To understand the Term „Abkhazia“ in History Textbooks

Abstract

Today, Abkhazia is an occupied territory  and Georgian society and students do not have  any means to have a direct contact with it. Due to the urgency of the issue, we aimed to research and study the content nomenclature of griffied school textbooks of „Our Georgia“ and „History“ (one of the main edu­ca­tional resources), on the basis of which the student should form a proper idea regarding the term „Abkhazia“; Do they contribute (or to what extent) to the development of those skills, by the operation of which the students will be able to make logical conclusions regarding the given territorial unit, including when dis­cu­ssing territorial problems. The mentioned issue is also relevant from the teaching-methodical point of view, as the national curriculum of the third generation directly requires to conduct  the educational process on the basis of conceptual categories and topic development. According to the above mentioned issues, the most important are the materials and resources, which we are going to offer students  when studying topics related to „Abkhazia“.

The study of the issue showed us, that that the terminological and met­ho­do­logical apparatus, narrative and visual materials presented  in the griffied school textbook of „Our Georgia“, „History“ („Our Georgia“, VI grade, student's book, „Klio“ publishing house, 2018; Our Georgia, VI grade, teacher's book., „Klio“ pub­li­shing house, 2018; History, VII grade, 2020, „Logos Press“ publishing house). Book, history, grade VII, 2020, „Logos Press“ publishing house; history, grade VII, 2019, publishing house „Diogene“; teacher's book, history, grade VII, 2019, pub­li­shing house „Diogene“ History, grade VIII, 2020, publishing house „Diogenes“; His­to­ry, Class VIII, 2020, Publishing House „Logos Press“; History, Class IX, Pub­li­shing House „Diogenes“, 2020; History, Class IX, 2020, Publishing House „Logos Press“, student's book) do not allow us to understand thinking of the historical-geographical „Abkhazia“ and see their relationship with both „Georgia“ and „Ge­o­r­gians“. (and, in general, it is not enough to form knowledge about Sanigia-Apshilia-Abazgia and Egris/Lasika). It should be noted,  that the exercises are not effective enough and fail to encourage students to establish deeper logical con­ne­c­tions, perform research work  and  form  correct ideas on the mentioned topic.

In our opinion, regarding the term „Abkhazia“, students should be offered a variety of narrative material, historical sources, maps and exercises, At the same time, we should actively use media literacy approaches. As a result, we will get the fo­llo­wing:  their knowledge, attitudes and ideas about historical-geographical Abkhazia will become deeper and more thorough and they will have the opportunity to develop skills,  that allow them to contextualize issues deeply.