facingthepastshapingthefuture

1. Commemorating the Decade of Anniversaries www.facingthepastshapingthefuture.com

2. 11.am-12pmThis session is about • Introduction to Commemoration and Decade of Anniversaries • The Educational Context for Commemoration • Tour of the FacingthepastShapingtheFuture website • Issues for schools • Some next steps

3. Life in Education • Leadership is not mobilising others to solve problems we already know how to solve ,but to help them confront problems that have never yet been successfully addressed. • We cannot wait for great visions from great people for they are in short supply... It is up to us to light our own small fires in the darkness.

4. What is Commemoration ? Commemoration is the act of remembering . It is an active, creative process which continuously re- interprets the past. Commemoration is central to national identity and can be seen as the social and political glue which reinforces shared beliefs and offers collective reassurances . Monuments, public parades and events reflect the politics and culture of a society Commemorating Ireland History ,Politics and Culture : Bernard Bort.

5. What is the purpose of Commemoration ? “Identities and memories are not things we think ‘about’ but things we think ‘with’. As such they have no existence beyond our politics, our social relationships and our histories. We must take responsibility for their uses and abuses, recognising that every assertion of identity involves a choice that affects not just ourselves but others.” (Gillis, 1994: 3-5) • Commemoration can help us to reaffirm our sense of identity. • Can divide and unite us.

6. The real past or a construct? We are constantly reviving our memories to suit our current identities. Memories help us make sense of the world we live in and… are embedded in complex class, gender and other power relations that determine what is remembered (or forgotten) by whom and for what end. Identities and memories are highly selective, inscriptive rather than descriptive, serving particular interests and ideological positions. Just as memory and identity support one another, they also sustain certain subjective positions, boundaries and power. …..

7. The Decade of Anniversaries 2012- 2022 • http://www.community-relations.org.uk/marking-anniversaries

8. Bridging and Bonding the curriculum with commemoration • New lens through which we can revisit barriers to integration- new relationships with the past , communities reconnecting across the barrier created by populist interpretation of the past. • Role of the teacher as facilitator in helping young people to acquire the values, attitudes and dispositions which underpin democratic life.

9. Schools • History department - duty of historians to critically engage with the sources to help young people critique the official version of events and to create new interpretations. • Pressure for the history teacher is where the commemoration of historical events have clear implications for ongoing conflict and attempts at reconciliation.

10. Teaching sensitive and controversial issues around commemoration • Relevant because of what is happening in the world now • Deal with issues of injustice, intolerance and/or suffering • Deal with religious tensions • Deal with racial tensions • Deal with treatment of others, in terms of attitudes towards, repression of or retaliation of individuals and/or groups

11. Leadership and Management • ESAGS- Ethos • SDP- Section 2 • CRED Section 2 • Primary School WAU and PDMU • Post Primary History, Citizenship, RE ,Drama Art and Music.

12. Some examples of effective practice • There is a clarity of purpose about why a topic is being taught that focuses on exploring identity, values and diversity. • The use of an enquiry approach, encouraging pupils to ask and answer complex questions the human experience • Stereotypes are confronted by identifying pupil preconceptions and devising exercises and examples that challenge these. • An historically grounded approach is adopted both in terms of historical content and historical process; this would look at what happened, how we know, why there are differing accounts, why does it matter and so forth • Multiple perspectives are adopted to provide alternative points of view. • Deliberate linking of past and present, with a possible ‘present then past' approach.

13. Tour of the website • Approaches and skills • Teaching and Learning Strategies • Resources • Up and coming resources and new materials

14. Next steps for your school • Pilot the some of website resources and materials • Head of Department or WAU or PDMU Co-ordinator (time and space for training ) • CRED audit . • Leadership and Management of Shared Future agenda.