Fifteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Studies examining post-war education in Bosnia and Herzegovina have typically focused on the critique of the institutionalized ethnic division and segregation of students, while post-conflict textbook research has often only dealt with socio-political effects of discordant ethnonational narratives. While many studies have addressed the discordant history education in post-war Bosnia, little attention has been given to how lessons about the Bosnian War 1992-1995 have evolved after the war among the Bosniak, Serb and Croat curricula. The empirical evidence shows an increasing split in the design of Bosnian War lessons among the three groups, thus making a case for a comparative analysis of different modes of transmitting this particular piece of heritage. Since history education stands as a fundamental building block of nationhood, whereas collective memory of war holds a significant place in the national consciousness, critical examination of war narratives in history textbooks sheds light on discursive strategies that states utilize in their quest to retain the imagined state of the communion among their people. In cases where a state or specific national group has been born out of a particular conflict, as it is the case with Bosnia and its three constituent groups, such a study encompasses even bigger importance in understanding the character of their nationhood. Because war narrative is very likely to stay a central topic in national histories of Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats in Bosnia, this study aims to gain a greater understanding of the underlying structures and mechanisms of these narratives in history textbooks.