School Education or the Games and Challenges of Heritage Development

Abstract

When authors such as Branchesi (2007) and Barthes & Blanc-Maximin (2016) reflect on the opportunity to adapt the supranational principles set out in international conventions to the specific educational contexts of States, they consistently and insidiously highlight the need not necessarily to globalise heritage issues, but rather to consider them as a sum of their parts. This contribution focuses on primary education as a prerequisite for heritage development. Using an exploratory qualitative method, our study of history- geography and citizenship and moral education teachers seeks to identify the relevant primary education styles likely to generate, in the short, medium or long term, heritage development in the locality, i.e., a real awakening of awareness and an enhancement of the various historical and/or natural potentials and assets, graciously offered by nature or mankind. To this end, we interviewed seven teachers working in different regions, grouped together according to a number of ethnographic, contextual and situational similarities. The results of this research show that heritage development cannot be boosted unless the «educational concept of heritage» is effectively taken into account in international conventions, and unless heritage education is effectively implemented as a major tool for local development.