My paper unveils social tensions in the field of education as it explores the relationship of family memory and children’s history learning about the troubled events of 1974 in Cyprus. It explores how memories and beliefs of those who survived the traumatic events of 1974 in Cyprus are remembered and used to build self-narratives for communicating them to the younger generation. It shows that these survivors demand their own voice when talking about 1974 and are unwilling to let the state claim ownership of the past. It reveals that participants in my study see politics as a barrier to having an authentic representation of the past and undertake initiatives to help their children draw links between the troubled past and present. They regard the history textbook as vehicle transferring the State’s approach to 1974 and teachers as the public servants to distribute this official narrative and claim their own share when talking about the past. In this context, they undertake initiatives enabling them to link their past to their children’s present such as storytelling, witnessing funerals of missing persons and visiting places with certain meanings for their family histories. These memory-sites stage adults’ stories and are appreciated as enabling youngsters to inherit the family history and values while acknowledging their positionality in society.

Based on data derived from the research I conducted for my doctoral thesis and supported by empirical research from the settings of Cyprus and especially of Northern Ireland, where the most salient research related to my research objectives is found, this paper seeks to answer these two research questions:

1. How do family members of students approach official memory as this is mediated to their children at school?
2. To what extent, how and why do family members convey their memories and knowledge about the past to their children?

Memory and narrative permeate this research as theoretical concepts for understanding how the past influences the memories and beliefs of people and how they remember the past, construct self-narratives, and mediate these to their youngsters.

This study adopted a qualitative research approach and followed a purposive-sampling approach that encouraged the recruitment of participants who could contribute to the research aims and the thorough exploration of all relevant research issues. Research data were collected a.via one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 5 history educators, 23 parents or grandparents and 10 joint interviews with (grand) parents and their children, b. through the methods of document analysis on the history textbook and c. observing classes about recent Cypriot history. Narratives were explored as an experience and a construct, drawing on Labovian structural narrative analysis, which enabled me to follow the narrator’s stance. Content analysis was applied to textual data and provided a wider understanding on the knowledge conveyed to the reader through the narrative and sources of the history book. It yielded further information on how the state seeks to predispose readers towards the past through this master historical narrative.

Research data reveal educational debates at different levels, between and within social groups in the field of education in Cyprus. They show that there is not a collaborative relationship or a shared understanding between families, teachers and schools about what children are expected to know about their recent past. Schools are seen by families as places to disseminate the official narrative of the past and the history textbooks and teachers as vehicles to do so. These findings lead us to understand why family members demand and try to be involved in their children’s learning. They indicate the need to enhance our knowledge about family-intergenerational memory and emotional issues in history learning in Cyprus and other conflict-ridden societies. Most importantly, these findings enable us to see the importance to further investigate intergenerational narratives as they may help children to assess the past and to become aware of social phenomena or they may distort their ideas about the past, adopting the adults’ beliefs (patriotic, political, social etc), memories and knowledge of the past.

Amadini, M. (2015). Transition to parenthood and intergenerational relationships: the ethical value of family memory, Ethics and Education, 10 (1), 36-48, DOI:10.1080/17449642.2014.998022 Andrews, M., Squire, C., & Tamboukou, M. (eds) (2011). Doing Narrative Research. London: Sage Publications. Assmann, A., (2006). Memory, Individual and Collective, In R. Goodin & C. Tilly, (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis (pp.212-224). New York: Oxford University Press. Barton, K., & McCully, A. (2010). “You can form your own point of view”: Internally persuasive discourse in Northern Ireland students’ encounters with history. Teachers College Record, 112, 142–181. Bush, K. & Saltarelli, D. (2000). The two faces of education in ethnic conflict: Towards a peace building education for children. Florence: UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) Innocenti Research Centre. Carretero, M. (2017). The teaching of recent and violent conflicts as challenges for history education. In History education and conflict transformation (pp. 341-377). London: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Carretero, M. (2018). Imagining the Nation throughout School History Master Narratives. In Demantowsky, M. (ed.) Public History and School: International Perspectives (p. 97-108), Berlin: De Gruyter. Christou, M. (2006). A double imagination: memory and education in Cyprus. Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 24(2), 285-306. Conway, M. (2004). Identifying the past: An exploration of teaching and learning sensitive issues in history at secondary school level. Educate, 4(2), 66-79. Fivush, R. (2008). Remembering and reminiscing: How individual lives are constructed in family narratives, Memory studies, 1(1), 49 – 58. Fivush, R. & Merrill, N. (2016). An ecological systems approach to family narratives, Memory Studies, 9(3), 305– 314. Foster, S.& Crawford, K. (2006). What Shall We Tell the Children? International Perspectives on School History Textbooks. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing. Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content Analysis: An Introduction to Its Methodology (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Labov, W. (1997). Some Further Steps in Narrative Analysis, Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7(1-4), 395 – 415. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.7.49som Leonard, P. (2014). Echoes from the Past: Intergenerational Memories in Cyprus. Children and Society, 28, 66–76. Merrill, N., & Fivush, R. (2016). Intergenerational narratives and identity across Development, Developmental Review 40, 72–92. Wertsch, J. (2008). The narrative organization of collective memory. Ethos, 36(1), 120-135. Wertsch, J. (2012). Texts of Memory and Texts of History, L2 Journal, 4, 9-20. Wertsch, J. (2021). How nations remember: a narrative approach. New York: Oxford University Press.