical arguments, consideration of different perspectives).

End-of-stage examinations are written and consist of open-ended questions, closeended questions, source-based questions and multiple-choice questions.

Textbooks are written mainly by private entities. The Institute for Education Development evaluates their quality and makes recommendations to the Ministry of Education, which issues a catalogue of approved textbooks each school year. The selection of textbooks to use is made at the school level. The ministry does not license or check any other additional teaching materials or online resources that teachers might use in class. The curriculum is designed to ensure that every teacher has the freedom to create and design additional teaching materials on any topic, regardless of whether or not they are present in textbooks.

Policies on the use of different types of educational resources are as follows:

REQUIRED	ENCOURAGED	ALLOWED
History textbooks Printed or digital press (newspapers and magazines) Visual sources (e.g., paintings, photographs, drawings)	Artefacts (e.g., paintings, architecture, sculptures, contemporary art) Audio sources (e.g., music, the sound of a steam engine) Audiovisual sources (e.g., newsreels, private archives, commercials) Cinema and documentaries with historical themes Historiographical bibliography Literature (e.g., historical novels, graphic novels) Local cultural heritage (e.g., costumes, food traditions, celebrations) Local and regional festivals and traditions related to historical events Museums and other places of heritage interpretation Oral sources (interviews with grandparents, relatives, neighbours, etc.) Teacher notes Websites and databases with historical content approved by the educational authorities	Apps for smartphones and tablets with historical content Printed or digital press (newspapers and magazines) Reports on historical topics in popular magazines Search engines and websites with historical content not necessarily validated by the education authorities Video games

 International TextbookCat (GEI collection of Textbooks and Educational Media)

The initial teaching programme lasts two academic years: one year at bachelor’s level and one at master’s level. This can be taken at university faculties offering history (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Kosovska Mitrovica). Candidates are required to gain credits in pedagogical, didactic, psychological and methodological subjects as well as through practical teaching experience in schools.

At both primary and secondary levels, teachers are trained exclusively or primarily as history teachers.

In-service professional development courses are compulsory. They are administered by the Ministry of Education, university faculties, non-governmental organisations, history teachers’ associations and the Institute for the Improvement of Education. Accredited training programmes cover topics such as Jewish culture and history, past and present antisemitism, multiperspectivity and the modern history of south-eastern Europe, and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.

 Association for Social History – EuroClio (presentation by EuroClio)

 Association for Social History – EuroClio (official website)

 Education for the 21st Century (presentation by EuroClio)