The Islamic Religion in Course Curriculums of High School History Textbooks in the Republic of Macedonia

History textbooks can and primarily should contribute to the strengthening of students’awareness of universal human values.However,history textbooks can also deepen the divisions,prejudices,and uncritical attitudes,contrary to the goals of education.The youth population,which is still building and creating their point of view towards the world is the main group in the education process.The learning period,in the elementary,as well as in the secondary education is of utmost importance for the development of every human.To that end,history,through the contents of the past largely shapes our perceptions of every individual,ourselves,and the others.Since we are living in a multiethnic and multi-confessional society,I have decided to conduct an analysis of the teaching contents of high school textbooks related to religion.Another reason for the analysis is the role of religion in the formation of Balkan nations,which have made it one of the key elements of their national identities.It is often given the role of raising and strengthening the national awareness,patriotism,as well as the country homogeneity,which most often leads to forming prejudices,divisions,and discrimination towards people of minority religions.The large volume of content related to the religion,and also the mere fact that Muslims are the second largest religion group in the population,I have decided to analyze the contents which are related only to the Islamic religion.The goal is to look for both the positive and negative sides of those contents in history textbooks in secondary schools,which are backed by state institutions that are supposed to take care of the development of competitive,creative,progressive,and ethically formed human potential.The critical review will give an additional impulse to the efforts of eliminating those parts of the teaching contents that create divisions and prejudices,especially in history textbooks,so that its studying can become the key factor in the building of trust between people of different religions.

Mapuche People:Valuing a Colonial Past in the Official Primary History Textbook from an Intermodal Perspective of Historical Sources

This article explores from an intermodal perspective how visual and verbal historical documents contribute to the construction of value positions regarding the Mapuche people during colonial and early republican times in the latest official 5 thgrade primary Chilean History textbook.The study analyzes,in particular,the visual and verbal historical secondary sources that build in combination evaluative prosodies that in turn contribute to construct determinate ideological perspectives regarding Mapuche people.The discourse analysis takes a social and ideological intermodal approach(Oteíza&Pinuer 2016,2019)focusing on an appraisal analysis(Martin&White 2005;Martin2014;Hood 2010;Oteíza&Pinuer 2012,2019)informed by socio-semiotic and Systemic Functional Linguistics theories.The cumulative intersemiotic reading of symbolic images and written documents privileges evaluative prosodies of negative integrity and of high conflict,in which Mapuche people are represented with more agency than Hispanics,emphasizing the stereotype of indigenous people as foreign,exotic and brave warriors,but also as violent,primitive and savage people that have had resisted Hispanic desires of slavering and cultural assimilation.Historical secondary sources offer alternative historical interpretations,although mainly constructed by evoked evaluations that could be less evident to children.