In many European countries, the history of school textbooks in modern times includes the specific history of the reading primer, traditionally pupils’ first school textbook. From the aabits (Estonian), the abecedar (Romanian) and the alfabetarion (Greek), the bukvar’ (Russian and Serbian), the elementorius (Lithuanian) and the Fibel (German) to the methode voor het aanvankelijk leesonderwijs (Dutch), the sillabario (Italian) and the začetnica (Slovenian), primers not only provide the technical basics of literacy in a given language and script, but also embody worldviews and values that those with the power to define curricular content wish to pass to the next generation. It is for this reason that primers are among the educational media that are of particular significance in times of emphatic political change.
After the end of World War II, European countries experienced political and social changes of various kinds and to varying degrees. These changes heavily influenced the educational sector in these countries, including textbook provision. A workshop scheduled for November 13-14, 2015 in Braunschweig (Germany) will aim at addressing, from a comparative perspective, the development, design, content, and use of reading primers in European countries in 1945, in most cases considered as year 1 of the post-war period. The workshop is jointly organised by the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI), Braunschweig, the Research Library for the History of Education (BBF) at the German Institute for International Educational Research, Berlin, and the Reading Primers Special Interest Group (RP-SIG) of the International Society for Historical and Systematic Research on Textbooks and Educational Media.
Our purpose is to draw together scholarship from various countries to represent a truly European range of approaches and findings in an underdeveloped field of inquiry. Submissions may either be related to individual primers published and/or used in 1945, or they may have a comparative approach (within or across countries). While the focus should ideally be on primers published in 1945 and/or used in the 1945/46 school year, authors are encouraged to also consider developments in textbook history both before and after 1945 as relevant to their specific research questions.
Submissions – which should be made in English or German – may address one or more of the following aspects:
- actors: authors, illustrators, publishers, political authorities, teachers and learners, including specific target groups such as linguistic minorities or pupils with special needs
- content: examples might be the repercussions of and reconstruction after war, politics, childhood, gender roles, ideas of national belonging, etc.
- educational (pedagogic) aspects: for instance, approaches to teaching and learning, approaches to tasks and evaluation, etc.
- materiality and design: for example, possible restrictions related to the supply of paper; “old” and “new” designs
- processes: from development to the production, dissemination, and use of primers, including economic, social and political conditions surrounding these issues
Submissions are welcome from academics, librarians, graduate students and unaffiliated researchers. Please include with your submission a brief autobiographical note, including a description of your main research interests, your institutional affiliation(s) and position as well as any relevant publications.
At the workshop, all speakers whose proposals have been accepted will have a 25-minute time-slot to present their paper and 15 minutes reserved for comments and discussion. Papers will be circulated in advance for comprehensive feedback from an assigned commentator on the day.
The organisers plan to publish selected presentations given in an English-language special issue of an international journal with good visibility at international level in the field of history of education and/or educational media.
Funding of travel and accommodation expenses is available for a limited number of participants. Please indicate in a letter accompanying your proposal if you will need such funding to come to Braunschweig. Decisions on applications for funding will be need-based and take individual circumstances into account.