Social Studies and Humanities Textbooks in Post-Socialist Bulgaria

As Bulgaria went through a radical socioeconomic transition involving democratization and integration in the European Union, school textbooks and curricular contents were progressively reviewed to reduce traces of bias, value judgments, ideological content and opinions, which were thought to inflame passions and sustain mistrust and misunderstandings. The present paper discusses important changes made in Bulgarian social studies and humanities textbooks since 1989, which involved discharging educational content considered to be ideologically overloaded and overly nationalistic, and incorporating content promoting social inclusion and democratic principles. The analysis points to the strengths and weaknesses of the newly revised textbooks in upper secondary education, which seek to prepare students as future citizens in a democratic country. The conclusions drawn are based on empirical research carried out through analysis of official curricula of history, geography, Bulgarian language and literature and in-person interviews with policy makers and key stakeholders of the Bulgarian educational community.