De la istorie naţională la istorie europeană în şcolile româneşti

As of 1989, Romania officially separated itself from communism, expressing its option for democracy. This meant a new change of paradigm, in which education for democracy and European values (Romania expressing its wish to join the European Union) were preferred to the old nationalistic point of view. The contents of the discipline switched to an integrated study of Romanian and universal (mainly European) history. This new approach encountered a great deal of obstacles, discussed in this paper. Another challenge which the study of history has been confronted with is that the outburst of new informational media, as well as the development of technology, has put classical education in a difficult position: in order to continue to fulfill its goals, it has to adjust to the new realities. The teaching of history is, therefore, confronted with a methodological dilemma: should it continue to offer students a series of undeniable truths which contribute to the development of civic and patriotic personalities or should the history class be seen as an environment of “daring”, of provocations in order to encourage the student to discover himself those aspects from the past that allow him to understand the present?