Speaking out about crises and their forecasting is always a thankless task. On the one hand, the researcher will receive a lot of criticism from crisis management specialists, economists and analysts. On the other hand, he will be caught in the crossfire of colleagues from related sciences for appropriating and simplifying theories of social and political crises. The processes of digitalization and the emergence of media didactics led to qualitative changes in the creation and distribution of textbooks, made school knowledge a favorable environment for the formation of future crises associated with contradictions in the interpretation of historical events, the role and place of the individual in history, the construction of contradictory visual images of countries and peoples. In this regard, the research of the monitoring and prognostic function of textbooks as sources of conflict forecasting is gaining a new sound.
Valerii Goncharov Analyzing visual Communication in History Textbooks in the Context of the Reconstruction of educational Systems in Crisis Regions
Speaking out about crises and their forecasting is always a thankless task. On the one hand, the researcher will receive a lot of criticism from crisis management specialists, economists and analysts. On the other hand, he will be caught in the crossfire of colleagues from related sciences for appropriating and simplifying theories of social and political crises. The processes of digitalization and the emergence of media didactics led to qualitative changes in the creation and distribution of textbooks, made school knowledge a favorable environment for the formation of future crises associated with contradictions in the interpretation of historical events, the role and place of the individual in history, the construction of contradictory visual images of countries and peoples. In this regard, the research of the monitoring and prognostic function of textbooks as sources of conflict forecasting is gaining a new sound.1
In the 70s and 80s of the twentieth century, crises were thought of mainly as correctors of political systems. The political situation and the confrontation between the two systems was conducted in an analog world at that time, devoid of the advantages of social networks, mass media technologies. Therefore, "fictional crises were not crises". Crises had to be prevented and anticipated, as well as predicted. Textbooks in socialist countries talked about the crisis of capitalism, and in the West they talked about the problems of a planned economy with its indispensable attribute - a deficit. School history textbooks on both sides were full of ideological messages that shaped the political worldview of teenagers.
At the beginning of the digital XXI century, the concept of "crisis" began to be supplemented. For example, the "collective crisis" has become a tool for perceiving a problematic situation that cannot be dealt with using conventional methods of solution. "Fictional crises" have become fashionable and have become an integral part of society's life. Such an evolution of the concept of crisis has led to the emergence of various dimensions of its penetration into society. On the one hand, we came to the conclusion of accepting the inevitable ("crises are important because they emphasize certain elements of the social order"), "it is necessary to learn from crises", on the other hand, the interpretations of crises have become more multidimensional. For example, studying the language of Nazi Germany, researchers found that social and political crises and upheavals are represented by new topics and new forms of communication, new types of text, new styles, new vocabulary. The concept of "crisis" has become socially acceptable and has assumed a didactic and corrective function. Today we do not convene international conferences in order to prevent "crises", but we call the elements of their highest escalation in the form of armed conflicts "peace enforcement", "democratization", "salvation", plunging more and more into the world of reality simulation.
Since the concept of "crisis" has acquired a multidimensional character, we can also talk about social and political crises caused by a change (construction - deconstruction) of people's historical consciousness. If in the analog era two realities (socialist and capitalist) opposed each other, then in the digital era we can construct hundreds of similar realities depending on the current political course or external request. Textbooks from this point of view have retained a translational and ideological function and are one of the means of creating new political realities.
Characteristics of crisis studies in textbooks
The study of crises in textbooks can be divided into several main areas. The first direction concentrates its efforts on studying the representation of the concept of "crisis" in educational texts. For example, an employee of the Institute for the Study of School Textbooks in Braunschweig M. Otto analyzed the strategies used for crisis analysis and crisis knowledge. He talks about inductive (the concept of "crisis") and deductive strategy ("crisis events or phenomena") and notes that "a great methodological potential lies in the creation and digital development of extensive textbook bodies for research using digital humanities methods2. The approach of Yu. Hesse, who also explores the mapping of crises in high school teaching texts, also seems interesting3.
The second direction concerns the study of texts in order to predict social and political conflicts. "In the beginning, bombs fall on the pages of books", D. Wertheimer, the head of the Cassandra project, accurately noted4. He devoted his research to early detection of crises through literature evaluation using mixed methods. Literary texts in German, English and other European languages were analyzed using artificial intelligence using quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. The Cassandra project has built its own research network, and uses authors from conflict regions of Europe as "seismographs". The German association "Working Group on Historical Studies of Peace and Conflict"5 is another example of studying texts from a prognostic point of view. The purpose of this association is to study peace and conflict management in the historical dimension. The members of the working group emphasize that the crisis has become a key concept in the first third of the XXI century.
Both directions indicated by us show that educational texts can be used to predict and monitor social and political crises, adjust the created realities. The most accessible object of research for the purpose of forecasting is visual communication in school textbooks (illustrations, infographics, color solutions, didactic illustrative materials and maps). For example, semiotic analysis was used in the analysis of myth-making through visual communication in Albanian school textbooks using the functions of "representation" and "interaction"6. To analyze the level of militarization in the textbooks of socialist Macedonia, the method of visual semiotics was used7. Mixed methods made it possible to study Albanian textbooks after the educational reform of 20048. The study of images in newspapers in order to reconstruct the image of a social group was carried out using the method of thematic content analysis. An interesting experience is the study of selective visual memories in the form of photo albums, where owners place their photos in accordance with certain principles9.
Visual materials have already been the subject of consideration by researchers for the purpose of forecasting in the field of geopolitics. For example, geographical maps studied by R. Kaplan. He stressed that geography can tell much more about the goals and strategies of the state than ideology and foreign policy. Among the forecasts of the American analyst is the crisis between the south and north of Europe, which is "the most serious problem for the community of European states since the war in Yugoslavia", as well as the creation of "energetic and independent" buffer states between maritime Europe and the Eurasian space in the interests of the "free world"10. Today, the concept of "buffering" is implemented in a practical plane.
Correlation of means of visual communication and historical consciousness
When analyzing visual communication in history textbooks in the context of the reconstruction of educational systems in crisis regions, the most difficult task is to correlate the means of visual communication with the dimensions of historical self-awareness. According to the methodology of H.Pandel historical consciousness is not a formal orientation in historical events and times, but rather a socio-political orientation in changing social relations. Historical consciousness is equal to political consciousness11. The researcher identifies three main levels of human historical consciousness. The basic level is the consciousness of time. The immune category that allows you to resist myths, legends and distortion of history is the consciousness of reality, and the consciousness of changes allows you to gain social experience. B. Hanke suggests adding three more markers to the designated levels - consciousness of differences, consciousness of identity, consciousness of values. In her opinion, they should influence the proposed levels and correspond to the experience of today's schoolchildren12.
Taking into account the above prerequisites, a predictive strategy can be constructed that takes into account the leading and lagging factors in the listed categories. We will call the leading indicators the influence of visual communication on a specific target group (for example, on students of a particular year of graduation), and lagging indicators - on the historical selfawareness of young people as a whole (based on the experience of using a textbook for a long time). Other researchers have come to a similar decision. For example, the study of political apathy among the younger generation in Germany showed that there is an individual (advancing in our understanding) and structural (lagging) deficit. Ways to overcome it are trainings for teachers in order to transfer the form of student activity from traditional to non-traditional forms of participation in the political life of society13.
Impact on the deconstruction of historical concepts
An example of the analysis of leading indicators can be presented by studying the formation of a specific historical concept in a school textbook. To do this, we will analyze the textbooks of two neighboring countries, the relations between which have always been of a conflictogenic nature from the point of view of using such a form of forming the historical consciousness of young people as a school textbook. The most bloody conflict in the former USSR was the Chechen War14. Let's see how it is presented in Polish history textbooks. In this case, the leading indicator will be the level of deconstruction of the historical concept.
For the content analysis of the terms "terrorist", "militant", "rebel" in the context of the armed conflict in Chechnya, the text from the textbook for the eighth grade was taken15. The events of the first and second Chechen wars are presented under the theme "Poland and the world in a new era" (the theme "Europe after the collapse of the USSR"). The choice of a place in the history course is not accidental, high school students are future citizens. The interpretation of the war in Chechnya is considered as part of a separate topic and is accompanied by photographs of the leaders of the bandit groups D. Dudaev and Sh. Basaev. According to the data received, representatives of illegal military groups were most often called "Chechens" (50%), followed by "militants" (26%), "rebels", "terrorists", "militias" (20%), "kidnappers" (4%). Such a palette of designations indicates the instability of views on the interpretation of the events of the first and second Chechen campaign. The predominance of ethnicity in naming correlates with the general view of events in Chechnya, due to the representation of Chechens as fighters for freedom and independence. The term "militants" is rather positive, denoting soldiers of the volunteer army. Let's focus on the term "terrorist". Based on the views presented on the pages of the textbook, "terrorism" and "terrorist" can have two interpretations. The first is Islamic fundamentalists and the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the second is terrorism used by "peoples fighting for freedom and independence". If the first type is condemned by the authors, then terrorism as a form of struggle against Russia finds sympathy. Such deconstruction of the concept of "terrorism" is a leading crisis indicator, since in neighboring countries (Russia, Belarus), the attitude to terrorism in Chechnya is a trauma and is clearly indicated within the concepts of "international terrorism" and "separatism". In this example, we can observe the impact of this indicator on the awareness of reality, an important level of historical consciousness16.
Impact on the educational system
Lagging indicators have a much larger scale. For example, the reconstruction of the education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina implied a change in the content of school history courses and was divided into several stages: informing relevant development institutions and adapting methodological recommendations (April, 2005); launching a competition for writing school textbooks (June, 2005); testing new textbooks in schools (2006-2007 academic year); conducting training sessions for teachers.
According to the guidelines published after the completion of the first stage, new history textbooks should take into account the requirements for visual communication with students17. Technical standards meant that they should be large format, their cover should be "visually attractive" for teenagers, applications in the form of maps and diagrams should be made with fullcolor printing, and the content of educational material in applications should be free of text or visual means were required to be implemented in a text block. The requirements for visual communication had to take into account the inclusion of real-life examples in the content of the paragraph and their implementation in the historical period. Didactic material in the form of illustrations, paintings, graphs, historical maps was proposed to be presented as much as possible, and when using historical maps, it was necessary to achieve maximum reflection. Simplified identification of the structure of the school history textbook was realized through the use of color solutions and principles of independent systematization of educational material.
The most characteristic post-crisis trigger in the textbooks of the countries of the former Yugoslavia (textbooks of Bosnia and Herzegovina are no exception) is the armed conflict that accompanied the collapse of the Yugoslav Federation. The geographically and ethnically complex region of the Balkans and the influence of political forces on the processes taking place in it have determined the approach to the content of history courses in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia and Macedonia. Therefore, the theme "The breakup of Yugoslavia" was selected for the quantitative analysis of the visual content. Such a choice is not accidental, since the assessment of what happened is not devoid of emotional coloring and contains a number of examples that clearly illustrate the nature of the content of textbooks.
As part of the analysis, a coding system was applied that characterizes the means of visual communication, taking into account the more detailed disclosure of several lagging indicators (radicalization of visual content, reflection on past events - "consciousness of changes"; democratization, strengthening of the emotional picture, constructing the image of the enemy - "consciousness of reality"). The system of codes was "superimposed" on the content of textbooks from Bosnia and Herzegovina to obtain quantitative results. Analysis of the forms and types of visual communication in textbooks has shown that the most common type of communication are photographs of events, people and places. Graphs and diagrams, infographics or visual blocks are less common. The most frequent motive of visual communication is reflection on the causes and consequences of armed conflict. As practice shows, the consequences of reflection on the past lead to the formation of a clear image of the enemy with the help of photographs of victims, destruction and fighting. The question of who is to blame always leads to the search for those responsible. At the same time, the high level of emotional coloring of photographs and other images influenced the politicization of topics related to the events of the Bosnian war. Based on quantitative analysis, visual images of the genocide of Bosnians and Croats give a high level of emotionality. A logical comparison of visual communication tools with textbooks in Croatia shows the complete continuity of didactic visual tools. Photographs from textbooks of one country, as a result of reconstruction, were replicated in textbooks of another with the same location and in relation to similar textual content18.
Against the general background, history textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina have an excess in terms of reflection on the past and constructing the image of the enemy. For example, in neighboring Montenegro, despite the high rates of reflection, the creation of the image of the enemy does not occur, the area of consciousness of reality is not affected (see Fig.1).
As noted by K. Kieffer (Educational Director of the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina) "education reform is necessary to ensure that the ideological problems that fueled the war - identity, history, culture, language, self-determination, individual and group rights - give way to a new stage of post-war confidence-building and reconciliation, during which an accessible education system is gradually developing, acceptable and effective for all citizens, regardless of their ethnic origin or status"19. On the one hand, one can agree with the words of K. Kieffer, on the other hand, quantitative analysis showed that the reconstruction of historical knowledge and following the instructions for writing school textbooks led to a significant increase in reflection on the events of the past in the textbooks of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But unlike the neighboring regions, where such reflection allowed to reduce the level of hostility and radicalization of the content, in Bosnia and Herzegovina it led to the consolidation of the image of the enemy in the image of a certain ethnic group. Following the "Croatian" version of modern history in the canvas and the replication of visual communication tools led to a lack of variability and different points of view, deconstruction of history.
Impact on the escalation of crises
The need to analyze visual communication in history textbooks in order to implement the predictive function is also acutely evident at the stage of escalation of the crisis. It is safe to say that the origins of the current crisis in Ukraine should be sought in the content of school textbooks. In 2019, history textbooks in Russia and Ukraine showed a high level of politicization of visual communication (Russia - 23, Ukraine - 13) and an imbalance in the level of reflection on the past (Russia - 3, Ukraine - 15) (see Figure 1).
Based on these data, we can formulate several theses concerning the analysis of visual communication in history textbooks from the perspective of a predictive function. The lagging indicator "enemy image" is influenced by the indicators of "politicization" and "radicalization". The higher the indicator of the use of the enemy image in the visual series, the higher the conflict potential. With a low level of politicization and radicalization, the conflict potential is reduced. The lagging indicator of the "democratization" of the content reduces the level of politicization and radicalization, which leads to a decrease in conflict potential. The lagging indicator of "politicization" can be reduced by increasing the level of democratization of the visual content of textbooks. The lagging indicators of "radicalization", "emotionality" and "reflection" are of a dual nature and are subject to further research.
Fig.1. Quantitative analysis of visual communication in crisis and post-crisis regions (Mon - Montenegro20, Rus - Russia, Ua - Ukraine, Srb - Serbia, Kos - Kosovo21, Geo - Georgia).
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
Impact on awareness of changes
Having outlined several examples of the analysis of the use of indicators in the study of visual communication in history textbooks in crisis regions, we turn to the reverse situation, when textbooks became a means of integrating new territories through the formation of historical selfawareness through school education. Returning to the three main levels of human historical consciousness (consciousness of time, consciousness of reality, consciousness of changes). In this regard, deconstruction of the surrounding reality plays an important role in the integration of territories. For example, an analysis of the contents of school textbooks of the USSR in 1950-1989 leads us to the conclusion that on their pages East Prussia, which became the Kaliningrad region, either did not exist in principle, or the mention of it was reduced to the results of the Potsdam Conference of the victorious countries22, which indicates a conscious deconstruction aimed at expelling all memories of East Prussia and the German population ("the expulsion of the Prussian spirit").
In contrast, the Polish People's Republic (PNR) has constructed an awareness among young people of a "return" to their ancestral lands in Silesia. As the historiographical analysis of textbooks for junior, secondary schools and gymnasiums has shown, during the first decade of integration of the "returned lands" into Poland 1945-1958 was one of the priority topics. The Polish Ministry of Education fully adhered to the concepts that were formed by Polish historical science in the pre-war and post-war years. First of all, it is a "return to the Piasty borders of Poland".23
The impact on the consciousness of time
Another example of constructing a new reality through school textbooks can be found in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As the analysis showed, the concept of the "world war" of 1795-1815 was designed to expand the geographical scope of the content of the educational material and became a transitional stage from the Austrian to the Austro-Hungarian model of historical narrative. The concept of a "world war" and Austria's participation in it legitimized the claims and geopolitical status of the state that have existed since the formation of Austria-Hungary. In the 20th century, the concept of "world war" was associated with the idea of the era of European social and national movements, "social and national wars" of 1789-1815. For the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, which considered pan-Slavism and national movements in the Balkans one of the main political threats, such a transition was natural.
Critical understanding of the predictive function of textbooks
The approach described above, based on the use of leading and lagging indicators, has a number of drawbacks. It is important to note that the analysis of indirect data (for example, social networks) could confirm or refute the above theses about the relationship in the texts of textbooks and emerging self-awareness. The evolution of analog textbooks into educational media also determines the need to monitor visual content from the position of leading and lagging indicators. Students often use media as an information container without having the competence to critically analyze media resources, which leads to a structural deficit of the category of consciousness of change. Without presenting the whole process, but only part of it, a teenager can draw unreasonable conclusions24.
Another critical remark, in relation to the texts of textbooks in Slavic languages, may be the lack of automation of the research process. Software complexes for quantitative analysis do not support the morphology of Slavic languages and do not allow downloading data from social networks by keywords. In contrast, for Romano-Germanic languages, additional text arrays can be obtained by importing content (comments, message content) according to specified parameters from social networks. Considering the increasing distribution of educational resources in digital format, this reduces the ability to work with texts in Slavic languages, transcribing educational videos. Therefore, the lack of available complexes that allow taking into account the structure of the language in the machine processing of arrays of text data limits access to the expansion of the research field and ensuring stability (German - «Robustheit») of similar research.
An actual theoretical problem is also the criticism of the interpretation of "encoded" text fragments. The classical approach to the criticism of the author's interpretation is given in the work of E. Terhart, who noted that when checking the results of the study, either the method (German - Methodenvalidität) or the result (German - Ergebnisvalidität)25. In modern realities, we can talk about the need to check the method, result and data. The above-mentioned problem of "sustainability" when conducting quantitative research, in our case, arrays of educational texts, can have a significant impact on the quality of research. In this case, the "sustainability" of such studies can be ensured by observing the principle when different methods will be applied to the data of the primary study and will lead to the same result, or the results of the study (sample parts) will be verified by additional data arrays26.
The lack of developed coding systems based on indicators for quantitative texts in Slavic languages, which allow for the rapid analysis of the prognostic function, is also a theoretical problem. Analyzing the texts of textbooks, we get a system of views of future generations, their perception of other countries and cultures.
Conclusions
Based on the results of our reasoning, we can highlight the main conclusions of this study. A predictive strategy can be developed for school textbooks, taking into account the leading and lagging factors. The leading factor is the influence of visual communication on a specific target group (for example, on students of a particular year of graduation), and the lagging factor is on the historical self-awareness of young people as a whole (based on the experience of using a textbook for a long time). The need to analyze visual communication in history textbooks in post-crisis regions in order to implement the monitoring function is also acutely evident at the stage of escalation of the crisis. It is safe to say that the origins of the current crisis in Eastern Europe should be sought in the content of school textbooks of conflicting countries (the post-Soviet space, the Balkan countries).
The study of indicators and the construction of code systems for the quantitative analysis of textbook texts are promising. The theoretical problem of "sustainability" in conducting quantitative and qualitative research, in our case, arrays of educational texts, can have a significant impact on the quality of research. The lack of developed coding systems for the quantitative study of texts in Slavic languages, which allow for the rapid analysis of the prognostic function, is also an urgent theoretical problem associated with the use of the methods described above.
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1 Independent Researcher, Scholar of Georg Eckert Institute, Germany (2022).
2 Otto Markus, Krisen als Seismografen gesellschaftlichen Wandels und Gegenstand schulischer Bildungsmedien. Handbuch Krisenforschung (Wiesbaden, 2020).106.
3 Hesse Jan-Otmar. Die Weltwirtschaftskrise in den Schulbüchern der gymnasialen Oberstufe. Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht. H. 1-2. (Hannover, 2022). 39-57.
4 Wertheimer Jürgen. Sorry Cassandra! Warum wir unbelehrbar sind. (Tübingen, 2020). 180.
5 German «Arbeitskreis Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung».
6 Vuka Denis. The Visual Construction of the Myth of the Albanian National Leader. Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society.Vol.9, 2019. 69-85.
7 Leitner-Stojanov Darko. Militarization via Education. A 1945 Primer from Socialist Macedonia. Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society.Vol.9. 2019.
8 Luku Esilda. Representation of the Holocaust in Albanian Secondary School History Textbooks since the Educational Reform of 2004. Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society, Vol.1. 2020.
9 Matthäus Jürgen. Kriegsfotos aus Obersalzberg. Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften. Jg.69.H.3. (Berlin.2020). 224-240.
10 Kaplan Robert. The Revenge of Geography. Foreign Policy. Vol. 172.May/June 2009.96-105
11 Pandel Hans-Jürgen. Geschichtsbewusstsein. Geschichtsdidaktik. Jg. 12. H. 2. (Frankfurt /M.1987). 113 - 213.
12 Hanke Barbara. Dimensionen des Geschichtsbewusstseins 2.0 - ein Vorschlag. Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Gesellschaftswissenschaften, Jg.10. H. 1. (Frankfurt /M.2019). 126-137; Manker Petra. Die Planung der Geschichtsunterricht in einer diversen Gesellschaft. Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht. Jg.1.H.5-6. (Hannover, 2021). 274-288.
13 Wohnig Alexander. Explaining Political Apathy in German Civic Education Textbooks. Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society. Vol.10. 2018. 20-39.
14 The Chechen War (1994-1996) - fighting on the territory of the Russian Federation between armed separatists and federal troops. One of the reasons for the war was the desire of the separatists to declare independence in order to build a radical Islamic state.
15 Sniegocki Rafal. Wczoraj i dzis: Podrecznik do historii dla klasy VIII szkoly podstawowej. (Warszawa.2018).179.
16 Goncharov Valerii. Rol' istoricheskoj politiki v formirovanii ponyatij «povstancy», «separatisty» i «oppoziciya» na stranicah uchebnikov dlya srednih shkol v Respublike Pol'sha. Prepodavanie voennoj istorii v Rossii i za rubezhom. Vyp. 2. (Moscow, 2019). 52-67.
17 Black Luisa. Manual for History Teachers in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo.2007). 134-137.
18 Guidelines for Writing and Evaluation of History Textbooks for primary and secondary Schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Commission of the Development of Guidelines for Conceptualizing New History Textbooks in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sluzbeni Glasnik Bosnie i Hercegovine (April 2005).
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22 The Kaliningrad region was formed in 1945 after the decision of the Potsdam Conference of the three great powers (USSR, USA, Great Britain) on the liquidation of East Prussia, the northern part of which after World War II was ceded to the USSR.
23 The concept of "returned lands" appeared in 1934 and became an important part of the political life of the Polish elite, the "idea fix", which was linked to the revival of Polish statehood, a vivid example of propaganda. The main essence of the concept is the return of lands in Silesia.
24 Mierwald Marcel. Digital oder doch lieber Analog? Geschichte für heute. Zeitschrift für historisch-politische Bildung. Jg.14. H. 3. (Bonn, 2021). 21-41.
25 Terhart Ewald. Kontrolle von Interpretationen: Validierungsprobleme. Bilanz qualitativer Forschung. Bd.1.( Weinheim, 1995). 373-400.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main topic of "Valerii Goncharov Analyzing visual Communication in History Textbooks in the Context of the Reconstruction of educational Systems in Crisis Regions"?
The text analyzes visual communication in history textbooks, particularly within the context of reconstructing educational systems in regions affected by crises. It explores how textbooks can be used to predict and monitor social and political conflicts, with a focus on the impact of visual communication on historical consciousness.
What are leading and lagging indicators in the context of analyzing textbooks for crisis forecasting?
Leading indicators refer to the influence of visual communication on a specific target group (e.g., students of a particular graduation year), while lagging indicators refer to the impact on the historical self-awareness of young people as a whole, based on long-term textbook usage.
How does the text describe historical consciousness?
Historical consciousness, according to H. Pandel's methodology, is not just knowledge of historical events but a socio-political orientation within changing social relations. It's considered equivalent to political consciousness and has levels including consciousness of time, reality, and changes.
What example is used to illustrate the deconstruction of a historical concept?
The text analyzes Polish history textbooks and their presentation of the Chechen War, specifically examining the use of terms like "terrorist," "militant," and "rebel." It highlights how the deconstruction of the concept of "terrorism" can serve as a leading crisis indicator.
How does visual communication impact educational systems in post-conflict regions like Bosnia and Herzegovina?
The reconstruction of the education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina included changes in history textbook content and visual communication guidelines. However, analysis showed that reflection on past events led to consolidating the image of the enemy in the form of specific ethnic groups, leading to a lack of varied perspectives and potentially deconstructing history.
What role did textbooks play in the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine, according to the analysis?
The text suggests that the origins of the crisis in Ukraine can be found in the politicization of visual communication and imbalances in reflection on the past in the history textbooks of both Russia and Ukraine.
How can textbooks be used to integrate new territories through historical self-awareness?
Textbooks can be used to construct a new reality by deconstructing existing realities and constructing narratives that support integration. Examples include the treatment of East Prussia (Kaliningrad region) in Soviet textbooks and the focus on the "return" to ancestral lands in Polish textbooks after World War II.
What are some critical considerations when analyzing textbooks for predictive purposes?
Some critical considerations include the lack of automation for analyzing Slavic languages, the need to validate interpretations of encoded text fragments, and the lack of developed coding systems for quantitative analysis of texts in Slavic languages to assess their prognostic function. The importance of ensuring “sustainability” of research findings through applying various research methods.
What is the main conclusion of the study?
The study concludes that a predictive strategy can be developed for school textbooks, considering leading and lagging factors. The analysis of visual communication in history textbooks is crucial for monitoring and potentially predicting crises, particularly in post-crisis regions. The construction of code systems for quantitative text analysis shows promise for analyzing the trends.
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- Valerii Goncharov (Author), 2022, Analyzing visual Communication in History Textbooks in the Context of the Reconstruction of educational Systems in Crisis Regions, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1315394