Dealing with the past as a mission

In many of IDMC's activities that have aimed at dealing with the past, one of the common conclusions drawn has been related to the way the history and particularly the past of the totalitarian regime in Albania has been taught in school. The coverage of this period, even in the history textbooks, needs improvements. Therefore careful review of the curriculum remains a priority task. This concern was shared by the students of journalism and history at the University of Tirana during a study trip in the former notorious political prison of Spac. Review of the curriculum should certainly be done by the historians, but history teachers in secondary and high schools should not be ignored as well, for they have the difficult task of addressing dictatorship to a generation born in the years of democracy, who view the historical period as distant.

In order to see how the past has actually been dealt with the past in Albanian high schools, on 14 April 2016 IDMC organized a meeting entitled "Dealing with the Past as a Mission". The meeting was attended by history teachers from different high schools of Tirana, such as "Qemal Stafa", "A.Z. Çajupi", "Ismail Qemali", "Sami Frashëri", "Partizani" and "Arben Broci".

Director of IDMC and moderator of the meeting, Jonila Godole, emphasized the method used in teaching and concrete examples which should link theory and practice. The classic education methods from top to bottom – where a teacher explains and the pupil applies the knowledge by taking an exam – is insufficient to attract the attention of the new generation about the importance of acknowledging and dealing with the past.

For this reason, participants discussed for an interdisciplinary approach that combines the classic way of teaching with other forms that excite the curiosity of the young people, such as workshops for different topics, movie/documentary screening in class, talks with witnesses of the old time, former political perscutees, experts, study trips to places of memory, creative competitions on this topic etc.

The history teachers reflected on the approach used to acknowledge the past and in particular this period of the totalitarian regime in Albania. They encouraged ideas and proposals for joint projects in the future to include teachers, high school students and other stakeholders, especially those who directly experienced Albania's tough totalitarian regime.

Because of the fact that many young people nowadays say the coverage done to the dictatorship period in schools or universities is neglected, IDMC aims to extend these meetings by including literature and history teachers from high schools in other Albanian cities. Young people often claim to have learned more about the totalitarian regime from their parents than from what they studied in school. Only by reflecting on this situation will we be able to create ways to raise awareness and engage the young people in activities related to the acknowledgment and reflection about the past. Only by confronting the past as it was, without distorting or hiding it, can we achieved objective acknowledgment. Therefore, IDMC considers it is necessary to open a dialogue with history and literature teachers about dictatorship in Albania.