Consultation workshop for primary school teachers, 12. 10 .2022

In the lecture hall of the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana, a consultation workshop was held for primary school teachers within the framework of the Heritage shool for new generations. The workshop was intended for teachers at the general class level and also for teachers of the subject level, especially the following subjects: Art Education, Society, Geography, History, Techniques and Technologies, Citizenship and Homeland Education and Ethics, the optional subject of Ethnology and also other subjects, such as Music, Physics , Mathematics, Slovenian language, Physical Education and English language.

In the introduction, the leading organization was presneted, the project itself, and the diverse areas of knowledge, skills (and also professions) in the field of cultural heritage, which are already practiced in some organizations . Through a comprehensive analysis of the curricula of subjects in Slovenian elementary schools, it was shown that the subjects have many common concepts that could be combined and explained in the field of cultural heritage. At the same time, content from the field of cultural heritage can be integrated into the field of all four activities for the so-called days of activities (cultural, natural science, sports and technical days), also with the help of thematic suitcases based on the example of proven practice.

Norwegian teacher Tron Løvås presented some of the most common approaches and methods of  cultural heritage teachings, where there is a strong emphasis on skills and heritage related to mining and geology, in the form of outdoor learning.

The Norwegian partner of the project Geopark Magma SA presented ways of teaching cultural heritage in their organization on the topic of the history, culture and way of life of the indigenous Lapland people, which is very endangered. The state implements the so-called  Cultural Backpack program for teaching art subjects, which are carried out throughout the compulsory ten-year schooling of children. In Geopark Magma, interpretations of the remains of the heritage are carried out in-situ (on the spot), mainly through gamification, food testing and relaxation on the so-called day in nature, and thorugh story telling stories the revival of the countryside. They also run a 3-year art program of creating works of art in the harbor area related to tides, geology, maritime cultural heritage and technology itself. In the Geopark, they also use the so-called the TeachOUT application for teaching in outdoor classrooms for all subjects and learning with virtual reality in the field of geological history research with the so-called GeoVR program.

The purpose of the consultation workshop was, among other things, to identify existing practices of implementing/introducing cultural heritage into the curricula of individual subjects, to learn about the methodologies and ways in which teachers may already include areas of cultural heritage in the lessons of their subject and also in activity days.

Through brainstorming, the teachers pointed out that they wanted an independent website dedicated to pedagogues in relation to cultural heritage teaching , they proposed the the establishment of a heritage team at schools, and establishment of connections with other primary schools, with producers of home crafts, local associations, artists and other institutions, as well as with public Institute for the protection of cultural heritage of Slovenia-ZVKDS; however, they suggest intergenerational cooperation and, above all, the possibility of practical work. They point out that there are too few contact hours in fine arts, they also put expresed that the visits to public cultural institutions for elementary school children should be completely free of charcge  and to include cultural heritage in the so-called cultural and natural history routes.