Confronting Memories

Where has Confronting Memories taken us — and where will we go next?

Last week, Confronting Memories held its reflection workshop for the ongoing capacity project, funded by the Auswärtiges Amt. There, we invited ambassadors and local coordinators to zoom in and out – to position their work against broader historical, political and societal landscapes. Using the disruptive design approach, we collectively examined the challenges educators face. What did we discover?

Safe spaces matter. Years of collaboration have strengthened trust among participants, enabling open sharing of diverse, interconnected perspectives — a core aim of promoting multiperspectivity in history education.

Context shapes teaching. Mapping socio-political realities revealed how post-conflict dynamics in Armenia, Georgia’s negotiations with Soviet legacies, Russian influence, and Moldova’s European integration path deeply affect historical narratives in classrooms.

Stories foster reflection. Through the “Living Library” format, ambassadors framed their learning journeys with metaphorical titles, sparking empathetic dialogue and deeper understanding of personal and professional transformations.

Solutions emerge from within. Ambassadors are applying programme skills to local needs — from Armenian initiatives that amplify first-hand historical accounts to Daniela Vacarciuc’s Moldovan textbook on using monuments in history teaching, echoing our pedagogical approach.

That’s just a teaser of everything that was discussed. The next year may hold many surprises, but the focus on impacting history education will continue to grow — we can’t wait to see what’s next!

🍏 Our ambassadors are the key connecting point of our current project -- they connect our materials with new teachers and students in the field.
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Meet Tamuna Macharashvili, one of our ambassadors from Gerogia!

When asked to describe her experience working with Confronting Memories, she had this to say:

"Teaching is not just a profession for me, it is constant learning and sharing. Being an ambassador for “Conflicting Memories” gives me the opportunity to be part of an innovative vision that promotes the development of critical and analytical thinking, multi-perspective vision in both students and teachers.

In today’s changing, tense and conflict-filled world, a multi-perspective vision of history teaching can teach us concession, acceptance, empathy and critical understanding of events. History in the hands of teachers is both a weapon and a tool — a weapon to destroy stereotypes and a tool to create the future.

Multi-perspective teaching of history is an opportunity to question the narratives on which our identity is based. Our past contains not only victories, but also difficulties and contradictions; it is important to understand both failures and successes.

Participating in this project means for me a responsibility to be a disseminator of knowledge and to contribute to the development of skills such as empathy, acceptance of different perspectives and the desire to resolve conflicts nonviolently in young people.

I believe that education is the force that transforms society — and this transformation begins with one question asked, one lesson and one student."

Auswärtiges Amt

🍏 Our ambassadors are the key connecting point of our current project -- they connect our materials with new teachers and students in the field.

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Meet Armine Khachatryan, one of our ambassadors from Armenia! When asked to describe her experience working with Confronting Memories, she had this to say:

"'All people want to have a better world
And teachers want to give the world better people.'
— Aristotle

[Regarding my experience with Confronting Memories], to say that it provided our students with knowledge, skills, and new methods would be an understatement. Lessons on contested histories were conducted in more than ten schools, linking them with local, community-based narratives

It was an interesting, rich, and unique program that supports educators with ready-made materials enriched with real-life stories and fragments from eyewitness diaries."

Auswärtiges Amt

We’re excited to share that Mikayel Zolyan’s article for our Confronting Memories programme, “The End of the ‘Big Brother’ Myth in Armenia,” has just been published in New Eastern Europe journal and is now available to read.

The article explores how the image of Russia as Armenia’s “protector” and “saviour” became woven into the political narratives over the last two centuries—rooted in a history of Russian interventions under the Ottoman Empire. Drawing on Armenia’s collective memory and recent developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the article uncovers how Russian imperial influence has endured through constant reinvention. It invites reflection on the persistence of imperial narratives—and what it means to confront them today.

Read the full piece on the New Eastern Europe website (https://neweasterneurope.eu/2025/05/05/the-end-of-the-big-brother-myth-in-armenia/), and discover more about our Confronting Memories programme (confronting-memories.org).

🍏 Our ambassadors are the key connecting point of our current project -- they connect our materials with new teachers and students in the field. We are grateful for their commitment and hope to introduce you to some of them in the coming weeks.

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Meet Alexandru Seu, one of our ambassadors from Moldova! When asked to describe his experience working with Confronting Memories, he had this to say:

"The partnership with Confronting Memories means for teachers in the Republic of Moldova an opportunity to become familiar with a new vision in teaching history and with a series of innovative historiographical and socio-cultural landmarks on well-known and established subjects.

Through Confronting Memories, we have created a collaboration network with teachers in the country and abroad, within which we discuss and analyze the similarities of historical processes and phenomena in our countries, as well as the possibilities of approaching and curricular insertion of certain subjects, so that our students analyze them critically and multi-perspectively.

Involvement in the development of teaching materials on various topics of contemporary history and their promotion in the northern region of the Republic of Moldova during training sessions has demonstrated to me the interest of our colleagues and students in recent history, in national and local historical landmarks, but also their visions about the impact of the past on current developments.
Confronting Memories certainly succeeds in creating applicative and qualitative teaching resources that strengthen historical awareness and civics."

Auswärtiges Amt

🙏Thank you to EuroClio - European Association of History Educators for allowing Confronting Memories a platform at the ongoing EuroClio Conference: Patterns in History in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Participants of the workshop "Teaching Sensitive History: Conflicts in the Post-Soviet Space" engaged on a critical exercise on our approach towards multiperspectivity and the application of the Council of Europe competences for democratic citizenship.

As the audience was made of expert educators, we greatly appreciate the opportunity to learn their insight and receive feedback on the major outcomes of the ongoing project so far.

We hope that you also enjoyed the chance to participate!

Step by step, our Confronting Memories (CM) programme is transforming history education. Eight months ago, CM invited 15 representatives for the programme—dedicated educators from Armenia, Georgia and Moldova— to become ambassadors and champion the CM approach and materials in schools across their countries.

Last week, after months of hands-on Training of Trainer and pilot classroom lesson implementation, these ambassadors came together in Tbilisi, Georgia for an evaluation workshop. It was a chance to reflect, exchange ideas and strengthen ambassadors' impact under the auspices of the programme.

The CM programme and its ambassadors promote multiperspectivity as well as a value- and attitude-based approach that encourages openness to diverse perspectives, respect for human rights and responsible civic engagement. We’re proud of their efforts and can’t wait to see what’s next!

If you want to learn more about the CM approach and history materials, visit their website (https://confronting-memories.org/).

📍 And that's a wrap!

🇬🇪 Last week, we concluded our midterm evaluation workshop in Tbilisi, Georgia, where ambassadors from Armenia, Georgia and Moldova joined together after more than half a year of implementing their Trainings of Trainers and pilot classroom sessions in their respective regions.

📖 We began the workshop with a summary of our activities, critically reflecting on being Confronting Memories ambassadors, inputs from coordinators as well as a presentation on our interim evaluation results. The next days, we dove deeper into the use of Confronting Memories materials in the classroom, the methodology in general and further practice on developing lesson plans using the Confronting Memories approach.

🫂 Despite the difficult time we are all living in, be it specific to our countries of residence or the globe at large, it is times like these that are especially valuable: this workshop and its dedicated participants, who understand the importance of our approach and the complex needs of our students, have provided for a wonderful chance to exchange and further develop our resilience.

🔜 We look forward to the next months of our ambassadors' work and the continued development of our network!

̈rtigesamt

In a recent EuroClio - European Association of History Educators interview, our colleague Christoph Sproul, project manager of the CSF Confronting Memories programme, discusses the importance of applying a multiperspective approach in history education—a core principle promoted by CM.

"Traditional history education tends to focus on military victories," Christoph notes. World War II is often presented through a national lens, with each country highlighting aspects that align with its own historical narrative. A closer look at national curricula reveals just how differently these perspectives are shaped.

The CSF Confronting Memories programme advocates for a multiperspective approach, designed to foster critical thinking and equip history teachers with high-quality educational materials. Read the full interview with Christoph by following the link (https://l1nq.com/2mqg5).

📣 We will be presenting our methodology and some of our lesson materials at the upcoming EuroClio - European Association of History Educators conference.

More information can be found attached. We hope to see you there!