Presentation of results: Content analysis of all school textbooks in geography, history, language and religion in BiH

This presentation was made at the XIII World Congress of Comparative Education Societies. It can be downloaded here.

The full report in Bosnian is available here and a summary in English is here.

Overview

This study presents the main results of an extensive content analysis textbooks of religious education and the so-called national group of subjects (mother language, geography and history). The study involved the entire texts and graphic material of all the textbooks recommended for use by the Ministries of the Federation of B&H and Republika Srpska in 2005.

Conclusions

• The textbooks contribute to segregation and antagonism in B&H
• Each is oriented to one particular ethnic group
• Students do not learn about the other groups
• Many books serve to develop a stronger feeling of belonging to other countries (Croatia, Serbia) than to B&H

Recommendations

• For the Ministries of Education ...
  • Revise the contents of the Common curriculum with emphasis on multicultural approach
  • Encourage open society principles and critical thinking
  • Include professional pedagogues
• For authors
  • Writing a textbook needs to be a multidisciplinary task
  • Use the guidelines!
  • Respect modern principles of how children learn!
• For teachers
  • Stress the social and political importance and consequences of what children learn in these subjects
  • Active role in influencing Ministries and publishers