Topic: From a national idea to nationalism

Target group

7th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

XXIII. Europe and the world in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Pupil:

4. lists new political ideas and cultural phenomena, including the beginnings of mass culture and moral change.

XXIV. Polish lands under the partitions in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Pupil:

3. describes the formation of a modern national consciousness of Poles;

4. discusses the birth and first years of the existence of modern political movements (socialism, people's movement, national movement).

General aim of education

Students learn ideological assumptions of national movements and nationalisms in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• the characteristics of nationalist ideologies;

• the term „nation” and its varieties from the 19th and 20th century;

• the differences between patriotism and nationalism.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The teacher asks students to listen to a mini‑lecture on page 5 of the e‑textbook lesson („instead of a summary”). On the basis of the information obtained, the students form 3‑5 questions regarding the process of the expansion of Polish national consciousness discussed in the lecture in the 19th century.

Introduction

1. The teacher gives the topic, the goals of the lesson in a language understandable for the student, and the criteria of success.

2. The teacher asks the students to present the questions prepared earlier. Then he tells students about the role of events such as the French Revolution and the Spring of Nations in shaping the idea of the nation in the nineteenth century.

Realization

1. The teacher asks students to do Exercise 1. The students will get acquainted with the speech of the French philosopher Ernest Renan from 1882 at the Sorbonne, in which he referred to various contemporary ways of defining the nation, pointing out their advantages and disadvantages. They note factors, associated in the nineteenth century, with the concept of a nation.

2. The teacher acquaints students with the concept of social Darwinism. Students do Exercise 2. They check correctness.

3. The aim of the next part of the lesson will be preparing a team definition of the concept of nationalism (in the understanding of the phenomenon formed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries) on the basis of information obtained during the lesson. Students divided into 3 teams write everything on paper that they associate with the concept of „nationalism”. They also use the information obtained in the initial phase of the lesson. Then they number the listed associations according to the hierarchy of values agreed in the group.

4. The next stage of group work is to compare the posters of all groups and search for elements that repeat. On the basis of the material gathered this way, students formulate their own definition of nationalism. Then they compare this definition to a definition from a dictionary or encyclopedia. Students try to point out the special features of nationalism in Poland. The teacher gives students definitions coinciding with nationalism: patriotism, chauvinism.

5. The teacher makes the students aware that in the nineteenth century and the beginning of the 20th century religion became an integral part of the identity of the nations of our region of Europe (i.e. the Central‑Eastern Europe). The elements of ethnicity and religiousness were mixed up (parallel: ethnicization of religion and sacralization of the nation). An example is the recognition of a particular ethnic group as privileged because of its „sanctity” or particular (motive of the chosen nation).

6. Students listen to a fragment of a popular science publication (Task 1). They wonder about the questions proposed by the teacher: what effects could be brought by the vicinity of different religions at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? How could this have influenced the development of the ideology of nationalism? Does religions treated instrumentally ignite ethnic conflicts? Or maybe the sense of national identity liberates religiosity? Has nationalism fostered religious conflicts? Then they do Exercise 3. The teacher makes sure that the task has been correctly performed and gives feedback.

7. The teacher explains the students that religion has been (and still is) a tool for fueling ethnic conflicts, but it is rarely the basis for them. Usually the source of misunderstandings are prosaic economic reasons, ambitions of local politicians - only when the conflict grows stronger, religion appears on the stage as a tool defining the parties of the dispute.

Summary

1. Students do Exercise 4, completing the the missing words.

2. The teacher assesses the students' work during the lesson, taking into account their input and commitment. For this purpose, he may prepare an evaluation questionnaire for self‑assessment and evaluation of the teacher's work and other students.

Homework

1. The teacher sets a homework (it is not an obligatory part of the script): he recommends to listen to the lecture from e‑textbook and do Exercise 1.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

From a national idea to nationalism

Nationalist ideologies flourished and gained popularity at the end of the 19th century. The national community was perceived as a whole that was superior to the state and the individual, homogenous in terms of ethnicity, religion, spirituality and culture, as well as having its own distinctive language and (especially as far as Central and Eastern Europe are concerned) religion. There were many nationalist ideologies, as every nation developed their own variety. In the most radical forms of nationalist ideologies, the conviction of superiority of one's own nation over others was the intertwined with a sense of a strong threat to national interests. As a result, racist and antisemitic arguments were used.