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Where and How Do Pupils in Serbia Learn About the 1990s Yugoslav Wars?

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Nationhood and Politicization of History in School Textbooks

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Abstract

The paper explores perceptions of the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s among secondary-school and MA students of history in the Republic of Serbia. The starting premise is that pupils should gain access to information, research, and certain attitudes toward recent conflicts within the official education system, but the outcome seems to be the opposite. Surveys and studies show that the main source of information about this recent history comes from a wider social milieu. History textbooks in Serbia, as the main teaching material, in most cases contain closed narratives written in quite distant and neutral manner with selective choice of data. The specific focus is put on visual materials/sources represented in history textbooks as the information that could additionally construct the notion about the Yugoslav Wars.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This has been elaborated in detail through various studies, such as Anderson (1990), Kuljić (2006).

  2. 2.

    Societies all over the world wrestle with the question of compulsory history education in schools. In most of these “history wars,” there is a political battle between the functions of history education. Put simply, on one side of the debate is the opinion that history must uphold a united sense of national identity through the retelling of a single national history that upholds one truth as the legitimate narrative. On the other side is the viewpoint that history education has the possibility to support the emancipation of minority groups as well as the recognition of a variety of historical narratives and viewpoints. These issues are addressed in Carretero and Bermudez (2012).

  3. 3.

    The purpose and goals of history education in Serbia are defined by Article 8 Paragraph 16 of the basic educational law Zakon o osnovama sistema obrazovanja i vaspitanja (Belgrade, Serbia: The Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia No. 88/2017 and No. 27/2018) [The law on the foundations of the education system] and in the educational programs for both primary and secondary education, which are currently undergoing changes.

  4. 4.

    Examinees were free to give whatever response they thought was correct, rather than multiple choice.

  5. 5.

    ePACT: Education Partnership for Advocacy, Capacity-Building and Transformation project developed by EUROCLIO in cooperation with CDRSEE and with the support of Austrian Development Cooperation had the overall objective to contribute to sustaining the democratization process and enhancing conflict sensitivity in the Western Balkans through reforms and implementation of changes in the formal schooling system that will intensify democratic education. The project strived to achieve that education authorities and civil society jointly reform education and schools in the region to enhance critical thinking and active citizenship. These two competencies are key drivers of all forms of development, but particularly of the development of a vibrant civil society that is ready to protect and defend democratic values, gender mainstreaming, environmental protection and a culture of non-violent conflict resolution.

    More information on the project can be accessed at: https://euroclio.eu/projects/epact-education-partnership-advocacy-capacity-building-transformation/.

  6. 6.

    Learning a History that is ‘not yet History’ is a project developed by EUROCLIO and its members seeking the answer to the question of how to teach the history of recent wars, which is often considered not yet to be history but is remembered in many different ways and has been investigated in great detail in the context of transitional justice, by investing in a unique partnership among teachers and their associations from former Yugoslavia, in which transnational teams will collaboratively create a free ready-to-use learning resource about the Yugoslav Wars.

  7. 7.

    Vrbas is a town and municipality located in the South Bačka District of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia.

  8. 8.

    In total 532 pupils were examined from seven secondary schools: the IX Grammar School “Mihailo Petrović-Alas” (Belgrade, 110 examinees), the Sportive High School (Belgrade, 80 examinees), the Grammar School “Žarko Zrenjanin” (Vrbas, 59 examinees), the XIV Grammar School (Belgrade, 79 examinees), the VII Grammar School (Belgrade, 61), the Zemun Gymnasium (Belgrade, 86 examinees), and the Technical Secondary School “Branko Žeželj” (Belgrade, 57).

  9. 9.

    Slobodan Milošević (1941–2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician and the president of Serbia (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) from 1989 to 1997 and president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000. In the midst of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, Milošević was charged by the ICTY with war crimes in connection to the wars in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo.

  10. 10.

    The textbooks in question were:

    • Gaćeša et al. (2010)

    • Ljušić and Dimić (2010)

    • Vajagić and Stošić (2011)

    • Đurić and Pavlović (2010a)

    • Pavlović and Bosnić (2010)

    • Svilar Dujković and Dujković (2013)

    • Radojević (2014)

    • Nikolić et al. (2003).

  11. 11.

    Some of these traps and myths related to the usage of primary sources in history teaching have been elaborated in Barton (2005).

  12. 12.

    The textbooks in question are:

    • Kovačević et al. (2001)

    • Rajić et al. (2005)

    • Đurić and Pavlović (2010a)

    • Bondžić and Nikolić (2015)

    • Nikolić et al. (2003)

    • Đurić and Pavlović (2010b)

    • Pavlović and Bosnić (2010)

    • Simić and Petrović (2016)

    • Vajagić and Stošić (2011)

    • Radojević (2014)

    • Ljušić and Dimić (2010)

    • Ljušić and Dimić (2013)

    • Svilar Dujković and Dujković (2013)

    • Omrčen and Grbović (2014).

  13. 13.

    Franjo Tuđman is visually represented as an individual in Ljušić and Dimić (2010, 239; 2013, 287), Radojević (2014, 377), Vajagić and Stošić (2011, 194), Alija Izetbegović pictures can be found in Ljušić and Dimić (2010, 240; 2013, 288), Radojević (2014, 377), Vajagić and Stošić (2011, 195), Simić and Petrović (2016, 229).

  14. 14.

    Sandra Vitaljić, author and the curator of the exhibition, also published her Ph.D. thesis titled Rat slikama; suvremena ratna fotografija emphasizing especially the use and misuse of war photography during the wars of 1990s in Yugoslavia: Vitaljić (2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Marko Šuica, Ana Radaković & Slobodan Rudić

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  1. Marko Šuica
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  1. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Gorana Ognjenović

  2. Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Oslo, Norway

    Jasna Jozelić

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Šuica, M., Radaković, A., Rudić, S. (2020). Where and How Do Pupils in Serbia Learn About the 1990s Yugoslav Wars?. In: Ognjenović, G., Jozelić, J. (eds) Nationhood and Politicization of History in School Textbooks. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38121-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38121-9_8

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