Economics and Administrative Sciences

CIU contributes to history education

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dilek Latif will be one of the contributors to the Report to be prepared by the European Council on history education in Europe

Cyprus International University (CIU) Department of Political Science and International Relations Faculty Member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dilek Latif is on the committee that will prepare a report on history education in Europe that will be published by the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe (OHTE) provided some information  about the preparation process and preliminary findings of the said report.

Latif, who participated in the conference entitled “A Future Without History Teaching” organized for the second time by the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe (OHTE) in Strasbourg, France said that the team that prepared the General Report consisted of a group of five academicians and that the data collected will be presented at the conference to be held for the third time next year.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Latif reminded that the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe established in November 2020 by the Council of Europe, aims to improve human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and considers history teaching very important in this regard. “The Observatory on History Teaching consists of 16 member states of the Council of Europe including Turkey, Cyprus and Greece. 

Talking about the Observatory's purpose, Latif said that its main purpose is to provide an unbiased overview of the state of history teaching in Europe through regular and thematic reports as well as expert analysis on specific topics.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Latif noted that according to the preliminary findings of the study, points to the role of history education in the current political, cultural and social challenges facing Europe, especially in the integration of immigrants and refugees into Europe, as well as attacks on democracy and democratic values.

Latif stated that in the session where the research team of the conference was in attendance, references were made to the contribution of history teaching methods to peace, democratic values, reconciliation, critical thinking and reaching a fairer international society. She added that the research team evaluated the content of the General Report, methodology, the data collected from OHTE member states, the structure of the report as well as the data collection questionnaire.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Latif concluded by stating that the team finally decided to organize the process of preparing the General Report in five main categories: Content and Methodology, Data Collection, Preparing the Manuscript, Publication and Distribution.