Carinthia (German: Kärnten; Slovenian: Koroška), a federated state in the south of Austria, has been home to Germanic and Slavic tribes since the sixth century. Slovenes became recognized as a national minority in the independent state known since then as ‘Austria’ after the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved into smaller states following the First World War. While most Slovenes found themselves in the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia, shared with Croats and Serbs, a northern group of Slovenes remained in the new (and much smaller) independent Austria, with an overwhelming German majority), separated by new state borders. The territorial attribution of the bilingual, southern Carinthian region remained unclear until the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1919, which allowed a democratic plebiscite in 1920. In the south of Carinthia, where around 70% of the inhabitants spoke Slovene, more than 60% of voters opted to remain in Austria. In return, Austria promised generous rights to the Slovenes, most of which were not fulfilled after the elections. 

Carinthia will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the referendum in 2020, which was the occasion for our project of scientists, teachers and students: Due to complex societal changes in the last century, the Carinthian Slovenes passed down different narratives on the past which significantly diverges from that of the dominant German community in Carinthia. This specifically concerns the chapter of the referendum of 1920, the Second World War and the period of National Socialism (NS) in Austria and Carinthia. The public memory of both Austria and Carinthia still focuses mainly on fallen Wehrmacht soldiers and German-Austrian victims. For decades, victims of NS had no space in public memory.

As a pioneer in the research on cultural memory, sociologist Maurice Halbwachs stated that individual memory relies on a social framework of memory.^[1] What is commonly named a ‘culture of memory’ is thus a dynamic field of negotiations and conflicts. It is an unfinished process of debate on what a group should call (its) history.^[2] These processes of social negotiation of memory are particularly interesting in border regions. While the border region of Carinthia and Slovenia was characterized in the last century by separation, prejudices and ignorance towards the respective neighbours, today we have to consider which historical narratives can have an inclusive effect and connect people and regions.  

Memory on National Socialism and the Holocaust is currently determined by several factors: the disappearance of contemporary witnesses, the change of generations, the mediation of memory and the question of new forms of remembrance in an immigration society.^[3]  We are at the transition from communicative to cultural memory^[4]. This leads to our research question: how students today can find access to historical events of the world wars, National Socialism and the Holocaust, and which parts of history are useful for dealing with questions relevant to the future. 

Our project explored the question how an inclusive remembrance can be made possible, to which all inhabitants of the region can connect. In school projects, historical narratives on both sides of the border were examined for similarities and differences. The aim was to filter out which narratives can have an inclusive and unifying effect. Through the exchange between teachers, pupils and researchers in several workshops, didactic materials with a long-term benefit for the border region were created. The focus was on suggestions  how the history of the border region and its inhabitants can be communicated in an interesting way in the classroom, taking into account the diversity of pupils.

[1] Halbwachs, 1985.

[2] Uhl, 2010, p. 8.

[3] Assmann, A., 2013, p. 73 ff.

[4] Assmann, J., 1992, p. 50 ff.

According to Hamza et al., the gap between educational research and teaching can be productively managed and reduced if teaching and research are treated as two equal practices that interact with each other. In doing so, the roles between teachers and researchers become blurred. As Joffredo-Le Brun et al. showed, a new relationship between researchers and teachers can emerge. The starting point of the collaboration is the conviction that both are capable of improving educational processes. Our project explored the question of how, in the border area between Austria and Slovenia, an inclusive remembrance could be introduced, to which all inhabitants of the region can connect. A team of scientists from two universities with a group of almost 20 engaged teachers together with student researchers, examined the historical narratives in the border region of Slovenia and Austria. The aim was to filter out which narratives can have an inclusive and unifying effect. Therefor, we organised an exchange of teachers, pupils and researchers in three workshops. As a main output didactic materials with a long-term benefit for the border region were created. The focus was on suggestions on how the history of the border region and its inhabitants can be communicated in an interesting way in the classroom, taking into account the diversity of the pupils. In all steps of the project, a team of young future teachers participated as student researchers. One main focus was evaluating the knowledge transfer between science, practice and public. In the project the following methods were used: qualitative group discussion with teachers, pupils and scientists, qualitative single interviews in Slovenia and Austria, quantitative questionnaire for principals, qualitative content analysis of workshop records, quantitative dossier of school projects. One important “field of research” for the project was the output of three workshops, of which one was an international meeting of pupils from Austria and Slovenia. For the project, teachers together with scientists prepared long-term projects in the topic of remembrance culture. In a certain workshop, they worked out which topics and experiences from these school projects could be incorporated into bilingual didactic material for all schools in the border region.

Teachers are more willing to deal with regional manifestations of National Socialism, including topics such as collective guilt and the collaboration of Carinthians with National Socialism. Regional anecdotes, as well as details regarding everyday life in the past seem to be of interest for contemporary pupils. For our project, these tendencies resulted in a benefit. Committed teachers, together with interested students and pupils from Carinthia and Slovenia, accompanied by a scientific team, dare to carry out an experiment: through the joint work and exchange, didactic materials with a long-term benefit for the border region, for schools in both countries and in both languages will be produced and published in a broadly effective way. The bilingual didactic materials will be made available to schools in both countries and also offer good practice examples of how this complex topic can be made taught, current, interesting, inclusive and cross-border. The materials will be used in particular with regard to the design of commemoration days, but will also be applicable in regular lessons. The didactic material will include past perspectives and lead to future-oriented transnational approaches. The newly developed teaching materials will be widely disseminated and will address the target groups on both sides of the border. All materials and project results will also be freely available on the Worldwide Web platform (open access) for even broader dissemination. This innovative form of knowledge dissemination is suitable for the wider public as well as for educational institutions or organisations of public and civil society. Due to its bilingualism the publication appeals to a fundamentally transnational, broad audience, but is particularly interesting for people from the region. In addition, seminars on the results of the project are offered to teachers at the universities of teacher education.

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