Authors
Simina Dragos1; 1 University of Cambridge, UK Discussion
In this presentation, I address the changes in Romanian society and the Romanian state educational reform from 1989 to the present through the lens of the national compulsory History curriculum. In particular, I focus on the (lack of) representation of Roma history and anti-Roma state violence in the History curriculum. I argue that processes of democratization, European integration and educational reform failed to promote an anti-racist politics, despite a proclaimed commitment to multiculturalism, multiperspectivity and tolerance, including regarding the curriculum. Thus, although efforts were (more or less successfully) made by national and extra-national actors, such as EuroClio, to move the history curriculum away from nationalist narratives, this did not result in a conceptual and empirical shift towards facing the racist histories and structures in the Romanian state and society. This, I argue, is part of a broader failure of the European integration and post-1989 democratization projects to materialise into justice and recognition for ethnic minorities, particularly Roma, in Romanian society. My argument is based on an Critical Discourse Analysis of all History curriculum documents and guidance for teachers produced by the central government since the transition to democracy. Theoretically, I conceptualise education as part of the ‘pedagogy of the state’ (Sriprakash et al., 2022), the productive relationship between the state and the citizenry. In a Gramscian sense, the pedagogy of the state works to establish consensus and maintain hegemony. I argue that nationalist historical narratives which obscure or obfuscate historical racial injustices, and nationalism more broadly, are hegemonic in the curriculum and broader society. Thus, proclaimed reform at a system (educational reform), societal (transition to capitalism and democracy), and even geopolitical level (such as integration into the European Union) is performative with no real consequences for the structure of society, as long as nationalism remains hegemonic. 
