"History Education in Greece: How do Borders and Neighbors Fit in Conservative Curricula? Cracking the Canon with Bottom-up Initiatives"
Vassiliki SakkaDOI 10.64651/retrospektive.2026.9.1.5 📋
Received: 15. October 2025 | Accepted: 16. April 2026 | Published: 15. June 2026
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Retrospektive_IXx1-05_Sakka_HistoryEducationGreeceArticle summary
This article examines history education in Greece through the lens of borders and neighbouring relations, highlighting the disconnection between conservative curricula and contemporary democratic and intercultural needs. Drawing on research about teachers’ attitudes, recent policy developments and examples of public discourse, it argues that official curricula remain ethnocentric, largely exclude minorities and migration, and neglect critical peace and human‑rights education. At the same time, it documents bottom‑up initiatives—teacher training, public history projects and transnational collaborations—that seek to introduce multiperspectivity, regional history and agonistic memory. The article concludes that strengthening and disseminating such initiatives is crucial for fostering active, tolerant citizenship.
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Authors' contacts
Kornelija Ajlec, dr.
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of History
Kenan Çayır, dr.
İstanbul Bilgi University, Department of Sociology
Zvezdana Kovač
European Fund for the Balkans
Kriton Kuci, dr.
Department of Political Science and International Relations Faculty of Law and Humanities, Mediterranean University of Albania
Angelos Palikidis
Professor of History Didactics
Department of Humanities, School of Humanities, Democritus University of Thrace
Srđan Radović, dr.
Institute of Ethnography of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Božo Repe, dr.
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of History
Vassiliki Sakka, dr.
Association for History Education in Greece