The Background: Heritage Education in Europe

IN THE PAST thirty years, heritage education has gained prominence as a theoretical and practical/ methodological issue in the cultural and educational policies of an increasing number of countries and is the special concern of international cultural and professional institutions. This awareness among heritage professionals has arisen as a new conception of heritage policies aiming, as their primary objective, to ensure heritage conservation through the active involvement of the public. Consequently, since the 1980s, a first set of educational programs was launched in order to make heritage visible at the school level, and to make European children of all ages aware of their historical and/ or cultural values. New inputs from professionals involved in heritage education (educators, curators, historians, archaeologists, etc.) began to refine the characterization of heritage education with respect to methodological issues. This more detailed concept was finally fixed in the 1998 Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

This methodological emphasis on heritage education came from the expansion in many European countries of heritage-oriented projects, mostly based on outdoor, hands-on activities and on direct contact with or experience of those heritage elements included in the school programs. In contrast to the traditional concept of history teaching, heritagerelated activities were and are experienced by pupils and students as enjoyable, and from the point of view of the teachers, they are useful pedagogical tools. In this way, the objectives of heritage education seemed to have been fulfilled because the programs allowed the students to better understand the different elements that constitute cultural heritage by means of a positive educational experience. To be more precise— and from a heritage professional perspective— the significant learning success was the creation of a positive association between heritage and children, ensuring the creation of an active and responsible heritage public in the future.

While these wide ranges of educational activities were developed, other educational tools for heritage education began to take shape. In 1995, the Council of Europe organized a seminar entitled “Cultural Heritage and Its Educational Implications: A Factor for Tolerance, Good Citizenship and Social Integration.”