Join our 2-day consultation and professional development opportunity for primary school teachers.

Professional Development Opportunity

The Second ‘Beyond History: Applied History Education Laboratory’:

Commemoration, Action and Celebration Days in Primary Education

Each year, across Cyprus, schools often mark commemoration days using approaches that have been in place for years. Are these approaches, and the narratives that accompany them, relevant to the curricula, aligned with current educational trends, and engaging? How can commemorations be better connected to multiperspectivity, critical thinking and memory/remembrance? Join us and explore related topics to shape best practices in teaching about loss and death, pain, bullying, trauma, and peace.

Following the event, we will publish a collection of classroom resources for primary school teachers across Cyprus.

Join our 2-day consultation and professional development event:

Day 1: Wednesday, 20th October 2021 at 3.00-6.00 p.m. (Workshop in Greek) * or

Thursday, 21st October 2021 at 3.00-6.00 p.m. (Workshop in Turkish) *

Day 2: Laboratory on Saturday 23rd October 2021 at 10.00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

*Teachers: please attend either Workshop in Greek or Workshop in Turkish, AND Day 2. (Note each Workshop has a limited capacity of 15 participants - book early!) To be able to attend the event on 23 October, it is a prerequisite to attend the Workshop on 20 October or 21 October.

Please register here by 13^th October 2021.

Co-hosts: Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR), Cyprus Turkish Teachers' Organisation (KTÖS), Cyprus Greek Teachers' Organisation (POED).

Location: Home for Cooperation, Nicosia (across from the Ledra Palace Hotel, in the UN Buffer Zone). https://g.page/Home4Cooperation?share

Safepass/Adapass or a valid PCR or rapid test is required to attend both sessions.

We will:

• Connect educators and student teachers from around Cyprus to facilitate knowledge and experience exchange, to learn from each other, and support peer to peer learning.
• Consider current policy and practice in relation to marking commemorative and special days in schools.
• Explore and reflect on how representations of ‘otherness’ impact on us and society.
• Talk together about how days of commemoration, action and celebration can be developed in primary schools which present critical attitudes towards ourselves and others rather than sustain the pain and grievance of the past. 
• Share our own practices and practical ideas, and talk about how best to test the resources in schools and improve them before publication.
• Work together to co-develop creative and inclusive approaches to commemoration, action and celebration in the primary schools.

Our project team of Özge Özoğul, Marios Antoniou, Okcan Yıldırımtürk and Dean Smart will convene and facilitate the consultation sessions. As part of the Saturday event, invited panel speakers from academia and trade unions will reflect on curriculum and current policies surrounding school celebrations. They will seek to explore how schools can help children cope with loss and pain, avoid creating and continuing ‘otherness’, and build a culture of peace and reconciliation in Cyprus. The interactive session will be conveyed by Natalia Kouhartsiouk, Applied Theatre Practitioner and Project Manager, and will deal with the use of applied theatre as a tool for exploring celebration, pain and remembrance with primary school students, while maintaining multi-perspectivity and practicing inclusiveness.

About ‘Beyond History’ – the Applied History Education Laboratory by AHDR

The History Lab’ provides: a space for inquiry, peer-to-peer learning and the creation of a learning community and support network of teachers, teacher trainers and researchers. The Laboratory is funded by the Active Citizens Fund, the Civil Society Programme established by the EEA and Norway Grants Financial Mechanisms 2014-2021.

Note:

* Certificates of participation will be provided to participants who joined the training on both days.

* The language of training will be English on 23 October, with consecutive interpretation for speeches in Greek and Turkish during the panel discussion.

* Detailed agenda will be shared with participants upon the completion of registration period.

* Please click here to complete the Registration Form by 13^th October 2021.