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Eckhart G Franz
INTRODUCTION
UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. The scientific and cultural significance of Archives, their role as a reservoir for scholarly research and as a prominent part of a nation's cultural heritage have placed them within the scope of UNESCO'S activity from the beginning of the organisation. UNESCO sponsored the creation of the International Council on Archives, which held its first International Congress in Paris, in August 1950. Two months later Charles Braibant, Director General of the French Archives and newly elected President of ICA, initiated the first "Service éducatif" in conjunction with the Museum of French History at the French National Archives, one of the lasting contributions of this eminent archivist to the reorientation of the archival profession.
The idea of archival exhibitions as permanent displays of previous documents in museum style or as occasional presentations to celebrate special events is certainly much older, and the occasional visitors to such exhibitions will have included university or high-school students or even student groups, which were led there by an interested teacher. Starting in 1880, repeated ministerial instructions in Belgium asked the heads of educational institutions to organise such visits to exhibitions in the central and provincial archives, and in 1912 a French circular provided for the instruction of future teachers on the potential use of archival documents in history teaching, which was to be accompanied by a visit to an archive repository. In England the first recommendations to use original historical documents in school are to be found in H M Inspector's reports in the 1950's. There were certainly school visits to archival institutions, perhaps following or preceding similar visits to a museum, a hospital or a sugar factory.
The novelty of the French approach of 1950 was the idea of a systematic co-operation between archivists and educators to facilitate the educational use of archival resources. Within the "Service éducatif", as it was established at the National Archives and subsequently at virtually all of the Archives departementales (regional) archives and also at some of the municipal repositories, history teachers on part-time secondment were charged with the preparation of archival exhibitions, which corresponded to educational needs, with the formulation of explanatory texts, with the organisation of guided visits to the exhibitions or to the repositories, a field of action which was to be expanded later.
News about the French archivists' invasion into the educational domain spread very quickly in Europe. This was due to another invention of Charles Braibant: the "Stage technique international des Archives", an international archives course which he inaugurated at the French National Archives in Paris in the winter of 1951/52. Only two years later, in 19.53, a symposium of archivists and teachers in Belgium voiced its enthusiasm for the French project (1). In 1954 "Archives and education", "Les archives et l'enseignement", was the main theme of the First International Round Table Conference in Paris (2). Within ten years' time, every Frenchman who leaves high school will remember the encounter with the breath of History, which he experienced on his visit to the archives" was the visionary comment of a German archivist's report in 1956 (3).
In spite of the quite encouraging results in France - a steady increase in the annual participation in the activities of 'Service éducatif' with more than 30,000 students participating in 1958 when organised services existed in 20 departments, a figure which rose to more than 200,000 with complete coverage in 1979 - traditionally minded archivists in neighbouring European countries were rather slow actually to follow the French lead. The so-called 'Service éducatif' which was attached to the "Vlaamse Huuis" in Anderlecht, a permanent exhibition of the Belgian General State Archieves on the outskirts of Brussels, which opened in 1961, did not obtain the necessary educational personnel, so that it was restricted practically to the preparation of exhibitions.
It required a new generation of archivists and a new approach to history teaching to obtain a more general acceptance of the educational mission of archives. Starting in the mid-1960's, there were lively discussions on the subject in various European countries. An extensive debate was held in late 1963 at the annual conference or "Studiedagen" of the Dutch Association of Archivists (4). In Spring 1965, at the IIIrd Congress of the G.D.R. "German Society of Historians", a special working session with archivists and museum curators was devoted to a first discussion on 'Archives and School', with special reference to the positive French experience, and also to Russian precedents (5).
In 1969 leading archivists in Eastern and Western Germany, when defining the "public" responsibility of archives, insisted on the necessity of taking a more active part in public education. "It should be part of the archivist's responsibility to develop such educational schools services as may be regarded appropriate", was the matter-of-fact formula of British Recommendations for Local Government Archives Services in 1971 (6). Intervention in education at various levels is part of the archival "outreach" as American archivists had come to conceive it in the late 70's, when the positive results of archival activities in connection with the bicentennial celebrations of the American Constitution were transformed into a continuing programme.
That service to education is an integral part of the archivist's functions, as the French Manuel d'Archivistique put it in 1970, seems to be a matter of almost general consensus today, although there are still wide differences in the degree to which this postulate has been put into effect. While visits and studies of pupils of various ages to the archives, or lectures by archivists in schools are common practice in England and France, with a vast literature on methods to be used and accounts of practical experience, other countries are only just launching their first experiments in the field. Archive administrations in various Third World countries like Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe are co-operating with the education authorities in developing plans for a more active involvement of archives in teaching.
To assist such discussions where they are about to start and to give support to archivists who try to develop educational programmes of their own, is one of the major purposes of this study. The comparative analysis of experiences in various countries will serve to demonstrate the wide range of potential activities in this field. It will lead to some recommendations and to some warnings as well, though it may be too early as yet to define anything like standardised guidelines.
FOOTNOTES TO INTRODUCTION
1. Cf. C Wyffels. "De educative activiteiten van het RiJksarchief". Gedenkboek Michiel Mispelon. 1982, p.602.
2. Cf. "Les Archives et l'enseignement". Actes de la première Conference internationale de la Table Ronde des Archives. In: Une Table Ronde utile a l'Histoire. Paris: 1958.
3. Cf. Franz Herberhold, "Der Service éducatif in Frankreich. Seine Möglichkeiten bei uns". In: Geschichte in Wissenschaft and Unterricht 7 (1956), p.288.
4. Cf. "De educatieve teak van het archiefwezen". Nederlands Archievenblad 67 (1963), 77 - 117.
5. Cf. Eberhard Schetelich, "Archiv und Schule". Archivmitteilungen 15 (1965, 106 - 110.
6. Published by the Society of Archivists. Cf. Michael Cook. Archives Administration. London 1977. Appendix A. p.203.
6 . GUIDELINES
The major results and conclusions of this study may be summarised in terms of the following guidelines:
i) The first step towards the development of an archives education programme must be the establishment by the archival agency of close contacts with the competent education authority, of a co-operative working relationship with teachers' centres and with interested teachers within the region (cf. section 4.2).
ii) To gain practical experience, it may be useful for the archival agency to undertake experimental pilot projects with an interested teacher and his class, a specific school or a teachers' group; this may involve either the educational use of archival exhibitions or the classroom use of archival documents (cf. section 4.2 and 4.3).
iii) Although in preparing exhibitions and arranging for visits to their repositories most archivists will provide certain educational services, a systematic archives education programme is only feasible with the assistance of specialised educational personnel. The usual arrangement is the secondment of experienced teachers to the archives, mostly on a part-time basis with periodic alternation (cf. section 4.3).
iv) The material prerequisites of an archives education programme are the provision of adequate facilities including at least one seminar room of school class capacity within or close to the archives, possibly a second room for exhibitions, an office and some storage space; equipment should include movable furniture, blackboard, display screens and show-cases, slide and/or overhead projector, possibly video equipment, a photocopier or easy access to archival copying facilities, a basic reference library and some budget provision for paper and other materials (cf. section 4.4). Costs for travel and transport will be lower if a service vehicle ("Archivobus") can be provided (cf. section 3.3).
v) The activities of an archives education service should include:
a) Organised information visits to the archive repository, with an introduction to the functions of an archive service and the various types of archival sources. A standardised introduction may be replaced by an introductory slide tape or video presentation, which is also available for outside use, in schools beyond excursion distance, or for educational television (cf. sections 3.1 and 5.4).
b) The preparation of a permanent archival exhibition and of temporary exhibitions and displays on certain syllabus subjects, adapted to education needs, with accompanying educational materials (explanations, suggestions for education use, worksheets). To serve schools beyond excursion distance travelling exhibitions should be organised for display in schools or other public centres (cf. section 3.2).
c) The identification and selection of archival documents to illustrate certain aspects of events of national, regional or local history or for classroom work on certain subjects. This may lead to the compilation of an archival document bank of master copies, to its duplication for regional or local centres; and to the production of archive teaching units or kits consisting of facsimiles documents with explanations for educational use and, if necessary, transcriptions and/or translations (cf. sections 3.3, 5.2 and 5.3).
d) The publication of archives teaching units and of corresponding sets of slides or overhead transparencies, which may profit from co-operation with teachers' resources centres or other competent agencies (cf. sections 5.3 and 5.4).
e) The identification of topics and support for individual and group research projects, either as part of the regular teaching programme or in the context of national or regional research competitions, which are used to motivate the students' interest in archival work (cf. section 3.4).
f) Contribution to educational broadcasting, radio or television transmissions, an activity which deserves further development (cf. section 4.5).