New books, new methods, new thinking 

History text books at schools are not only an interpretation of events in the past in book form but guide those from which they are taught how to perceive other communities or countries around them. As history books are authorised and edited by the state, objectivity is the last thing many can expect to find. In states like Cyprus where ethnic rivalry usually creates polarised positions in politics, history books, particularly those employed by the state in fact become tools or ammunition. 

In many parts of the world, history books are written by states when a) there is conflict internally or perhaps with another state, b) there are parts of history the state seeks to hide, c) to ensure loyalty and thus no inquisitive investigation of those running the state or their past activities. History books are the printed justification of the existence and righteousness of states or their abnormalities from birth. It is fair to say, some states are literally built on lies, distortion of the past or selective glorification of one aspect of their history but denial of another. Some states have prospered on inventing history or on selective history to support their past politics, but cracks soon show in the future when new challenges arise.  

HISTORY BOOKS

In Cyprus, where Cypriots are divided along ethnic lines, history has always depicted good vs. evil or glorified one group but demonised the other. The issue was raised by Stefanos Evripidou on Friday, in an article entitled “Text books must do away with the good, the bad and the ugly” on September 26, 2008 in the Cyprus Mail. Evripou highlighted a recent study by anthropologist Dr Yiannis Papadakis of the peace research institute PRIO, which found among other things that current Greek Cypriot history books and old pre-2004 Turkish Cypriot ones share a common form of “ethnic nationalism.” In his Evripou’s article, Papadakis remarked: “It is a classic scenario of history, which you see in Cyprus, the Balkans and many other places. You have the Good (the self, moral centre), the Bad (arch enemy) and the Ugly (usually Western powers who you expect to be good but are usually bad).”

While pre-2004 Turkish Cypriot history books depict the island’s Greek Cypriots as barbarians ready to kill them, Greek Cypriot history books paint a similar picture of the ‘terrible’ Turk. In both there is distortion of the island’s multicultural character. Greek Cypriot history books regard Cypriots as Greek Orthodox people, disregarding the islands other communities and religions. Sadly, Turkish Cypriots are not even regarded as a political community but as ‘Islamicised Greeks.’ Such a view is highly offensive to Turkish Cypriots many of whom define themselves as Cypriots and see Cyprus as their country.

Papadakis added that Turkish Cypriot history books by contrast since 2004 have radically changed. These books now show a map of Cyprus on the front cover and have moved away from being Turco-centric to Cyprio-centric. The books raise such issues as the British divide and rule policy in Cyprus but regrettably still do so from a Turkish Cypriot perspective. Looking at his own experiences, Papadakis argues that those learning history must be allowed more than one perspective.  

ENQUIRY BASED LEARNING (EBL)

Exploring the potential of an enquiry-based approach for history learning in Britain has produced many dividends for student understanding of history that Cyprus could well benefit from too.

In a discussion on good pedagogical practices, the University of Manchester teaching fellow Julie Lawton promotes Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL). While teaching an optional module on "Occupied France" Lawton experimented with EBL. Since the module dealt with the historical, and socio-political aspect of the period Lawton encouraged her students to try and understand some of the differing responses to this period of history by the French people. Lawton notes that while there are some very strong advocates of resistance such as Vercors and Sartre there are also those with different conclusions, such as Drieu La Rochelle.

Lawton aims to demonstrate to students that people did not always have a clear-cut choice between, say, collaboration with the Germans or resistance. She argues that many factors affected individual responses, and while some people supported one extreme view to the other, the majority acted somewhere in the middle. Getting students to question such pre-defined notions of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, Lawton got students to challenge conventional prejudices or fixed ideas about the ‘correct’ way to behave under the Occupation. Getting the students to understand the dilemma people faced at that time, Lawton invited them to assume the character of people living in an ordinary French village each with different priorities, problems and circumstances. Justifying the decision for a role play, Lawton added: “Clearly, to come to a proper decision, the students have to firstly have some notion of what would be influencing the attitude of each of the village characters - and in order to know that, they must engage in some form of investigation or enquiry about the context and experiences likely to be affecting those characters."Role play permitted students to empathies with people living through this period of time and to comprehend the conditions in which they lived. better understand not just historical events but the conditions surrounding the people who lived through them.  

NEW BOOKS, NEW METHODS, NEW THINKING

Instructional bias in history teaching must end. The practice is an insult to academic scrutiny and to people’s intelligence. In academia, history bias built on ethnic nationalism obscures the ability of researchers to properly research the past in order to understand the present. Manipulative, such distortions do not serve the interests of the state neither in the short or long term but encourages one lie led to more lies. Before long these lies will get out of hand, leaving question marks on many issues, while thus reducing credibility and respectability of the state. If Cyprus is aiming for reunification then the Government must take important steps to prepare the ground for encouraging a change of thinking.

Students learning history should be encouraged to raise their own questions about past events and be given as many angles as possible to understand why what happened in the past happened, the constraints people faced and why it is important and necessary now that these past actions are not repeated. Anachronistic, ethnic nationalism cannot be taken seriously to provide answers to questions of history, educators must employ new methods. Changing the history books is of course essential, but methods are important too. EBL is one methodology that history teachers can employ to encourage their students to think critically of historic theories while gaining a real insight into history, and not a repetition of pre-defined ideas.