26.02.2025 / Publications
Authors: Ștefan Cibian
Download publication
At one of our FRI Media Lab workshops, students did not know what World War II was, who Hitler was, or what happened during the Holocaust. That illustrates a specific difficulty in teaching history, as well as broader challenges faced by post-totalitarian societies in substantively reforming the school curricula. Not knowing one’s past and not having the ability to critically assess it limits democratic citizenship. It is, without doubt, a significant challenge for post-totalitarian societies in general and for the Romanian society in particular to generate independent, autonomous, and responsible citizens who are able to hold power to account.
This policy brief aims to highlight challenges encountered in Romanian schools during the Media Lab 4 Sustainable Democracy project (ML4SD) and articulate recommendations for the Romanian Ministry of Education. ML4SD took place between March 1st, 2024, and February 28th, 2025, with the aim of piloting digital media and freedom of expression educational experiences in Țara Făgărașului.
This project, Media Lab 4 Sustainable Democracy, was funded by PROTEUS: Protecting EU Values and Fundamental Rights through Public Participation and Civil Society Assistance in Central Europe.
“Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.”
Departments: FRI Media Lab; Society, Crisis, and Resilience Program; Policy Analysis and Outreach Department; Research Department; Center on Global Affairs and Post Development.
Themes: Civic Engagement; Civil Society; Communism and Totalitarianism; Democracy and Democratization; European Union; Freedom of Expression; Human Rights; Media and Journalism; Social Inequalities.