Making History Work for Tolerance:
main findings from Latvia
Linda Curika,
Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS
Brussels, 31.01.2014

Legislation
• One Standart for teaching History for all schoola
• Teachers have creative freedom
• Since the end of the transition period in school
year 2012/2013 Latvian and World History in
basic education are taught as two separate
subjects
• One of the objectives of the subject „History of
Latvia” is to promote the sense of affiliation to
the Latvian State and patriotism.

Schools and teachers
• Teacher from minority school in interview:
– «We teach history bilingually, according to state standards. But students in my
school say they would like to study more about world history, to have a
broader look on what is happening in the world. For example, to understand
what is currently happening in Arab countries. From my opinion, history of
Latvia is being taught too much during 3 years...»
• Teacher in interview:
– «Students now have a better knowledge about Latvian history, but they cannot
connect events in Latvia and in the World history. Their knowledge about
World history is worse than it used to be. Now students do not have a feeling
that history – it is a connected process.»
• In public discourse it is possible to find stories about teachers from
minority schools, who use history textbooks, which have been printed in
Russian federation. Those teachers are shamed on press and National
television for bringing the “wrong version of history into schools”.

Students
• Students do not recognize how history teaching
could be connected to Tolerance
• Students: „history textbooks just give us
uninteresting facts, that are boring”.
• Students sometimes hear different stories about
history at home
• Student in interview:
– «History is boring and it is just another subject that is
based on learning facts. For me the hardest part is
remembering correct dates, I would really need some
help with that.»

Political discourse
• Pressure on patriotic upbringing, not tolerance and
inclusion, quotes that divide society into “us” and
“them” and depict “otherness” as something bad for
society can be seen throughout everyday political
discourse.
– «I am happy that ministry of Culture has agreed to national
union and that there is a certain guarantee, that these
Latvian values, Latvian identity will be made a priority and
that “Unity”’s previous ministers, let’s call them, genetic
attempts with slogan “You do not need to be born a
Latvian, you can become one!”… this fake continuation of
latvianism maybe will now be re-evaluated.» (I.Cepane,
coalition party Vienotiba, speech in parliament)

Recomendations
• Raise awareness about cultural diversity in the society and to
increase understanding about diverse cultural legacies
• To maintain good knowledge of the cultural history of the
world’s other regions and civilisations in the general context
of globalisation whilst simultaneously maintaining an
appropriate focus on national history through teaching it as a
separate subject
• Encourage and increase cooperation by all the stakeholders
and institutions that assist in the teaching of history and
foster development of joint projects, initiatives, events and
reflection

Thank you for your attention!
Linda Curika
linda.curika@providus.lv
www.providus.lv