Report of the Comenius 1 History Project Meeting

Rome, 5 - 10 April 2005

The final meeting of the 'Qui non si fa la storia' project took place in Rome under difficult circumstances brought about by the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II. The planned activities had to be altered at the last minute as a result. Nevertheless, all the activities which had been planned for at the Portugal meeting were able to take place and only one or two additional events (such as a music performance) had to be abandoned. The Italian partners had worked very hard both in advance and in the final difficult days to ensure that the final meeting would be a success.

Apart from a short preparatory session, the main part of the Rome meeting took the form of a presentation of the project and its results. It was held in the presence, and with the participation, of students from the Rome schools and Romania, plus members of staff from the Italian schools, their headmasters, and representatives of the Comune of Rome and the Ministry of Education. The presentation was spread over two days and took place on Thursday 7 April in IPSIA Carlo Cattaneo in Rome, and the Art School in Pomezia on Friday 8 April.

DAY 1: IPSIA Carlo Cattaneo

The meeting began with an address from the Headmaster of IPSIA Carlo Cattaneo. He explained why the project had been important for his school. Many of its students are from disadvantaged backgrounds, and he felt it was important that they were given the opportunity of participating in an international project which gave them contact with students abroad. He also stressed the importance of studying history. It is often the case that historical issues are treated in a superficial way by the mass media, and it was important for students to develop critical faculties which enabled them to use reasoning and analysis to make sense of the information that they are presented with.

A second address was given by a representative of the Comune of Rome. This looked at the issue of memory and memorials. One important date in the history of Rome was 10 September 1943, the day when Germans occupied the capital to prevent the government signing a peace treaty with the Allied forces. Schools in Rome had been involved in a variety of activities related to both this event and the liberation of Rome from Nazi domination in 1945. The role of memory was shown by the way the young people of 1943 and 1945 could tell their story to the young people of today. They can tell us not only about the events but the way they experienced these events. This makes the past real and this is important. Another example of this is the Holocaust. The speaker said that even teachers find it difficult to imagine the scale of something like Auschwitz. It is not just a question of what happened, but how it happened, and in a 'civilised' country.

The next session consisted of an introduction to the project by the Romanian partner. This described in detail the work that had been undertaken over the course of three years and which showed how the project had evolved in that time. In the first year work had gone into developing materials on the issues of 'People and power', 'People on the move' and 'People at work'. These materials were generated by the teachers.

In the second year the focus changed. More emphasis was put on students generating materials such as CD-Rom and PowerPoint presentations. It was during the second year that the history forum was developed. This used historiographical questions to encourage debate among students and bring them into contact with students from other partners.

The final year of the project had concentrated on taking the history forum further and focussing on the issue of terrorism.

The next part of the meeting looked at the work that had been done over the previous year on terrorism. At this point students from IPSIA Carlo Cattaneo presented some of their work. Francesca discussed the project and the way that the issue of terrorism had been dealt with. Until recently it was felt that politics was only the concern of important people, but events such as 11 September in New York and 11 March in Madrid had brought this much closer. It was therefore important that students express their ideas on this. Rico agreed that terrorism had become important. It affects our lives and the concept had changed from being an abstract one to a real and important one. It could make people feel impotent in the face of grand events. The issue of how the media treated the issue of terrorism was also seen as an issue to be looked at. Another Cattaneo student then presented the case of Pisacane who fought and died for the unification of Italy but who was treated as a terrorist during his lifetime.

Andrei, a Romanian student then presented a short film that the partner school had created that looked at the issue of terrorism. The Portuguese partner then presented web pages that they had done on the same subject. The Edinburgh school discussed the case of William Wallace which students had looked at. Wallace, like Pisacane was regarded as a terrorist but is now considered by many to be a freedom fighter. At the Portugal meeting the Spanish partner had shown a film on terrorism and so did not repeat this at the Rome meeting. The Pomezia school had material to show the group on terrorism, but this would take place on the following day.

The next session was introduced by Claudio Federico who was involved in initiating the project in the first place, but was there representing the Italian Ministry of Education. He discussed the role of the European dimension to history. Many conventional school history textbooks see history from a national perspective, but current developments mean that this approach is no longer appropriate. The issue of terrorism, which knows no national boundaries, is a good example. Furthermore, history is important because it shapes our customs, the ways we think and react to events. The role of teachers is to develop the critical spirit. Another aspect of history teaching that concerns the project is the role of the student. The study of history must involve the students and they must shape it and use it as a means of expression. Therefore, history does not always have to be in written form. It can be through images which do not depend on language and are easy to understand. There are examples of films which are on the Council of Europe History Teaching Site which perform this role. This leads to the concept of 'multiperspectivity' in the study and teaching of history.

A round table on history was introduced by the Portuguese partner. She suggested that history has two functions - informative and formative. History helps us understand our world, while it also helps us develop the skills of analysis and synthesis, methods of research and finally qualities of tolerance. In the Portuguese school technical students were not interested in history. But it is important for them because it can help them think about their world and through the project this was made clear. The project worked well and all the class participated in it. It was also important in Portugal because there is the feeling that the country is out on the far edge of Europe, and collaboration with other European partners had helped overcome this.

A teacher from Cattaneo emphasised the novel approach that the project had encouraged - the use of technology. Cattaneo is a professional institute so history is not a normal part of the students' work. However, by using technology more involvement in history had become possible. The project had also been multi-disciplinary, using not just ICT but languages and so on. It also made the European dimension a real one for the students.

A teacher from Pomezia described their work on the project. This Art School became involved in the second year and so was not in from the start. However, students had been enthusiastic and were now putting forward ideas for projects themselves. This shows that the project did not have a closed approach, but one which was wider.

Speaking for the Spanish partner, one teacher talked about the production of the film on terrorism. Within the school there is a fairly rigid split between the academic and technical sides. Technical students do not study history. However, the teacher did not agree with this division because it left the technical students with too limited an outlook and made them a bit like robots which have been prepared only to work but not think.

The Romanian teacher explained some of the difficulties they had faced. The history teacher had not wanted to be involved in the project and had not wanted to change her way of teaching from the traditional 'chalk and talk'. However, through the work of the teachers who were part of the project, the students had come to see that there are other ways of working and the history teacher had seen how the students were influenced by new ideas and approaches. Now she is ready to accept different methods. Other changes that had been encouraged by the project: at the start there was only one computer in the school available to students. Now there is a computer lab for all. This opens up the sort of things that can be studied by students. So the project has played an important role.

In the general discussion it was pointed out that under Comenius 'Qui non si fa la storia' was a 'school development project' and that in assessing the work that had been done this aspect should be emphasised. In Scotland it had led to members of different departments working together for the first time, and new methods such as ICT technology and trips to historical sites had been brought in for the first time.

It was argued that in describing the work of the project it was important not only to concentrate on its successes, but also on the major difficulties that we had to confront and the ways in which these difficulties were overcome.

The project had changed the schools of the various partners. We had concentrated on the teaching and study of history but, almost independently of our wills, had succeeded in bringing about changes within the institutions. This was because the approach had been non-dogmatic and flexible and had not stuck to fixed objectives. We had been able to change our approach mid-stream.

DAY 2: ISA Pomezia

The final day of the project meeting was held in Pomezia. The whole of the entrance area was taken up by an exhibition of work by the students. It had been inspired by the work of terrorism by the other schools. The day was led off by the Headmaster who said that from the point of view of the Art School the project had begun with some major organisational difficulties, but the teachers and students had taken it up enthusiastically.

There was a general discussion on the project's methodology led off by the Coordinator from Cattaneo. The project had brought history closer to students who would otherwise have left it aside. It has succeeded because it emphasised the students' own activity. This had been learnt after the first year which had stressed the development of materials by teachers. This proved a dead-end. Instead the use of technology, and innovations such as a history forum had opened the way to broader student involvement. The forum proved a great step forward, not just technically, but because it used challenging questions to provoke a student response.

There followed a number of presentations from individual partners. The Spanish gave a slide show (Italian version, Spanish version) which summarised the general work that the project had undertaken over the last three years and raised the issue of dissemination and evaluation (through questionnaires). The role of ICT for the project in Scotland was described, showing how it had been introduced into the history curriculum for the first time because of this project. The students had conducted web research, produced PowerPoint presentations and contributed to the online history forum to great effect. The benefits for the students involved, which included greater motivation and improvement of ICT skills, were emphasised. Some of the practical difficulties encountered, such as access to ICT equipment and the integration of traditional and new learning techniques, were also presented together with the ways in which some of these problems were overcome.

Referring to the issue of 'People and power', the Romanians presented a short film on the life of Ceaucescu. Pomezia put forward the ideas that students had concerning new projects which they felt could be still more interesting and involving than the present one.

The final session of the meeting looked at the future of European educational projects. Firstly, the approach should be on learning and the activity of the learner rather than the traditional role of teaching. The process of education must be 'owned' by the students themselves. The aims of the EU are ambitious. 1 in 20 students should be involved in a Comenius project in the period 2007-13. There will be more opportunities for student mobility under the new arrangements. Twinning of schools will be introduced. Tempus Plus, which currently only operates at University level will be extended to schools. Links will be made beyond the current boundaries of the EU. The division between Socrates and Leonardo will be ended.

In 2006 project proposals will need to include how projects will be validated and disseminated. The themes of the projects will be monitored and participants working on similar themes will be encouraged to share their experiences. 25% of projects will be linguistic.

In concluding remarks a Scottish teacher stressed that the last two days of the meeting had concentrated on presenting the products of the project, such as material on terrorism. However, the project was also about ‘school development’. In other words it was a process and each of the partners had demonstrated considerable progress over the three years. The changes that had occurred in each of the partner schools in Italy, Portugal, Romania, Scotland and Spain had operated at the level of the institutions themselves, for the teachers and above all for the student experience of history. Hopefully, the changes would be of lasting benefit and will reach not only those students who participated directly in the project, but also those students who would join the schools in the future.

After Rome

Although we have had our last project meeting, it was previously agreed that we will undertake a process of evaluation using questionnaires (for students, teachers and school managements). A final publication (in a form still to be determined) will be produced.