text:
One of the major issues of Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of
the Iron Curtain has been the development of civic society. In some regions a
tradition of civic and human rights education already existed, and its
continuation has depended on the respective country's educational policy and
on decentralization. Also, in certain regions local administrations once played
an important role in stimulating the coexistence of the different linguistic,
religious and professional communities. These places partially preserved their
multi- and intercultural character, which promoted open societies. As a
consequence, these communities today are able to adjust more rapidly to the
dynamics of the contemporary world, and to understand and promote pluralism and
democracy. The promotion of civic and human rights education through an
intercultural perspective depends both on the rational evaluation of the past,
and on attempts to re-define concepts that lay in the background of the
formation of the Central and Eastern European nations and states. Retrieving the
multiple values that contributed to the first modernization of the area might
contribute a corrective to narrow monocultural ways of thinking about the world.
Here I present the Romanian case since this issue has not thus far been
approached systematically in the
light of these considerations. In the first part I describe the historical and
political context in Central and Eastern Europe during the modern period. This
would highlight that contemporary Romania has inherited different linguistic,
cultural and religious groups, as well as notions and patterns regarding the
political and intellectual history. Then, I proceed briefly to present the
Romanian educational system, its obstacles and possible solutions in addressing
intercultural education. Finally, I
give two examples: one is a study case of the "Babeş-Bolyai" University
of Cluj, a city of Transylvania with
predominantly Romanian, Hungarian and German speaking populations. This part
presents an example of multicultural educational policy with its strengths and
weaknesses. The second example refers to the region of Banat, an area where
peaceful coexistence among many cultures and religions made possible
intercultural education.
For a closer approach to the issue, I have introduced the main political
ideas of Central and Eastern Europe during the 18th and the 19th
centuries. These were the intellectual references of the modern Romanian state,
and the domestic and international political context that contributed to state
formation. The study reveals as well the ideological options in the communities
of this area over the last two centuries. The political and administrative
legacies left behind by the histories of the two empires, the Habsburg and the
Ottoman, enables one to discover where the issue of interculturality have come,
how it survived, and what pedagogical role it might play today. Nineteenth
century concepts – like ethnicity or Völkischekultur
- are still in circulation in certain countries of Central and Eastern Europe,
Romania among them, thus justifying the necessity for the revaluation of the
political and educational ideas in this area. The reference bibliography in the
background of nationalism emphasizes why multi- and intercultural education was a
priori rejected in favor of monocultural
and collectivist education.
A well-grounded approach to this issue in Central and Eastern Europe
requires on the one hand, taking account of the content and the flow of
information in the 18th and 19th centuries and, therefore,
the effort of emancipation, and the effort of consciousness raising, on the
other. The processes are not taking place in the same way throughout the
above-mentioned area. Economic policies (i.e. the ones of the Habsburg Empire
during the Enlightened Despotism of Maria Theresa and of Joseph II) decisively
contributed to create a real communication network, thus raising small
intellectual revolutions. In spite of the difference in mentality between
Western Europe, on the one hand, and Central and Eastern Europe, one the other,
one could see that the intellectuals were successful in regions where they
succeeded in spreading Enlightenment ideas, where they managed to introduce
pragmatic information in their communities, and where they were concerned with
the understanding and translating literary, philosophical and political works1.
Even though the Habsburg Empire included an enormous variety of
communities inside its borders, it was committed to encourage their emancipation
from the medieval mentality and it passed legislation that imposed linguistic,
cultural and religious diversity. Under the pressure of the German Aufklärung (Enlightenment), the
empire provided the minimum training to its people necessary for their economic
development. Illiteracy of an important part of the communities living in
Central Europe was overcome for the first time in the years of the Enlightened
Despotism (1780-1790). The normative restrictions of the Austrian state were
aimed at developing the bourgeoisie and capitalism, at gradually replacing
traditionalism with modernization, and at providing quite uniform living
standards in all the regions under its rule.
The Habsburgs' concern was to achieve a kind of "Austrian
consciousness" that would ensure the empire's unity and security. Vienna
insisted on imposing its reference system and to enforce its power over all its
provinces through more or less discreet proceedings2. These measures
met the empire's political interests. The imperial concern for raising the
administrative and economic competences to a satisfactory standard played a
challenging role for the small developing linguistic communities inside its
borders. However, despite the monarchy's effort to build the "Austrian
consciousness", ethno-nationalist movements began to develop in the first
decades of the 19th century under the influence of Prussian cultural
and ideological propaganda.
I will particularly
emphasize the period of intellectual assimilation and mutations as regards
reflection about life and the historicist trend of the history of thought.
However, beginning with the Romantic period the sophism of metaphysical
historicism prevailed over the critical spirit. Analyzing the lag in the
East-European countries, István Bibó concluded that as the national frame was
not destroyed in this part of the continent, the bourgeois revolutions at the
middle of the 19th century only resurrected the medieval endeavors.
He considered all medieval entities in Central and Eastern Europe to have
survived either through institutions, or in a symbolic way through memories.
Despite their provincialism, they represented a political stimulus which was
hardly negligible in relation to the Austrian power which otherwise was neither
too old nor too well rooted. According to the same historian, things were not
very different in Southeastern Europe, where the Ottoman Empire was not able to
force the Balkan nations into a proper national structure, namely to create
integrated bodies, valid for any independent political entity3.
This cannot be understood in the light of nationalism exclusively as
developed in the scheme proposed by Bibó. On the one hand, the religious and
linguistic traditions of the regional communities within both empires were
preserved in spite of all difficulties and, on the other hand, modern
emancipation was belated due to the lack of administrative and political
structures to surpass the backward mentalities. More specifically, the regions
under discussion benefited neither from the Enlightenment nor from the Religious
Reform in the Western acceptation. These two movements echoed in Central Europe,
but not in the Balkans.
Even in the 18th
century, Southeastern Europe did not fall under the Western influence; there
were even less of the religious, cultural, scientific and political disputes
which opened and deeply marked the modern world. The very few exceptions of
cultural and political endeavors to modernize the state and society in
Southeastern Europe -- the case of scholars Theophil Corydaleu and Dimitrie
Cantemir -- are quite atypical for the area. Though it contains multiple
cultural heritages (i.e. the Greek, Thracian, Roman and the Byzantine)
Southeastern European civilization was not touched by the changes produced by
the scientific and political thinking of the Renaissance. To what historic and
political processes was this isolation due? Many reasons are invoked by
historians in answer to this question, the Turkish occupation usually being in
the foreground. But facts revealed through documentary research show that
historians are seldom right in referring to this argument. There are other
reasons which cannot be ignored, such as: the weight of the Orthodox religion in
the political and juridical life; the rejection of the religious Reform and its
doctrine; the Church-State relationship; the caste privileges and their role in
the political circles; the importance of the rural community in forming
mentalities; and the proclamation of obedience to the dominant social category.
One has to admit as well that both the Habsburg and the Ottoman Empires
contributed to the spread of a new tolerance; to the promotion of East-West
dialogue, to the development of trade policies; to introducing and spreading
some bourgeoisie principles; and to the political emancipation of the people.
The coexistence of different denominations such as the Catholic, the Orthodox,
the Lutheran, the Calvinist, the Jewish and the Mohammedan was possible due to
the permissiveness of Vienna and Constantinople.
The assertion of the national identities contributed to setting-up the
national states in Central and Eastern Europe. The temptation of each group to
write its own history was due to their political interests in shaping national
awareness. The elaboration and propagation of the question of identity in the
most varied forms generated a normative outlook about the past and the future.
Education through history became the main goal of intellectuals and policy
makers. The new approach to the past consisted in purposefully highlighting the
issue of "origin", in generating archetypes, in using the sophism of the
metaphysical historicism and in overlapping dreams and illusions with reality.
This practice would eventually lead to the creation of the "ethno-national"
myth that had to fulfill the political options of the communities no matter
where they lived. Instead of the imperial cosmopolitanism, the local political
circles would promote the monocultural pedagogy and respectively
ethno-differentiation as identity ideology.
During the first decades of the 19th century, a few German
theorists and philosophers who advocated the nation-state concept won great
sympathy, becoming either the most read scholars or, simply, reference points
for a few generations of educated people in Central and Eastern Europe. Among
them were Johann Gottfried Herder is to be mentioned whose work fascinated not
only his generation, but especially the next (the revolutionaries of 1848).
Along with Fichte's work, Herder had a brilliant ideological career and became
known especially through his Ideen zur
Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit4. We must ask what was
most notable in this Romantic philosopher's work and how it succeeded in
becoming a reference point in Central-Eastern Europe's political literature. It
is a question that is challenging to the degree that it invites unconventional
Herder was attracted by almost all the sciences of that time: the
philosophy of history, the history of culture and of humanism, and the history
of religions and peoples' mythology. The attraction to greatness was primary in
his mind as on this depended the people's happiness or unhappiness, their
demeanor and physiognomy, their conversation and occupation. The same feeling of
greatness inspired his appetite for poetry and for stories and might equally
have determined his interest in speculation and the so-called very "essence"
of philosophy. The propensity towards language and folklore, specific to
Romanticism had a very clear political motivation, namely nation-state building.
According to Herder, language is the stimulus of the soul's resources, for
culture and for the "deepest education". His enthusiasm for his own language
had no limits. In his view, language must be the bridge linking between
different provinces; moreover, a good education could be received exclusively in
the language of the people and of the country in which one was born. He
established a subtle way of approaching individual biography through one's
place of origin. The submission to space becomes defining and confinement within
language borders favors creation. These viewpoints were quite simple to
assimilate, all the more so in societies where individualism was rejected ab
Herder's benign internationalism, is reflected in his interest for the
African past mixed with attraction for Asian history, Southeastern European
ethnography and ancient languages, where nations were perceived as individuals
or super-individuals5. All this contributed to the foundation of his
nation-state theory. In the German philosopher's view unity and diversity are
features describing all lasting creations of nature. He stated also that
education, formation and the way of thinking the human being were genetic,
wherefrom arise the particularity of national features. Herder thought about
himself as being contemporary with an end of an era; he considered that the
political systems were in crisis, and hence unstable. In his view, the old
political practices were not sufficiently flexible to adapt the nation-state
theory. In fact, Herder wanted to teach people to understand everything through
their historical determination. The success of his ideology came to life through
the nationalist doctrine in many regions of the Habsburg Empire and territories
of the Ottoman Empire6.
Fichte played a similar role in the modern history of political thought
by widely promoting certain myths. This is not about the Fichte of Wissennschaftslehre, but the
Fichte who wrote Reden an die Deutsche
Nation in 1807-1808, a work that contributed to the "nation" concept
elaboration, more exactly to the concept of "Romantic autopoetic
nationalism". Fichte's image of the Frenchman as the archetype of the enemy is
a quite notorious example of inciting and manipulating public opinion. The
irrational nationalism formulated by the philosopher was taken over and adapted
by the intelligentsia of Central and Eastern Europe, which became the teacher of
the nations. This concept can be found today, in the image of diversity, of
majority-minorities relations, and of the relationship between neighboring
nations. Fichte also inspired the idea that it was not concrete reason, but the
metaphysical status that ensured the outstanding historical achievements of a
Recent studies reveal that many variants of European nationalism exist,
namely, those inspired by Herder and by Fichte7. The neo-Greeks, the
Romanians, the Magyars (Hungarians), the Albanians and the Serbs immediately
took Herder as a milestone when they find out that he advocated their right to
express themselves in their respective languages. Living in the 1848
revolutionary milieu of Paris and having at his disposal the French edition of
Herder's main work, Idées sur la
Philosophie de l'Histoire de l'Humanité, the Romanian politician, Nicolae Bălcescu,
was deeply committed to such concepts as, "historic destiny" and
"grandness". He assimilated both from Herder and from Edgar Quinet all that
referred to the issue of ethnic unity. Herderianism, more than any other
political philosophy, would raise not only interest but also passion within the
intelligentsia and policy making community.
The textbooks during the 1848 Revolution afterward promoted the Völkischekultur (folk culture) ideas. The translations into
Romanian, Hungarian, Greek and Serbian of excerpts from the German
Romanticists' works demonstrate their influence within the intellectual and
educational milieus in Central and Eastern Europe.
An important role in circulating his ideas was played by revolutionary
programs, namely by the Revolution of 1848 itself in the Romanian
Principalities. They became so popular that it is not surprising that, in
Central and Eastern Europe, many politicians applied ideas elaborated by Herder
without citing their author. This was the time when an irresistible wish for a
rapid recovery was making itself felt, namely, the first aspiration of the
peoples in the eastern half of the continent to be perceived as European. One
witnesses, at the same time, the losing sight of the ability for information
selection; the lack of critical spirit; the copying of the commonly used methods
by the most advanced countries and regions while ignoring the economic, social,
and administrative possibilities of the Central and Eastern Europe. Enthusiasm
captured mainly the intelligentsia who became the first political class in the
area. This partially explains the ideological confusion on the eve of the 1848
Revolution, marking both political thought and policy making itself. The
ambiguity of the ideals advanced by the revolutionists of 1848, namely
liberalism and nationalism, would generate serious theoretical disputes on which
depended the revolution of the political life in this region.
In the Romanian context of the assimilation of the notions of
"nation" and "nation-state" history became the promoter of Volksgeist, namely, it proved the active role played by culture
(especially the folk culture), by race and class, in a word, the superiority of
the collective structures over the individual ones. Alongside historians, there
were archaeologists, ethnographists, journalists and writers in the area who
drew upon the German Romantic works to look for the ancestral origins of their
communities. In Central and in Eastern Europe only a few of the dominant trends
of the Enlightened political rationalism penetrated, and there was not
sufficient time to develop the very few concepts to set-up coherent political
thinking and pluralist and civic education based on reason and individual
responsibility. This aspect had dramatic consequences both in the economic
field, whenever the implementation of liberal doctrine was at stake, and in the
social one. The concept of "ethnicity" substituted for the concept of
"national". The myths about the purism of origins, about the common
religious traditions and the continuity of living in the same area, replaced the
liberal and the socio-democratic values spread by the French Revolution of 1789.
Mass movements and politics demanded a new political style which was possible
through ethno-nationalist propaganda promoted by schools.
In the modern and contemporary history of Romania, the peasantry
represented the ideal of purity of people. This is why the concept of peuple had in Romania different connotations from those known in
France. To be more specific, while "peuple", or "people"
defined the dynamics of social emergence for the Western world, for Central and
Eastern Europe, the same term defined the n of the national peculiarity8.
This can well be noticed in the way the scholars understood to approach the
issue of citizenship, and referred to the question of the emancipation of
certain minority cultures and religions especially during the second half of the
nineteenth century. However, in the case of the 1848 revolutionaries, the
influence of the French liberalism promoted by the Great Revolution (1789) was
felt for a very short time. The failure of their approach in Central and Eastern
Europe -- including the Romanian Principalities -- is due not only to the late
acceptance of the liberal ideas and to the very few public and private
institutions that wanted to adopt the political orientation of the century, but
also to the lack of intermediary social categories, able to perceive and
multiply the messages that revolutionized the Western political system. A few
important aspects support the above statement such as the lack of a proper
administration at the beginning of the modern epoch, ignorance of the capitalist
economic rules, the absence of a dynamic bourgeoisie connected to the goods
market of the time, and a very thin urban social layer. The traditions of the
rural collectivist way of life played a decisive role in preserving the
discrepancies among the regions under discussion, and between these regions and
the advanced countries. The difference between the elite and the masses was
significant and in some countries it has remained until today.
The main idea here is that the historical and political background made
it possible for the influence of the German Romanticism to be quickly
assimilated and opened the process of its
taking root in the ethno-national
idea. Diverse cultural and political pedagogies turned Herder's, Fichte's and
Hegel's works into reference points for the Central and Eastern European
intelligentsia. One can recognize such sources when the same segment undertakes
a political crusade in the name of the "collective soul". The
historia magistra vitae syntagm that was discovered with real satisfaction
in the 19th-20th centuries by writers, historians and
politicians in Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria or Greece turns imperceptibly
into a way of thinking about politics.
The educational system and the level of development of civic societies in
East-Central and Southeastern Europe have often remained dependent of the
historical reference points discussed above. I refer particularly to the
monocultural orientation and to the ethnicist criterion associated with the
educational process. The concrete case of the pedagogy in contemporary Romania
demonstrates this. Therefore I chose it as an example and I describe it in the
following part of this study.
This section concerns the multi- and intercultural realities of
contemporary Romania, as well as the aspects related to the origins of the
social and cultural pluralism. It emphasizes particularly the assimilative
tendencies of the official educational system that hindered the assertion and
the development of civic society.
Due to their history countries in Central and Eastern Europe have many
common features. In Romania, intercultural education was not under serious
consideration until the colapse of communism. There were a number of reasons why
this form of pedagogy lagged behind, especially the lack of competencies in this
field. The conservative political trends did not encourage the development of an
open pedagogy to promote trans-cultural communication. Being at an incipient
phase, civil society has only sporadically intervened in this process without
having the expected impact on the key figures in culture and education, let
alone on the politicians in power. The diverse cultural heritage of Romania
could be capitalized through intercultural education.
* *
kindergarten including: low, medium, and
high/preparatory school groups;
compulsory education, including
primary and secondary
post-secondary education including:
high-school, vocational school, apprentice schools;
higher education including: colleges and
universities, postgraduate education (MA, MSc, MBA etc.), and doctorate.
The process of education is subordinated to the Ministry of National
Education which has the following structure: Department of Financial Control;
Department of International Relations; Department of Higher Education and
Scientific Research in Higher Education; Department of Human and Financial
Resources; Department for European Integration; Department for Primary and
Secondary Education; Department for School and Extra-curriculum Activities;
Department for Education, Strategy, and Development; Department for Education of
National Minorities; Department for Education of Romanians Living Abroad;
Department for Co-ordination of the Reform Project for Primary and Secondary
Education; Department for Co-ordination of the Reform of Higher Education;
Department for Curricula and Teachers Training; the Socrates
National Agency; the Leonardo National
An introduction to the responsibilities of the Ministry of National
Education will reveal the type of principles that lie in its background.
According to the Education Law No. 84 of
1995, the Ministry of National Education bears the following
"to co-ordinate and control the national
educational system;
to organize the school network;
to establish the number of pupils per school,
by consulting with the schools, the local authorities and other interested local
to approve the educational plans, curricula
and textbooks for primary and secondary education;
to organize national contests for the
development of textbooks and to finance their publication;
to elaborate the methodology for the
university entrance examination;
to co-ordinate scientific research on the
education system;
to approve the establishment of secondary
schools, vocational training schools, colleges and faculties;
to approve regulations regarding the
organization and function of the subordinated units;
to elaborate, approve and distribute
education materials;
to co-ordinate the activity of subordinated
university libraries;
to supervise the training and specialization
of teachers;
to appoint, transfer and keep the records of
personnel in public schools;
to assess the national education system;
to elaborate and implement the long and short
term strategies for educational reform;
to elaborate the specific norms for the
school constructions and facilities;
to establish the procedure of recognition for
the studies and diplomas;
to establish the structure of each year of
study, final exams, entrance examinations and school holidays for primary and
secondary education;
to develop and control the assessment system
for pupils, students, teachers and professors;
to distribute to each of its subordinate
units the due share of budget and to ensure the units comply with the financial
established norms;
to develop, diagnose and assess studies for
the reconstructing and modernization of the educational system;
to develop specific programs for students
with special needs (emotional, physical and psychological ones);
to manage the administrative staff;
to cooperate with the Romanian Diaspora in
order to promote education in Romanian language abroad"11.
Therefore, the Ministry of National Education assumes the following
responsibilities: to guide, control, elaborate and establish the assessment
criteria of the professional merits and of approving the promotion of teachers
and faculties; to establish the curricula for the primary, secondary, high and
vocational schools; and to establish the salaries for the teachers, faculty and
administrative staff.
The universities and educational research institutes are also
subordinated to the Ministry of Education. The
autonomy of the state universities is merely on paper since many of the
university senate proposals must be approved through ministerial order.
Accredited private educational institutions also are under the control of the
evaluation committees set-up by and within the same Ministry. The possibility of
real competition is controversial in this case and quite often such methods
encourage corruption in the process of accreditation of the private educational
institutions. The centralist policy of the Ministry – often politically based
– makes it easier for the coalition of parties in power to interfere in
educational policies. The impossibility to taking decisions without consulting
the higher bodies in a form of pyramidal
organization essentially prevents or delays the solving of a great many of the
problems of public education. The impossibility of autonomously coordinating the
educational activities of universities and the County General Inspectorates
obstructs not only the self-administration but also the training of trainers,
teachers and faculties according to the region's social needs, interests and
financial possibilities. The same centralism inherited from the previous
totalitarian regimes and perpetuated by some paragraphs of the Education
Law No. 84 of 1995, facilitates the intervention of the state officials in
the administration of local institutions.
A General County School
Inspectorate, headed by a General Inspector, manages the regional school network
of primary and secondary education. The School Inspectorate, established in each
county, is comprised of:
"the Managing Board composed of the general
inspector (president), the deputy general inspectors, the specialty inspectors,
the director of the Teachers Resource Centre, the chief accountant and the legal
adviser of the Inspectorate;
the Advisory Council, composed of school
directors/principals, prestigious teachers and professors, parents,
representatives of the local authorities, of the religious communities and of
the local companies"12.
The General Inspector, his/her deputies, and the Head of the Teachers'
Resource Centre are appointed by the Minister of Education. The main
responsibilities of the County General Inspectorate are:
"to recommend a local school network to the
Ministry of Education;
to set-up, with the approval of the Ministry
of Education, public education institutions including kindergartens, primary
schools, lower secondary schools, and institutions of vocational and
apprenticeship training;
to ensure the appropriate personnel for
educational institutions;
to organize and supervise scientific
to co-ordinate the organization of entrance examinations, graduation
examinations and of school contests;
to control the educational process in the
dependent institutions; and
to co-ordinate the activity of the Teacher
Resource Centre and of school libraries"13.
The General Inspector of the County General Inspectorate is also
president of the Council of Administration (Managing Board)14. This
essentially means that all decisions are made by one single person who has
absolute power, without being subjected to control by a board. The situation is
similar with the school directors/principals, who are simultaneously presidents
of the School Boards and presidents of the Councils of Administration. School
principals direct the institutions of primary and secondary education. According
to the law, the School Board and the Managing Board assist the principals in
their governing activity. The principal and the assistant principals are
appointed by the General Inspector15.
This centralized organization of the educational system hinders civic
society initiatives. For instance, the non-governmental organizations set-up to
promote education and culture must obtain the approval of the Ministry of
Education and/or the Ministry of Culture to function.
How does the state relate to the relationship between the majority and
minorities, and what role does it grant to these relations in the civic
According to Article no. 6 of the Constitution of Romania (adopted in
1992) "the state recognizes and guarantees to persons belonging to ethnic
minorities the right to preserve, develop, and express their ethnic, cultural,
linguistic and religious identity". According to the same article, "the
measures of protection taken by the government to preserve, develop and express
the minorities' identity must be in accordance to the principles of equality
and non-discrimination regarding other Romanian citizens". The Law of Education states that "the Romanian citizens have equal
rights and free access to all levels and forms of education irrespective of the
social and material condition, gender, race, nationality, political or religious
affiliation of the individual".
However, much of the wording and content in this law allows for
contradictory interpretations of the above-mentioned issues. For example, the
legislator introduced stipulations that can be interpreted as restrictive such
as: "during the secondary and the high school period, the History
of the Romanians and the Geography of
Romania are taught in Romanian", or "the main subjects -- in the public
education (vocational, apprentice school, economical, administrative, agrarian,
forest and agro-alpine schools), as well as in post high school -- are taught in
Romanian, providing, as much as is possible, assimilation of the specialized
terminology in the mother tongue"16.
The use of the "History of Romanians" syntagm instead of "History
of Romania" for subject taught in high school and university has brought
ideological disputes because it perpetuates 19th century clichés and
incites contradictory viewpoints between the majority and minority populations.
The law of 1995 does not reflect any systematic concern to preserve the richness
of diverse traditions that might facilitate a quicker access to a pluralist
culture for the Romanian citizens. The lack of stipulations regarding the study
of diversity which might benefit the entire population, means only a diminution
of Romania's chance to adjust to its inner multiculturalism, to the cultural
diversity of Europe, and to a democratic mentality where the role of
multicultural citizenship is primordial.
A few notes about minorities and regional diversity in Romania – the
legacies of history – could be explanatory and would introduce the hypotheses
concerning multi- and inter-cultural education.
Romania has a population of 22,760,449 inhabitants (according to the
census of January 1992), including a population composed of many different
linguistic and religious communities. The majority group is represented by
Romanians. The minorities include: Hungarians (Magyars), Romas (Gypsies),
Germans, Serbs, Ukrainians, Slovaks, Czechs, Croatians, Turks, Jews,
Russian-Lipovans, Bulgarians, Poles, Armenians, Greeks and Italians. The most
numerous minority is the Hungarian (Magyar), numbering 1,620,199 inhabitants
(according to the above-mentioned census). The number of the Roma (Gypsy)
population is quite uncertain, but in the 1992 census it is listed as about
409,723 inhabitants, although other statistics show 1.8 million people17.
Other minorities are quite small in number (see Appendix
1). Two communities which once played a major role in Romania's history have
decreased sensibly, namely the German and the Jewish which had 550,000 and
420,000 inhabitants respectively right after the World War II. A large number of
people from both communities left Romania during the communist dictatorship for
political and economic reasons.
Contemporary Romania's population shows, for the most part, a long
period of living together since the Middle Ages. Multiculturalism has been
favored here by the geographical diversity of the regions as well as by their
administrative and political affiliation to the empires that ruled in the
central, eastern and southeastern part of Europe, namely the Habsburg, the
Turkish and the Tsarist. The regions of Transylvania, Banat, Maramureş and
Partium were parts of the Hungarian Kingdom during the Middle Ages, from the 11th
through the 16th
From 1542 through 1699, Transylvania was the only region in Central and
Eastern Europe which held the status of autonomous principality, being compelled
to pay a yearly tribute to the Turkish Empire. The Hungarian Kingdom was
conquered by the Turks at Mohács in 1526; thus the Hungarian political class
was restricted to the East, in Transylvania. The autonomous towns and villages
of Transylvania needed to secure good communication and understanding among its
communities. All groups living in that region were represented in the
legislative bodies. The Transylvanian nobility was not divided on linguistic
criterion. The documents of the Transylvanian
Diet of Turda (1557) stipulated that "everyone lives after the law he
chooses". In 1568 the Diet
proclaimed the complete freedom of faith, thus generating a form of tolerance
among the four recognized denominations in Transylvania at that time, namely the
Unitarian, Calvinist, Catholic and Evangelical.
Banat was an Ottoman province from 1552 to 1716 known under the name of Sanjak
of Timişoara (Sanjak = a
subdivision of the Turkish province), and it was included in the Pashalik of
Buda. For two centuries, all the above-mentioned regions were included in the
Habsburg Empire which became, after 1867, the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Bessarabia was part of the Tsarist Empire, and Wallachia, Moldavia and
Dobrudgea were either under the influence of the Ottoman Empire or under its
direct rule for five centuries.
Bukovina, another border region of Romania (part of it is included, today
in northeastern Romania, and another part, in Ukraine) had a meandering history
itself. It had been the meeting point of the Polish, Russian, Austrian, and
Romanian political and economic interests for five centuries. Hence the
inheritance of a cultural patrimony of great diversity.
Generally speaking, the empires facilitated coexistence of many
linguistic and religious communities within the same region. At times, they
played the role of arbitrators between two or among more groups whenever the
viewpoints regarding their origin, historical right, religion and administration
were divergent. The community pluralism was born from the politics of those
empires, kingdoms and principalities directly. It is obvious that this pluralism
generated emulation in every respect: institutional, financial, commercial,
scientific and artistic. The plural history of the area during the 16th
through the 19th centuries created the premises of
Two essential aspects should be noted: firstly, the existence of many
different cultures based on different languages – namely multiculturalism; and
secondly, the mixture of cultures that generated a civilization with multiple
origins – namely interculturality. In the latter sense, the Romanian-Hungarian
coexistence is the consequence of living together over a long time, dating back
to the Middle Ages. The same holds true for the Romanian-German,
Romanian-Turkish and Romanian-Jewish coexistence. All this set a specific
imprint on the contemporary Romanian civilization, generating many similitudes
as well as many particular features according to the different regions.
One of the deficiencies of the Romanian educational system has been that
it has not questioned the equality of opportunity for education in minority
languages. Although the Education Law of
1995 stipulates that minorities have the right to instruction in their
respective mother tongues (See Appendices
2,3,4), the County School Inspectorates do not always consider the
demographic reality. That is, when institutions plan their curricula they
deprive children belonging to minority communities of their right to learn in
their mother tongue. Moreover, the need to set up schools with teaching in
languages other than the majority's often is ignored. There are cases when
School Inspectorates do not respect the children's right to continue their
instruction in their mother tongue at the vocational schools or other apprentice
The Roma (Gypsy) children's integration in the school system has not
been completely neglected, however it has not been very successful either. Many
facts and explanations are put forward today to explain the problem of
integration of this minority in schools and society. These include the lack of
Roma specialists and, therefore, a lack of a working strategy with these
children and the ignorance of the means of communication specific to the Roma
community. The integration of the Roma communities continues to be a problem in
many Eastern and Central European countries as well. It is not only a social
question, but also a cultural one. This aspect, too, must be considered when
civic education of the whole population is addressed. The educational curricula
must be seriously adjusted in order to eliminate racist voluntary or involuntary
ideologies and practices of the trainers and of political and cultural
authorities. Virgil Petrescu, the minister of education (1997), stated in an
interview that education in Romania, on the whole, suffered from its
administrative system, respectively from its excessive centralism18.
This situation has been perpetuated by the weak organization of the civic
The legacy of the mental reflexes inherited from the extreme right and
extreme left totalitarian regimes determined Romania's legging behind in
promoting interculturally oriented education. The traditionalist thinking, the
collectivist habitat which causes suspicion, and the tendency to assimilate the
individual into the crowd are visible obstacles in promoting interculturality.
The idea of sacrifice is advocated in the name of the collective good
exclusively. Individualism, on the contrary, is often attached to selfishness.
This has its origins in the medieval rural community, and has been well
preserved until the present day. A society structured on rural ideals and forms
of living rejects the urban rules. The transition from village to city requires
passing from one set of values to another, an aspect completely ignored, for
instance, by Ceauşescu's dictatorship, which initiated the forced
industrialization and the great migration of the village people to the factories
in urban milieus. Examples of cultural maladjustment to the urban milieu are the
discriminatory attitudes against the old, sick and disabled, against homosexuals
and women -- attitudes that lay at the origin of resentments against other
linguistic and confessional communities (Hungarian, Roma, Jewish) than the
This is the background of the main factors obstructioning the civic
education through an intercultural perspective, and hindering the understanding
of the role of the pluralist thinking, accepting and respecting diversity and
the human rights irrespective of gender, faith, customs, nationality and
language. Linguistic discriminations, racist and anti-Semitic behaviors are
consequences of a poor civic education. The anti-Hungarian, anti-Semitic and
racist articles, studies and books do not encounter any major reaction from the
civic society -- another indicator that civic education is in its incipient
phase. The Democratic Union of the Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) draw the FUEN's
attention (The Federal Union of European Nationalities) to these discriminations
through a report presented on the occasion of the congress held in Timişoara
on May 15-19, 1996. The lack of a real interest for minorities in Romania has
been visible not only as regards the Hungarian minority, but also the German,
Roma, Turkish, and Russian-Lippovan ones. The cultural values of these
communities are generally ignored. The promotion of their personalities in the
country's cultural life is rather casual and when it happens the reason is to
prove "political correctness" or respect for the minority rights. The
reference to such individuals/personalities is quite inexistent in Romanian
universities and in the Romanian language mass media. Under these circumstances,
the Hungarian (Magyar) minority has taken some steps to preserve its culture.
Its political body set up a department for cultural and confessional issues and
organized a cultural society of the Hungarians in Transylvania: The
Organization of the Intellectual Life of the Hungarians of Romania.
The official educational system is only partly adapted to European rules;
hence its permissivity for chauvinistic manifestations, and anti-Semitic and
racial orientations. Even though a few scholars called the attention on the
discrepancies between the theory/policy that rules Romanian and Western
education, it seems that the Romanian ministry officials have never noticed that
the mission of a modern education is to prepare a well educated professional
middle class to assume the rules of the society where it lives.
The negligence of the civic education is visible at all educational
levels. The trainers and teachers are not themselves satisfactorily prepared to
teach the fundamentals of civic education. It is no less true that the gaps in
education are due to the lack of financing. During the totalitarian regimes the
stress was put on information and indoctrination in the detriment of the
individual education; this fact left deep consequences in the mental reflexes of
the teachers and students. The superficial approach to interethnic and
intercultural topics has visible consequences in civic society, in learning and
assuming the human rights, and in establishing a natural communication between
two or more communities.
The legal and institutional framework to address the issue of minorities
was set-up through the Council for National Minorities, a centralist body
without the necessary professional background for promoting inter-community
To conclude, the main obstacles perceived in addressing intercultural
education are determined by:
the attempt to preserve the 19th
century political ideology promoted by the states of Central and Eastern Europe
after 1848, by assuming that the nation and ethnicity are overlapping;
the lack of culture regarding the rights and
obligations of the citizens;
the conservation of an attitude specific to
the close, totalitarian societies;
the ignorance of minority languages and
the minor role of individual initiative;
the persistence of a centralized political
and administrative system;
the use of stereotypes in textbooks, thus
encouraging a nationalist-oriented education;
the tacit suspicion and inequality of
opportunities for the members belonging to minority communities, and for those
belonging to mixed families;
ignorance regarding the Holocaust and World
War II; and
the influence of mass media in creating and
perpetuating myths.
Solutions to these obstacles might include:
the introduction of compulsory multilingual
education for all pupils and students in
regions with mixed population;
the elaboration of history, literature,
geography, and ethnography textbooks which include information about the
culture, traditions, language, and religion of the minority communities living
in Romania, as well as data about the convergences between these cultures and
the majority one;
the introduction of laws against any kind of
discrimination against minorities;
granting equal opportunities in professional competition
to all the citizens irrespective of their
nationality, sex, religion and race;
the decentralization of the educational
system by granting legal opportunities for local educational organizations in
minority languages;
the introduction of new history curriculum in
secondary and high schools, to promote the convergent dimension of the cultures
and to mould open mindness, responsive to alternatives, giving up the
stereotypes which feed chauvinistic, anti-Semitic and racist political speeches;
the usage of the common cultural heritage to
the benefit of the country's culture;
the teaching of civic education courses at
the primary and secondary educational level;
the dissemination of local intercultural
examples in primary schools, high schools, colleges, universities, cultural
institutions and the mass media; and
the promotion of the principles of
anti-racist education in schools.
Higher education in Hungarian is a controversial topic in Romania's
cultural and political life. The disagreement comes from the kind of education
conducted in the East-Central and South-Eastern European states where
monoculturally oriented education dominates over the multicultural and/or
intercultural. The phenomenon must be seen in relation to the political thinking
which developed in terms of ethno-cultural and ethno-differentialist criteria,
both of them building the ethno-nationalist identity myth, whence the question
of minorities and the policies of subordination, assimilation, exclusion (in
extreme cases), or recognition (in lucky cases) have emerged. The Hungarians of
Romania -- as well as other minorities such as the Germans, Ukrainians,
Serbians, Jews, Slovaks, Russians, Turk-Tatars, Roma (Gypsy), Armenians,
Italians, Greeks – have their own communities established in different regions
in Romania dating back for centuries. Like the Romanian majority, they consider
that the region where they live is
their native land and wish to be treated as citizens of equal right rather than
as a tolerated community of second rank status. The education conducted in
minority languages has its incontestable role in the preservation of the
pluralist traditions of Transylvania region and of Romania in general.
shall begin with some statistics concerning the "Babeş-Bolyai"
University whose statute became the object of controversy. From 1958 to 1993 the
number of students enrolled at the "Babeş-Bolyai" University who
studied in Romanian increased from 2,917 (in 1958) to 10,102 (in 1993), and the
number of students who attended classes in Hungarian increased from 1,266 to
1,917. During the same period there was a decrease in the number of German
students, from 102 to 54, and the number of students belonging to other
minorities from 102 to 919 .
1993 to 2000 the situation changed. In the 1997-1998 academic year there were 76
programs in Romanian, 27 in Hungarian, 8 in German and 3 in international
languages. In the same year, the total number of students enrolled at the
"Babeş-Bolyai" University was 16,684 (Romanian citizens), out of which
13,578 studied in Romanian, 3005 in Hungarian, 74 in German and 27 in other
languages. The day taught courses
included 14,768 Romanian citizen students: 11,840 of Romanian nationality, out
of which 11,806 studied in Romanian; 2,827 Hungarians, out of which 1,975
studied in Hungarian; 74 Germans, out of which 31 studied in German. Along with
these there were 23 Roma, 1 Ukrainian, 1 Italian, 1 Turk, 1 Slovene. The
postgraduate studies were attended by 646 students, out of which 506 were
Romanians, 135 Hungarians and 5 Germans. Out of the total of 69 programs, 2 ran
courses in Hungarian and the rest in Romanian. No subject was taught in German20.
the 2000-2001 academic year, the "Babeş-Bolyai" University of Cluj
served approximately 32,000 students enrolled in 18 departments, comprising 105
undergraduate programs in Romanian, Hungarian and German as well as 123
postgraduate programs. There are also more than 1,200 members in the teaching
staff. The "Babeş-Bolyai" University is committed to organizing degree
programs taught in Romanian, Hungarian and German. From a total enrollment of
32,000 students, 25,848 are being taught in Romanian, 4,508 in Hungarian, and
690 in German21.
multicultural profile of the University reflects this multilingual foundation
that is rooted in the historical and cultural background of the region. The
University officially endorses the multicultural approach in its statute and has
adopted a multicultural foundation. The document "Implementation
of a Multicultural Structure of the University" was voted on and accepted
by the University Senate in April 1997. It
was enacted to promote education on its own terms, strengthening the
multicultural profile of the university. Out of the 18 departments of the
"Babeş-Bolyai" University, currently 13 integrate Hungarian instruction
and 9 departments combine German instruction with Romanian. Two departments,
namely the Department of Protestant Theology and that of Roman-Catholic Theology
offer programs entirely in Hungarian.
"Babeş-Bolyai" University provides undergraduate programs in three
languages as follows: 45 degree programs in Hungarian, 12 degree programs in
German, and 86 degree programs in Romanian. Such data analysis reveals an
inequality of specializations among the different mother tongues. The numerical
proportion criterion was applied to the "Babeş-Bolyai" University
exclusively, and the preservation of minority cultures as a whole depending on
the percentage of the total population in Romania was not taken into
The Hungarian and
German speaking students are entitled independently to elect their
representatives in the teaching boards of their departments and in the
University Senate. Each program of study has its own autonomy in establishing
the number of teaching positions and the student enrollment for each program.
Each department has a Vice-Dean representing the Hungarian minority and
coordinating the activity of the Hungarian line of study in that department.
Moreover, a Vice-Rector has overall responsibility for all departments. There
are twenty Hungarian and German representatives on the administrative boards of
the University (Vice-Rectors, Deans, Vice-Deans and heads of departments)
* * *
"Babeş-Bolyai" a multicultural university? Apparently, yes, but in fact
it is quite difficult to define it in these terms. Perceived as an outcome of
the politics of recognition, the multicultural approach has encountered
incredible difficulties in the societies whose democratic practice is still
incipient. This is firstly because the monocultural and totalitarian political
traditions left deep marks on people's memory, and secondly because the
non-governmental organizations are still insufficient and relatively weak in
promoting an articulated view on civic education. As for the state institutions,
neither they are prepared for such a tremendous re-consideration, nor have they
a credible team of experts to contribute to the appropriation of the necessary
information concerning minorities.
However, the desire to implement educational programs taught in more
languages and the continuity of education in Romanian and Hungarian exists in
the case of the "Babeş-Bolyai" University. There is also the intention
to enrich the multi-linguistic program though promoting German as a third
instructional language. What
can be ascertained from a sociological analysis?
The Romanian majority and the Hungarian minority – the two linguistic
communities who claim their respective rights in higher education at the "Babeş-Bolyai"
University of Cluj – both plead for the preservation of their respective,
culture, tradition, and denomination. Moreover, both communities have discovered
their origins, history and archetype through self-definition. Consequently, they
adapt their curricula to their respective cultural motivations. The issue,
however, in such situations of two or more cultural coexistence, is that of
communication and reciprocal transfer of ideas, values, aspirations, working
techniques and common socio-professional activities. In this regard, the
approach to the issue of coexistence does not seem to have gotten beyond its
formal frame. Hence, the risk of conflicts may at any time be activated by
ethno-nationalist ideologies which remain at the basis of Transylvania's
cultures and education. Pedagogy under multicultural rather than intercultural
emblem, understood as a separation on ethnic background, has as consequence
non-recognition or ignorance of the other community's culture, religion and
is true that the university leadership wished to promote each community's
rights through their respective students, faculties and administrative staff.
The existence of study-tracks in many languages is in practice and could become
fertile in promoting Transylvania's cultures. All these merits do not obscure
the fact that the practice of two or three languages by the entire faculty or by
a large group of students remains a future goal. The students enrolled in the
Hungarian and German sections speak Romanian, too, beyond their respective
mother tongues, while the majority of the Romanian students do not speak -- and
are not taught in -- Hungarian or German, as well23. On the other
hand, there are many cases where students enrolled in Romanian day programs
study in English.
situation is similar with regard to the faculty and staff. A state of suspicion
marks the relationship between the two linguistic communities' intelligentsia.
Though either apparently or by virtue of political correctness they agree to
work together, quite often they ignore the others groups' academic results.
This is because either they do not have access to their respective language and
culture, or they do not show interest in the diversity that is close by at hand.
The academic works published at the "Babeş-Bolyai" University Press
support this assessment: under Studia
Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai the 21 series of reviews are published in
English, Romanian, French and German, but not in Hungarian.
the university administration is not conducted in two or three languages. The
official documents, diplomas and certificates are issued exclusively in
Romanian; the rector is elected, with no exception, from the Romanian majority.
Since the majority of the faculty in the Senate is Romanian, every decision
concerning the instruction in a language other than Romanian could be ignored or
rejected. Decisions are at the stake of the Romanian speaking faculty within the
department councils including situations when issues regarding the Hungarian or
German study tracks are discussed, when it is about hiring or promoting
Hungarian or German speaking faculty members or when it is about the
continuation or interruption of the Hungarian or German language study tracks.
On this basis, the administrative process is in danger of generating inequality
and has encountered a few misunderstandings between the two academic
communities, also at the political level.
formal approach to mutual relationship, not only made it possible to consider
the multiculturally oriented measures as artificial, but also encouraged the
Hungarian community leadership to request setting up a separate university in
its mother tongue. The idea of a Hungarian language university shortly became a
part of the political program of the Democratic Union of the Hungarians in
Romania (UDMR). For the time being the debate has moved to the Romanian
Parliament and in central and regional publications, becoming an ideological
controversy where the thesis of the linguistic and cultural differentiation is
fueled by ethnographic interpretations. As Andrei Roth has remarked, the debates
do not have a chance of succeeding as long as they are developed in a
nationalist paradigm. He is one of the few faculties of the "Babeş-Bolyai"
University who teaches in all three languages: Romanian, Hungarian and German.
his book Naţionalism sau democratism [Nationalism
or Democratism] (Tîrgu-Mureş/ Marosvásárhely: Pro Europa, 1999), Andrei
Roth remarks that there is a chance for a reasonable solution, but for this the
discussion has to be transferred from the field of the ethno-nationalist symbols
to the real one. Two issues have to be clarified, namely: the social need of
higher education in Hungarian; and the concrete way to answer this need by state
decision. Roth pleads for finding a solution for Hungarian language education,
but not in its "current structural formula". He argues that there is no need
to set up an autonomous state (public) institution for the Hungarian language
higher education and that for the lack of students and competent faculty the
Hungarian minority would not be able to maintain such a parallel structure.
Furthermore, it would divide the present infrastructure of the "Babeş-Bolyai"
University at a time when neither the existent one is sufficient nor the state
is willing to provide the necessary resources for new investments24.
The solutions suggested by professor Roth
refer to:
the acceptance of the Hungarian (as
well as German) as equal languages used in the institution's public and
official discourse, so that the university could become really bilingual or
institutional assurance for the minorities to fill -- through elections
and on a rotating basis – top-leadership positions in the university, not only
"deputy" positions;
the establishment of parallel chairs (departments) in Hungarian for every
specialization assuring the right of autonomous
decision making;
the minorities' must be represented in the university Senate, so that
the functioning and development of the departments and chairs in Hungarian and
German languages be protected from the discretionary wish of the ethno-national
All these
proposals contain rational working hypotheses that, once applied, could create a
natural coexistence among the multicultural groups. Andrei Roth refers to the
ethno-national principle at the foundation of the cultural identity and politics
of Romania. It should be added, however, that a solution for a multicultural and
intercultural educational system -- like the one which tried in Cluj – has to highlight the
importance of the language and culture much more than either the ethnic
criterion or that of the majority-minority proportion. That is, the practice of
bi- or tri-lingualism within the "Babeş-Bolyai" University irrespective
of pertaining to a particular community seems to be the long run solution that
could generate a kind of equity. Only by recognizing that Central and Eastern
Europe needs now to redefine the 'nation' concept (justified by the old and
new territorial, ethno-racial and religious conflicts) will it be able to better
understand the importance of overcoming the false association between language
and nationality, or between nationality and land.
* * *
theoretical explanation of multiculturalism in a comparative perspective is
needed. The development of multiculturally oriented higher education at the
"Babeş-Bolyai" University is the result of the Western models. The
openness for study in many languages is a positive fact in itself, but it should
not be put in direct relationship with the 'ethnic' criterion, for language
does not mean ethnicity. What precisely has not been understood either at the
"Babeş-Bolyai" University, or in the theories of some American
academics such as of Charles Taylor25 who have advocated the
multiculturalism thesis? Firstly, this type of pedagogy has been practiced in
terms of regions, but not of the nation or nation-state, nor in the
majority-minority proportions. Secondly, extrapolations cannot be made from
other continents to Central and Eastern Europe because of different legacies.
The majority-minorities proportion cannot be everywhere the same, and therefore
do not follow a rigid model. To impose a so-called "model" can lead to
disastrous outcomes, of which the case of the former Yugoslavia is the most
obvious example. The interpretation of a multi- and intercultural phenomena must
take account the local contexts. This could promote a political and pedagogical
philosophy, correlated with the rights of all the linguistic and religious
communities, and thus eliminate the possibility of voluntary and involuntary
should be kept in mind as fundamental regarding the concept of 'regional
identity'? There should be granted equal opportunity to each person to become
co-participant to the activities within the public sphere without limiting
racial, ethnic, religious and linguistic criteria, and setting aside the
numerical basis of his/her community of origin. Thus, the freedom of option for
each person could be kept as far as his/her identification with one or another
local or regional group is concerned. In this case one's identification with
two linguistic, religious, social-communitarian groups at the same time or
successively should be possible. This is how, quite often, a new reference point
is born in regions where the cultural horizons (which differ in time) fuse or
are in a process of fusion to the benefit of civil society (societas
civilis), and of a prosperous political and economical administration.
social and cultural coexistence is possible within a city or a region, it should
also be possible among different cities, regions and states.
'Trans-culturality', presumes the right of the equal development of
trans-urban, trans-regional, trans-national, and trans-continental
relationships. This means that we have to deal with a correlation between
educational and philosophical ideas in every integrative process. The
'multiple identity' concept differs from 'multi-culturality' and
'trans-culturality' because it emphasizes a denial of the theory of absolute
values. The 'multiple-identity' concept stresses that nothing justifies
operating hierarchically and in terms of an exclusive basis through
'ethnicity', 'race', 'denomination', 'region' and
'nation-state' basis. If by 'trans-culturality' Harvey Siegel26
understood "ideals which transcend individual cultures", then by 'multiple
identities' I mean the similarity of human values, their common origin, the
possibility of assuming a plurality of cultures through claiming more than one
cultural identity at a meantime.
like Transylvania – where Cluj is situated with its "Babeş-Bolyai"
University – reflect to such a trans-cultural approach to identity. The case
of Pristina University in Kosovo and respectively its role in promoting
segregation proceeding from a false multicultural idea is a signal of the
mutations that could appear in the practical life. Hence there is need for a
comparative perspective on the evolution of the values around which the
individual's personality was formed and which guide a certain society. As
rather complementary than as an alternative to multiculturalism, the concept of
'multiple identities' provides a way out of the frame of the ethno-cultural
and differential (ethno-nationalist) prejudices to which political thinking is
still tributary.
numeric principle generously invoked by "Babeş-Bolyai" University in
their presentation materials only summarizes the thesis of multiculturalism,
without taking into consideration the realities. A normal coexistence of many
groups does not necessarily mean a definition on an ethno-nationalist basis,
either of the regions under discussion or of the educational institutions.
Therefore, an alternative to the monoculturally oriented education has to be
found in a natural way by professing the multicultural pedagogy from which
permanent reference to the more profound senses of trans-culturality and
inter-culturality must not lack.
most interesting and attractive forms of the coexistence of many cultural
identities could be found in border regions. They preserve the interest in
"Otherness" and enable borrowing values from different cultures. In these
areas particularly, civic education includes the principles of interculturality
and trans-culturality.
What are the most convincing reference points in present day Romania for
teaching civic education and the human rights through an intercultural
perspective? To answer this question I have chosen Banat, a border region
located in western Romania, with multilingual and pluri-communitarian background
that might offer possible examples in the above mentioned sense.
This area shows more convergence than any other in Central and
South-eastern Europe; it shows also how the coexistence of many cultures and
different languages has been possible. The phenomenon -- defined today in the
term of interculturality -- not only did not cause major conflicts, but was able
to stimulate the development of a community where the interests in the name of
civilization have been placed above ethnicity, or beyond closed communities. The
inter- and multicultural features which have survived until now cannot be
idealized; now as in the past the merit of their preservation belongs to its
inhabitants rather than to the policies of the authorities such as the
nationalist policy of the last decades that concerned the very existence of
diversities all over Romania.
The examples in the next paragraphs might be found in other regions as
well. The outcomes of the intellectual life and of civilization belonging to
different linguistic groups have been turned into a common patrimony through
their cohabitation. The acceptance of the idea that this patrimony has multiple
identities contributes to a better understanding of both history and the
contemporary world. Generally, the cultures in the border regions of a country
are plural ones. They cannot be found completely in a single language. Thus the
Banat region cannot be studied through the fruits of Romanian culture alone.
in the western extremity of Romania, Banat is an area of multiple dialogues. Its
intercultural make-up is the result of the cohabitation of several populations:
Romanians, Germans, Hungarians, Serbs, Croatians, Jews, Bulgarians, Slovaks,
Bohemians, Gypsies (Roma) and Turks — it is the result of confessional
encounters between Christian Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Calvinists, Jews
and Moslems (Appendices 6-9).
society which has developed in Banat from the eighteenth century onwards is the
product of an exchange of opinions and material values. How can this phenomenon
be explained? Ideas did not remain
at an abstract level; they were developed in the course of an education in which
multilingualism, the assimilation of traditions and customs, the interaction of
religions, and the alliances of cultural aspirations with religion were
fundamental. Crucial to this process was the coalescence of different groups on
the basis of mutual interests. This is manifest in the appearance of mixed
families, both ethnically and denominationally. Interculturalism developed in
the form of a double or multiple cultural inheritances.
was a model of peaceful coexistence from 1800 through 1938, an example of mutual
understanding and intercultural and inter-confessional relations27
(see Appendices 6 - 9). Despite a number of significant demographic dislocations
due to the discriminatory measures imposed by Ceauşescu's
nationalist-communist regime, a sense of civic society was retained in the
above-mentioned area. This took place in defiance of xenophobic, chauvinistic
and anti-Semitic provocations. The region's mentality
continues to be tolerant today, despite the fact that its ethnic
configuration has completely changed (see Appendices 10-14). Multilingualism
continues to characterize around 20-30% of the
The use of
two, three or even four languages in the Banat region is an uncommon phenomenon
in Europe. The multilingualism of the people living in this part of Romania
dates back one and a half, or in some cases even two, centuries. The wide
dissemination of this phenomenon can be observed in all historical periods,
despite the tendency of the national culture and language to extend its
influence to the detriment of minority cultures. The need to communicate and to
understand their cultural heritage, alongside economic interests, was the reason
for learning the languages of neighboring communities. The region's
multilingualism could be described as the common inheritance of every
inhabitant. Remarkably, none of the ethnic or religious groups viewed
multilingualism as a threat. Rather, it was perceived as a way to bring people
together. The educational dimension of this phenomenon has been well understood
by the region's inhabitants, resulting in a cultural heritage that now belongs
equally to all.
societies of this kind, diverse by virtue of their very genesis, recognition of
the role of the intercultural education is an important step29. In
Banat multilingualism has been supported by the school and the family. Romanian
is the dominant language, being the mother tongue of the majority; in most
primary and secondary schools teaching is in Romanian. The school curriculum
stipulates the study also of English, French, and German. Teaching conducted in
German, Hungarian, Serbian, Slovakian, and Bulgarian is maintained as a local
tradition. Education was set up in Romany, at the request, for the first time,
of the Roma (Gypsy) minority. From a linguistic point of view diversity -- which
is a part and parcel of the culture of the Banat region -- generated as a
complementary aspect the desire to establish secondary schools that provide
instruction in English and French. In Timişoara, for instance, after the
collapse of communism, the "Shakespeare" and the "Jean Louis Calderon"
high schools have been established30.
practice of multilingualism -- the result of the social interaction between the
Romanian majority and the Magyar/Hungarian, German, Serb, Bulgarian, Jewish,
Slovak and Roma/Gypsy minorities -- is closely linked to the historical process
of modernization; rather than being imposed from outside, diversity and multiple
identities have emerged naturally.
difficulties and the absence of links between bureaucracy and mainstream
politics, on the one hand, and the expert analysis of the multiethnic and
multilingual configuration, on the other, there are still a few schools in Banat
that provide education in minority languages. In both Timişoara and Arad
there are German-language primary schools and high schools; while in Lugoj, Reşiţa
and in the German-populated villages, there are modules that provide education
in German (see Appendix 5). Experience of cultural interaction between Germans,
Magyars and Romanians has given rise to an interesting phenomenon: the desire of
many Romanian and Magyar native speaking students to study in high schools that
provide instruction in German. As a result of the emigration of Germans and
Jews, eighty percent of the students in these schools have Romanian as their
mother tongue.
in the Hungarian language has a tradition dating back for more than 150 years.
There are primary and secondary schools or classes that provide education in
Hungarian in Timişoara, Arad, and Lugoj, as well as in other towns and
villages in Banat region (see Appendix 5). The decline in the number of
Hungarian speakers is the result of assimilation and the rise of the proportion
of mixed families in which the Romanian language prevails. It is also the
outcome of the political pressure from the nationalist-communist regime in the
1980s, the impact of which has still been perceived after 1989.
Serb schools meet the needs of over 40,000 local inhabitants. Primary schools
are run in every village with a Serb or mixed population, while the "Dositej
Obradovič" high school in Timişoara provides continuity in Serb
language study (see Appendix 5).
Slovakian primary and high school in Nădlac serves the Slovak minority.
They offer a basis for cultural interactions between Romanians and Slovaks which
has evident benefit in view of the European ideals of integration. The
Bulgarians find themselves in a similar situation.
education in Banat is able to function today due to a particular life-style and
mode of civilization. Nevertheless, the active support -- both material and
spiritual -- of the authorities is essential. This could be based on a number of
considerations: new generations of specialists could be formed more quickly to
develop the region; and it could also facilitate relationships with Central and
Western Europe and with Balkans. This could mean the beginning of a deep
transformation of mentality and behavior, at present hindered by the legacy of
previous totalitarian regimes and economic backwardness. The population's
efforts indicate that Banat is an East-Central European region where the
emergence of an open society can be readily envisaged31.
* *
previously mentioned the present population of Banat can be divided roughly into
two major categories: those who belong to the region by birth and ancestry and
those who migrated from other regions of Romania during the last six decades.
Most social analysts of the region have observed, however, that in many cases
newcomers have embraced the region's specific multicultural modus vivendi. Those able to accept the local religious, linguistic
and cultural diversity have adopted gradually the peculiarities of the everyday
life-style from the region's "indigenous" inhabitants. They adopted the
style of house construction, the local cuisine, and the manner of celebrating
cultural traditions. Newcomers have assimilated even the folkloric patrimony of
Banat and many expressions from the German, Hungarian and Serbian languages.
Even more interesting for the sociologists and historians of mentalities is the
fact that many of these migrants have learned some Hungarian and German. A few
of them have preferred mixed marriages; others have developed relationships with
Hungarians and Serbs from Banat. The development of such relationships was based
on economic exchanges. The businessmen in Banat -- in the process of reacquiring
the "universal" rules of trade -- were the first to realize the importance
of economic transactions with other minorities. Even the craftsmen, whose
businesses were threatened by Ceauşescu's totalitarian regime, are
recovering not only their economic, but their social role.
Romanian majority originating in Banat continues to have good relations with the
minorities. Until 1989 xenophobic and nationalist ideologies were quite rare in
the region due to the middle class that understood the multicultural identity of
the region. Nationalist extremism has its origin in both an inferiority complex
and in misguided notions of superiority. Twenty-five years of
nationalist-communist dictatorship (1965-1989) and the interwar
ethno-nationalist ideology promoted by the centralist political system also left
its mark on education. Information concerning linguistic and religious
minorities deliberately was expunged from textbooks; the teaching of modern
languages fell into disuse; and every attempt was made to impose a single
culture – that of the majority -- and to ignore diversity. The authorities
went so far as to prohibit the public use of the regions' name in order to
obscure its geographical, ethnographic, linguistic, and religious variety32.
Some families living in Banat (fewer than in other regions of Romania) were
influenced by populist and extremist ideology in the course of a veritable
crusade against civism, culture, religion and diversity. Communication and
contacts between the Germans, Hungarians, and Serbs of Banat and people in
Germany, Hungary and Serbia respectively, contributed to maintaining the flow of
information between these countries and Romania. During the crisis the proximity
of the former Yugoslavia and Hungary constituted an opening for diversity. Until
1989 the world could be watched through TV channels broadcast from Budapest,
Belgrade and Novi Sad. Social relations between
majority and the ethnic minorities could not be pigeonholed in accord with a
particular ideology, for reality always contradicts mere assertion, however
credible arguments were brought forward to back it up33.
remarkable relations among the minorities of Banat have always been supported by
the region's widespread multi-lingualism.
Magyars/Hungarians also speak Romanian and German; the Serbs and
Bulgarians have always been bilingual, the Romanian language has been adopted as
a second language in families. The Jews have been generally multilingual and the
Slovak minority in Nădlac has spoken both Romanian and Hungarian as well as
Slovakian. Social relations among minorities have been multifarious and have
taken the form of cultural cooperation, of recognition and respect for the
traditions of other regions. Their extensive linguistic resources have enabled
the local cultural minorities to acquire a thorough understanding of the
particular inheritance of the Banat region. They have been largely sensitive to
such ideals as the equality of all citizens. Germans and Hungarians come
together under the auspices of the Calvinist, Lutheran and Catholic Churches;
the latter Church also brings together the small Slovakian and Bulgarian
minorities. Cultural differences and mentalities which have been the product of
centuries of living together may be perceived in every aspect of the public life
of the minorities34.
deep sense of democracy persists in Banat due to the pluralism generated from
the bottom to the top by a multicultural society. To what extent does the
present population of Banat itself comprehend the role and importance of
multi-lingualism and interculturalism and what efforts is it prepared to make to
safeguard the future? The particular nature of the region could be endangered
and its well-being and stability greatly enhanced if the educational system is
not fundamentally reformed.
Nationalism continues to play an important role in Romanian
politics. Many political scientists – such as Andrei Marga (minister of
education between 1997- 2000) -- assert that nationalism has interposed itself
between communism and democracy, leading to stagnation and promoting reactionary
tendencies of the conservative social groups.
"These groups stress the Latin origin of the
Romanian people, but Latin language is studied less in Romania than in non-Latin
countries. They proclaim their adherence to Orthodoxy, but they have not
generated a serious religious culture; they proclaim a sense of justice as their
chief morale virtue, but until 1989 Romania was ruled by the most sinister
dictatorship from Europe in the last decades. Moreover, the emigration of Jews
and Germans cannot be viewed separately from the nationalist influence on the
government policy. Economic decline and falling living standards led to
uncertainty and restrictions for minorities35".
Education could play a major role to solve the
problems of nationalism. The main advantage of the historical model provided by
the Banat is its intercultural and trans-cultural nature. The recognition of the
minorities' right to develop their respective cultures and languages within
the borders of a nation state depends largely on the attitudes of the majority.
Here education -- both at school and at home -- can have a considerable
influence. The pluringuistic approaches which have emerged historically in Banat
have been strongly combated by nationalist-communist groups in Romania. The
European integration of Romania will depend on the flexibility of the regional
population, on its abilities to set a good example of communication among
interculturality of Banat region and the civic education promoted by school and
professional associations could be a starting point and an outstanding example
for the younger generation. Why is this the case? Different cultural information
sources tend to emphasize the positive role of social interaction. The bilingual
or trilingual education of the minorities in Banat has resulted in a diversity
of cultural viewpoints. An education system that uses the past to construct a
modern European man would be extremely effective; and when one talks about
Europe, one has in mind not East and West, but mutual relations and symbiosis36.
The multiple identities of Banat may contribute -- as long as demagogy and
forced imposition are abandoned -- to rebuilding the bridges between Eastern
Europe and the West.
rediscovery of the intercultural history of Romanian regions like the Banat,
Maramureş, Partium, Transylvania and Bukovina has a deep importance. It is
a matter of replacing a factional and a partial standpoint with a liberal and
open one. It is a matter of generating spiritual support consonant with social
realities, with the multi-linguistic and multi-confessional nature of the
country. It is a matter of recovering a modus
vivendi that is concordant with the traditions of the region on the basis of
diversity and tolerance.
development of civic society very much depends on education. Not only the
population of Banat, but also of the neighboring regions could be approached
from an intercultural perspective. The examples offered by the historical
background could stimulate the development of the trans-cultural relationships
among people living in Romania.
and Transylvania might serve as good starting points for the historical
reconciliation between Romania and Hungary, not only on the basis of everyday
relations, but also as a model of contemporary trans-national communication. The
history of cultural relations between these two nations should be studied as a
foundation to support and develop regional tolerance.
the best chance for the European integration of the former communist states is
to build upon aspects of their own regional past which point in the direction of
a pluralist identity and democratic development. In Romania, the regions of
Banat, Partium, Maramureş, Bukovina, Dobrudgea and even historical
Transylvania are border regions. This is why it could act as a mediating agent
for the development and deepening of social modernization. Obviously, the legacy
of the communist regime can only be overcome after great efforts. The
functioning of a pluralist society is deeply dependent on the educational reform
where civic education is addressed through an intercultural perspective.
For a detailed presentation of the cultural and political life, of the
multiple identities and their convergence in Central and Eastern Europe during
the Enlightenment period, see Victor Neumann, The Temptation of Homo Europeaus. The Genesis of the Modern Ideas in
Central and South-eastern Europe, (Boulder, Colorado; New York: Columbia
University Press,1993), East European Monographs, pp. 125-149, the chapter: "Homo Europaeus and the
Intellectual Revolution of the Enlightenment".
The examples offered by the process of the emancipation of Romanians and
Serbs in the Empire are relevant in the sense. See, also Keith Hitchins: The
Romanian National Movement in Transylvania, 1780-1849, (Harvard University
Press, 1969); Idem, The Idea of Nation:
The Romanians of Transylvania 1691-1849, (Bucharest: Ştiinţifică
şi Enciclopedică, 1985); Andrija B. Stojkovic, Filosofski
pogledi Dositeja Obradovica. Les vues philosophiques de Dositej Obradovic,
(Beograd, 1980).
Bibó István, "A kelet-európai kissállamok nyomorusága" [Missery
of the Small States of Eastern Europe, o.n.], in Idem Összegyüjtött Munkái [Complete Works, u.n.] 1, edition prepared by
István Kemény and Mátyás Sárközi, with a foreword of Arpád Szőlösi
and with an introduction of Zoltán Szabó. (Munich: Magyar Szabadegyetem-Bern,
1981), pp. 202-252. See also the French edition: István Bibó, Misére des petits Etats d'Europe de l'Est, translated from
Hungarian by György Kassai, (Paris: Editions l'Harmattan, 1986). Bibó was one
of the most important characters of intellectual and political life in Central
and Eastern Europe. From the perspective of the history of political thought it
can be said that he was the personality who mostly contributed to opening
political thinking in Hungary. He was and still remains a first rank theorist to
whom the Hungarian political culture in recent decades relates. His works refer
both to the confusions in the history of political thought, and to the history
of Hungary and the neighboring countries' as well.
Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte
der Menschheit, was the work that stirred positive
comments in all cultures of Central and Eastern Europe. It was a first rank
reference during the region's Europenization because its political messages met
the aspirations of the forming nations in the mentioned regime. German culture
and civilization was greatly enjoyed by the population of these regions, often
being considered a point of absolute reference. The lack of a critical spirit
and of the possibilities of comparing -- justified only through the perpetuation
of isolation inside a folk culture for a long time -- encouraged shallow and
one-sided reception. We could mention, among others, that the Anglo-Saxon
political and philosophical thought did not play an important role in Central
and Eastern Europe. For Herder's reception by Romanians and Hungarians, see
Victor Neumann: Convergente spirituale.
Studii privind istoria relaţiilor politice şi culturale în Europa
Centrală şi de Est, 1750-1850 [Spiritual Convergences. A Survey on
the Political and Cultural Relations in Central and Eastern Europe, 1750-1850],
(Bucharest, 1986), pp. 16-38, 38-56, and 84-103.
Isaiah Berlin, Four Essays on
Liberty, (Oxford University Press, 1992).
The first French edition of his main work: Idées sur la philosophie de l'histoire de l'humanité, translated
by Edgar Quinet, (Paris, 1834) circulated in Greece and Romania. In Bohemia,
Hungary, and Transylvania the work was read in the original. For its influence
in Transylvania, see, for example, Iosif Wolf: "Die rumänische
Herderrezepzion im Vormärz und Perspektiven", in Cahiers
roumains d'etudes litteraires, no. 2, 1979. For Herder's influence in
forming of the neo-Greek political culture, see C. Th. Dimaras: Neoellinikos
diafotismos, (Athene, 1977).
See Endre Kiss, "A Typology of Nineteenth Century Concepts of
Nationhood", in East European Quaterly,
XXX, 1, Spring, 1996, pp. 27-62.
István Bibó, op. cit., p.
See Education Law 84/1995
published in Romania's Gazette, year VII, number 167, 31st of July 1995, Title
I: "General Provisions", Article 5, Paragraph 2, and Article 12,
Paragraph 2.
"Central authorities" in The
Structure of Education and initial Training System in Romania, The Euridyce
Unit Romania, October 1996, pp. 3-4.
See Title IV, Chapter I, Article 141: "Administration of
education" in Education Law 84/1995.
See "Regional authorities" in The Structure of Education and initial Training System in Romania,
The Euridyce Unit Romania, October 1996, p. 4.
Ibidem, p. 5.
See Title IV "Administration of Education", Chapter II "School
Inspectorates" in Education Law
84/1995 that says: "The general inspector is the president by right of the
Council of Administration (Managing Board)". This statement facilitates the
breach of position, the centralism of decisions, the lack of a democratic
control of the mentioned institution's management.
See "Institutional levels" in The Structure of Education and initial Training System in Romania,
The Euridyce Unit Romania, October 1996, p. 5.
See Chapter XII, Article 22, Paragraph 1: "The education for persons
belonging to national minorities" in Education Law 84/1995.
As of the informal statistics, the number of Hungarians (Magyars) in
Romania is about 2.3-2.5 millions of inhabitants. Cf. Ellemer Illyés, National
Minorities in Romania: Change in Transylvania, (Boulder, Colorado; New York:
Columbia University Press, 1982), East European Monographs, p. 33. See also
Andrew Bell, "The Hungarians in Romania since 1989", in Nationalities
Papers, vol.24, no. 3, 1996, pp. 492-505. for the official statistics, see
the "Romanian statistics of 1995" in The
Educational System in Romania. Tuition in the Languages of National Minorities,
printed by the press of The Romanian Government .
See the interview with Virgil Petrescu, the minister of education, in 22
review, no. 8, issue of February 25, 1997, pp. 8-9.
See: "The complaint of the Democratic Union of Hungarians from Romania
(UDMR) containing the objections and requirements in the field of teaching in
the languages of Romania's minorities, with special reference to the Magyar
community" in Documentele UDMR
[Documents of the UDMR], 2, (Cluj, 1994), pp.18-23. The restriction concerning
the Hungarian language usage in the Romanian higher education until '89 has
been recorded in the international press, as well. See Janusz Bugajski "The
Many Faces of Nationalism" in Uncaptive
Minds, a journal of information and opinion on Eastern Europe, published by
the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe, Washington, vol.8, no.3-4,
1995-96, p.24.
Cf. Buletinul Statistic [Statistical
Bulletin], No.5, "Babeş-Bolyai" University-INFO.
About the "Babeş-Bolyai" University. Official Presentation on
its World Wide Web (http://www.ubbcluj.ro).
From a total of 32,000 students, 4,508 speak Hungarian and Romanian and
690 German and Romanian. In the case of the 25,000 students that represent the
Romanian-speaking majority, multiculturalism is an abstract notion.
sau Democratism,
[Nationalism or Democratism], (Tîrgu-Mureş/ Marosvásárhely:
Pro-Europa,1999), pp. 241-272; see also Victor Neumann, "Intercultural
Pedagogy as an Alternative to a Monoculturally Oriented Education: The Case of
Romania", in Kenneth Cushner (ed.), International
Perspectives on Intercultural Education, (New York: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Inc, 1998).
Charles Taylor, The Politics of Recognition, in Multiculturalism. Examining the
Politics of Recognition, edited and introduced by Amy Gutmann, (Princeton
University Press, 1994).
26. Harvey
Siegel, "Multiculturalism and the Possibility of Trans-cultural Educational
and Philosophical Ideals", in The
Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Cambridge University Press,
vol.74, no. 289, 1999, pp. 387-409.
István Bibó, A kelet-európai
kissállamok nyomorúsága [The Misery of the Small States of Eastern Europe
n.n ] in Oszegyüjtöt munkái
[Complete Works], vol.1, (Munich: Az Europai Protesztáns Magyar Szabadegyetem -
Bern, 1981), pp. 202-252. The French edition: Misere
des petits Etats d'Europe de l'Est, translated from Hungarian by Kassai György
(Paris: Editions l'Harmattan, 1986).
According to Anuarul statistic al
României [Romanian Statistical
Yearbook], (Bucharest, 1994).
Pieter Batelaan, "Education interculturelle en Europe". Work in
manuscript, consulted through the author's goodwill in 1994.
These two schools teach in English, and respectively in French.
For the situation of the 19th century, see Die Projektierte Banaterbahn von politischen, mititarischen und
volkswirtschaftlichen Standpunkte beleuchtet, (Vienna: L.W. Seidel u.Sohn,
1870), p.1.
In this sense see the textbooks written between 1975-1990. The new
history textbook entitled Istoria Românilor
[History of Romanians], was elaborated
by the Ministry of National Education for high schools. This textbook does not
contain significant modifications, but retains the style of the previous history
textbook. Significantly, many chapters cover national propaganda, ignoring the
regional history and the multiple cultural identities.
A slightly different type of relationship between the majority and
minorities could be seen for the Roma/Gypsy minority. This is due, on the one
hand, to the lack of civic education on the part of this minority and, on the
other, to the absence of real awareness of the Roma/Gypsy's traditions by the
rest of population. Their labeling in the local press does not promote relations
of mutual tolerance. This is, probably, the most delicate subject concerning the
relationship between majority and minorities in Banat, in Romania and in other
countries or regions in Eastern Europe. There is need for sociological studies
to provide the necessary database for creating civic education programs for the
Roma/Gypsy population.
See the statistics of Department of Minorities within the Ministry of
Culture of Romania, on the minorities' cultural organizations; there are 37,000
Swabs; 124,000 Hungarians; 22,000 Serbs; 7,000 Croats; 9000 Slovaks; 1,500
Bulgarians; 1,800 Jews; 10,000 Ukrainians.
Andrei Marga, Filosofia unificării
europene (Philosophy of European
Unification n.n) (Cluj: Apostrof, 1995), p. 219.
Questions concerning a common European identity and trans-national
communication, were discussed at a meeting organized by Warsaw University on
September 28-30, 1995 on the theme "What
is Europe?- Revisited". In the workshop entitled "The History of the
Idea of Europe" I raised the problem of including the history of Central and
Southeastern Europe in a "History of Europe" course planned for the Open
University system. The subject has been a continuing focus of intellectual
discussions. Ten years ago, Hugh Seton Watson raised some major questions
concerning the European Community. One of these questions was the possibility of
an economic and political movement convergent with the common cultural sense of
Europe. Starting from the multiple historical experiences he went on to
conceptualize the term "Europe". This is very necessary since the fall of
the Iron Curtain. See H. Seton Watson, "Where is Europe? From Mystique to
Politique", in Encounter,
July/August 1985, vol. LXV, No.2. For another evaluation of the term see Geert
Hofstede, "Images of Europe", in The
Netherlands Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 30, August 1994, no.1, pp.
Isaiah – Four Essays on Liberty,
(Oxford University Press, 1992).
István – Ősszegyüjtöt munkái
[Complete Works], (Munich: Europai Protestáns Szabad Egyetem-Bern, 1981).
Janusz -- "The Many Faces of Nationalism" in Uncaptive Minds, a journal of information and opinion on Eastern
Europe, published by the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe, Washington,
vol.8, no.3-4, 1995-96.
C.Th. – Neoelenikos diafotismos,
(Athene, 1977).
I.G. -- Idées sur la philosophie de
l'histoire de l'umanité, translated by Edgar Quinet, (Paris, 1834).
Keith – The Romanian National Movement
in Transylvania, 1780-1849, (Harvard University Press, 1969).
Keith -- The Idea of Nation: The Romanians of Transylvania 1691-1849,
(Bucharest: Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică,
Elemér – National Minorities in
Romania: Change in Transylvania, (Boulder, Colorado; New York, 1982), East
European Monographs.
Andrei – Filosofia unificării
Europene [Philosophy of European Unification], (Cluj: Apostrof, 1995).
Victor -- "Intercultural Pedagogy as an Alternative to a
Monoculturaly-Oriented Education: The Case of Romania", in Kenneth Cushner,
(ed.), International Perspectives on
Intercultural Education, (New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1998.
Victor – Convergenţe spirituale.
Studii privind istoria relaţiilor politice şi culturale în Europa
Centrală şi de Est, 1750-1850 [Cultural Convergences. A Survey on
the Political and Cultural Relations in Central and Eastern Europe, 1750-1850],
(Bucharest, 1986).
– The Temptation of Homo Europaeus. The
Genesis of the Modern Ideas in Central and Southeastern Europe, (Boulder,
Colorado; New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), East European Monographs.
Andrei -- Naţionalism sau Democratism,
[Nationalism or Democratism], (Pro-Europa, Tîrgu-Mureş/ Marosvásárhely,
Harvey – "Multiculturalism and the Possibility of Trans-cultural Educational
and Philosophical Ideals", in The
Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Cambridge University Press,
vol.74, nr.289, 1999.
Andrija B. – Filosofski pogledi Dositeja
Obradivica/ Les vues philosophiques de Dositej Obradovic, (Beograd, 1980).
Charles -- The Politics of Recognition, in
Multiculturalism. Examining the Politics of Recognition, Edited and
Introduced by Amy Gutmann, (Princeton University Press, 1994).
Iosif – "Die rumänische Herderrezepzion im Vormarz und Perspektiven", in Cahiers
roumains d'etudes literaires, no.2, 1979.
Die Projektierte Banaterbahn von politischen, militarischen und
volkswirtscheftlichen beleuchtet, (Vienna, 1870).
Documentele UDMR
[Documents of the UDMR, nn.], 2, Cluj, 1994
Education Law 84/1995, Chapter
XII, Article 22, Paragraph 1: "The education for persons belonging to national
East European Quarterly,
XXX, 1, Spring, 1996.
The Structure of Education and Initial Training System in Romania,
The Euridyce Unit Romania, October, 1996.
Nationalities Papers, vol.24, no.3, 1996.
Buletinul Statistic [Statistical Bulletin], No.5, "Babeş-Bolyai" university info.The
Educational System in Romania. Tuition in the Languages of National Minorities,
the Press of the Romanian Government.
Review, no.8, February 25, 1997.
Romanian Statistical Yearbook, Bucharest, 1994.
Encounter, July/August,
1985, vol.LXV, No.2.
* This study, except the part about the "Babeş-Bolyai" University of Cluj, is the outcome of my NATO Individual Research Fellowship (1995-1997).


text:
Gerald T. Zeller
Position: WB-BB
Height: 5-11 Weight: 170 lbs.
Born: June 3, 1898 in Springfield, OH
Died: November 10, 1968 in Columbus, OH
High School: Brazil
College: Purdue, Illinois (school history)
Weighted Career AV (100-95-...): 0 (15060th overall since 1950)
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subset: commoncrawl