History#5 – a resource pack with an innovative look at the teaching of history in Armenian schools

UNICEF and Paradigma Education Foundation presented a brand new resource pack for teachers of history that offers an innovative and inclusive look on this subject at school. Present in the Past, Absent in History resource pack was developed for middle and high school students to offer them an active learning experience, bringing unknown examples from women’s history in Armenia to the forefront, covering the last 200 years.

“Women represent less than five percent of historical figures and characters in textbooks, as authors seem to predominantly quote men, which is clearly visible across social sciences, history, and literature textbooks at the secondary level. At UNICEF, we know how important teaching and learning are in the socialization of girls and boys, which is why we set out to develop new learning material based on the principle of inclusion,” said Ms. Christine Weigand, UNICEF Representative in Armenia. “I want to acknowledge the work done by technical experts on the development of this resource pack, consulting archival materials and using ethnographic and historic credible sources, as well as research.”

The resource pack examines a number of topics in Armenian history from the point of view of women's daily life, roles, policies and relations, customs and aspirations that define them. It contains ready-made primary source information cards and a guide to using them for active historical learning. The pack contains 240 primary source cards and five e-lesson plans on five topics that facilitate the analysis of history using gaming principles for learning. The topics include women in Soviet Armenia, prenuptial and post-marriage customs in the present times, women and activism in the 19-20th centuries, Armenian feminist discourse in 19th century, and migration during the Ottoman empire.

“Our goal is to transform history education and promote active historical thinking. Women are often left out of history. Bringing them forward as a perspective of analysis is a daring innovation in the field of history teaching. We look forward to future collaboration with UNICEF in this regard and hope that both teachers and students will enjoy using this resource pack in class to offer a new and more inclusive perspective to the teaching of history,” noted Ms. Hasmik Kyureghyan, Founding CEO of Paradigma Educational Foundation.

In February and March, UNICEF and Paradigma Educational Foundation will disseminate 1000 copies of the resource pack to schools across the country, which has been approved by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports and is in line with the laws on secondary general education and on education. The resource pack was developed in 2021 with the generous support of UNICEF National Committee of Switzerland and Lichtenstein. The technical team included historians, archive researchers, education specialists and a graphic artist to represent the primary-source material in ways that appeal the modern user.