Comenius Project "Europe 1914-1918-Crossing Views on the First World War"

Austrian final report

Before analyzing the work of the past two years  I would like to offer a short review of the Austrian contribution.

The first year of the project “ 1914-1918 – Crossing Views on the First World War” was dedicated to the comparison of curricula, teaching materials and the practical aspects of teaching of the countries involved.

Thus it was the Austrian team’s first task (axis 1) to summarize the most essential areas of responsibility of the Austrian curriculum concerning the subject ‘History and Social Studies/Civic Education’ dedicated to the First World War in our history text books in English. We had to differentiate between the lower and the upper teaching levels, though. This task was fulfilled well before the first meeting of the ‘pilot group’ which took place on December 14 and 15, 2007 in Lille/France, and the summaries were sent to the coordinating departments by electronic mail. This summary of the status quo was completed by a list of literature especially related with.

For the fulfillment of the next task (axis 2) five lesson plans and working materials were prepared and sent according to plan in March 2008. At the same time the teachers presented their respective classes as well as their schools in a form prepared in advance for this purpose.

These lesson plans, which were set up exactly and in great detail by my colleagues, confirm on the one hand that the four major textual aspects suggested by the EU project (reasons, course of events of the conflict, characteristics of a total war, peace contracts) may well be applied to history teaching in Austria. A further aspect shows that these lesson plans may serve as educationally valuable suggestions, as they were compiled by experienced colleagues who also teach professional didactics at university and /or are the authors of school books, like for instance Robert Beier. To be sure these lesson plans can also be used in other partner countries (on the basis of different text books, of course) as they have been tested in practice on the one hand and as they agree with the most typical professional educational criteria on the other hand. As already mentioned in the beginning of the project by the Austrian partners, these lesson plans also confirmed, on the other hand, that especially in the lower teaching levels of Austrian schools (pupils from 10-14 years of age) aspects like ‘battles, military successes and failures, or military leaders’ are merely of secondary importance.”I do not consider teaching about battles and military successes and defeats as very worthwhile – they might lead to a fascination with wars – reasons and consequences of wars seem more important to me.” (quotation by my colleague Ilse Abdel Nabi, one of the teachers involved in our project)

It goes without saying that the coordinating partners were sent a list of questions in German and English seen from the Austrian point of view, which was arranged in a similar way to the lists of questions that had been mailed to us as examples by our French and Belgian partners.

The Austrian partners tackled the last comprehensive topic of the first year of the project (axis 3) by issuing a detailed description as well as some practical information about some important museums and memorial sites commemorating the topic of the First World War andAustria. The “Museum of Military History” in Vienna as well as the “Museum 1915-1918 From the Ortler Mountains To the Adriatic Sea” in Kötschach-Mauthen in Carinthia were at the centre of attention. We also provided some educational advice and suggestions concerning the use and integration of these sites into school lessons.

At the beginning of the second year of the project the members of the pilot group were invited to Vienna for the 3rd meeting on September 26 and 27, 2008, by the Austrian partners. During this meeting the Austrian hosts organized guided tours through the Museum of Military History in Vienna in German and French. In these guided tours, which were up to the latest standards of research, the fact was taken into consideration that it is not the presentation of museum exhibits, but above all dealing with the past, a culture of commemoration, that counts.

 

The Austrian partners’ examples concerning ‘memorials, memorial sites, etc.’ are to be regarded according to the latter aspect.

As planned, the second year of the project was dedicated to the implementation of the material for the methodical-educational website and its testing (axis 4). ‘With the educational material provided, the bibliographical hints and the suggestions for practical educational use our focus was on the peace treaties and the consequences of the war. Firstly, this is actually a main focus of history teaching in Austrian schools, secondly the Austrian partners are not offered the financial means to hire any additional staff. It proved impossible for both the university lectors and the high school teachers participating in the project to spare extra time in order to work out each single chapter of the project module didactically and to implement it into the project bilingually next to their main occupation.

Our latest contribution is some information about the most topical findings in connection with the First World War. The current exhibition at the Museum of Military History in Vienna is described in German as well as in English. Its topic is the brotherhood in arms between Austria-Hungary and German Empire with Bulgaria. The title of the exhibition is “The unknown ally Bulgaria in World War 1”. We also added suitable suggestions for educational use.

Concerning the aspect of ‘testing of the module with pupils’ we tried out the website-based questionnaire with such of our pupils who had not previously dealt with the topic of the First World War in their lessons. When assessing the results it turned out that the pre-knowledge of the pupils concerning this topic before taking it in their lessons was mostly marginal.

The main focus of testing the module for (further) education was a survey conducted with six high school teachers. The respective results were sent to the coordinating departments at the agreed time.