International Textbook Cooperation

Coordinating bilateral discussions on textbooks has been one of the Georg Eckert Institute’s core activities since its foundation. It has been possible to establish particularly productive dialogues with France (started 1951), Poland (started 1972) and Israel (started 1981), which cover the respective memory cultures and historico-political positions. Above all, these discussions have forged communication channels - across system boundaries - between academia and education policy-makers through which mutual representations in the respective textbooks can be improved through academic dialogue.

The GEI currently coordinates three bilateral textbook commissions, all of which are contained within the framework of foreign culture and education policy, in which experts, educationalists and representatives from pedagogic practice work closely together. In addition to analysing textbooks, writing appropriate recommendations and advising policy-makers and practitioners, a key part of this work involves attending or organising academic events and the creation of bilateral teaching materials. In 2020 the GEI started developing the European Forum for Reconciliation and Cooperation in History and Social Sciences Education (EFREC), which brings together the different fields of activity, organisational formats, working methods, wide-ranging experiences and forms of results within international textbook work.