Pittsburgh Romanian Studies
“Memory, History &
Identity in Bessarabia and Beyond”
University of Pittsburgh,
October
21-22, 2005
Making Patriots or Citizens?
History Education and Challenges to
Education for Democratic Citizenship in the Republic of Moldova
Elizabeth A. Anderson
New
York University
eaa217@nyu.edu
Abstract:
National history textbooks have become highly
controversial in post-Soviet Moldova, where concepts of the nation and
national identity remain contested. The teaching
and learning of history has undeniable importance and serves a particular
function in Moldovan society. Although
their national concepts differ, government officials, historians, textbook
authors, and teachers alike consider history education to be the cornerstone of
societal development and they have endowed it the weighty purposes of
transmitting ideas about the nation and the state and of creating and
maintaining national identity and citizenship.
The examination of these debates surrounding history textbooks has
uncovered a complex intersection of opposing historical interpretations,
differing national identities, and Soviet legacies, which are ultimately
manifested as challenges to education for democratic citizenship in post-Soviet
Moldova. Drawing from recent interviews with high
school teachers, historians, and government officials, this paper discusses two
primary challenges. First, I argue that
the disagreement over the definition of the Moldovan nation and identity
between the intellectual elites who write the textbooks, and the state, which
sponsors the textbooks, undermines the potential effectiveness of perpetuating
citizenship though public schooling.
Second, the government’s emphasis on a “patriotic” education as a means
to form a strong democratic citizenry fails to grasp certain nuances within
Moldovan society, and has ideological overtones that are undemocratic. Ultimately, the lack of effective education
for citizenship presents an impediment to the further democratization of post-Soviet
Moldova.