State, National, Social or Party History? Teaching History in Public Schools – a Case Study

A canon of historical monuments, national holidays, names of streets, the provision of state financing to certain scientific and research centers, supporting initiatives to commemo- rate events and individuals, and building museums are only selected aspects of the historical policy of a state, approached as a detailed policy. This paper concerns another aspect of this policy, namely non-academic state education. A long-term educational reform was launched on September 1, 2009. It provides for the changes to be fully implemented by September 2014. They will concern a number of fields, but there is one that has become the core of a pe- culiar political conflict – the reform in teaching history. The paper presents the conflict, its turning points and, first and foremost, its rhetoric – the character of statements, selection of vocabulary and ways of evoking the right associations employed by both parties to the con- flict. The paper also discusses the assumptions of the reform and indicates the most important legal acts and statements by the Minister of National Education, thereby providing a legal framework for the arguments of the conflicting parties.A canon of historical monuments, national holidays, names of streets, the provision of state financing to certain scientific and research centers, supporting initiatives to commemo- rate events and individuals, and building museums are only selected aspects of the historical policy of a state, approached as a detailed policy. This paper concerns another aspect of this policy, namely non-academic state education. A long-term educational reform was launched on September 1, 2009. It provides for the changes to be fully implemented by September 2014. They will concern a number of fields, but there is one that has become the core of a pe- culiar political conflict – the reform in teaching history. The paper presents the conflict, its turning points and, first and foremost, its rhetoric – the character of statements, selection of vocabulary and ways of evoking the right associations employed by both parties to the con- flict. The paper also discusses the assumptions of the reform and indicates the most important legal acts and statements by the Minister of National Education, thereby providing a legal framework for the arguments of the conflicting parties