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Aim. The aim of the research is to study the symbolic capital of northern cities (semiotic potential) contained in "urban texts" and the influence of the historical memory of a multiethnic region on the political process of the region and the country as a whole, through a comprehensive and interdisciplinary study of the symbolic space of cities in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Methods. The study used the cognitive approach, the method of space-time analysis, and the method of historicism and questionnaire survey. Symbolic space as a text is a heterogeneous content. Results. The results of the study show the importance of a symbolic resource as a brand tool, first, depending on the political context and introduction into the collective memory through a constant "reminder" of its importance and significance in the socio-cultural and everyday life of citizens. The resulting databases of monuments served as the basis for compiling a virtual album of monuments and art objects in the cities of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The research results can practically be applied in the field of education, politics, culture, in the study and promotion of the cultural and historical heritage of the regions of Russia. Conclusions. The urgent problem is the task of preserving the accumulated experience and values, places of memory, relics of the past, as well as ideas about the past that are stored in the memory of its inhabitants and the transfer of this knowledge to the younger generation.

Aim. The presented study aims to briefly present the possibilities of using and implementing elements of traditional culture in the teaching processat primary and secondary schools in Slovakia. It points out all the aspects and factors that enter the educational process when using these elements. Concept. Regional education is beingappliedin the educational environment of schools in order to develop the children with the right stimuli. The aim of including knowledge and partial topics of traditional folk culture in teaching is mainly to motivate students and arouse their interest in the cultural heritage of their ancestorsand country. We use comparative methods to clarify the relationships between ethnology, pedagogy, ethnopedagogy, and their interconnection in the pedagogical process. We define the primary goals of regional education, methods, and forms of teaching regional education, focusing on interactive forms of teaching. Results and conclusion. The values and the importance of traditional culture should be assessed in terms of the functions of education and training ina broader societal perspective.Regional education should make a significant contribution to the transmission of culture in education. The research results indicate the need to implement ethnopedagogy into the current educational process at all levels of education and scientifically verify its success. Research restrictions. The main research problems or limitations are related to the factthat this subdiscipline has not yet received attention in Slovakia. Originality. The paper presents an original view of ethnopedagogy and regional education issues through the lens of ethnology and pedagogy and defines key subjects of interest focusing on Slovak/Central European needs and contexts.

Aim. This article aims to evaluate the target course created and the development of adult learners’ 21st century skills during the course implementation in six EU countries. Concept. European Cultural Heritage and Skills Development Course is a culture-based blended-learning course created within the framework of the Erasmus+ project “Cultural Knowledge and Language Competences as a Means to Develop 21stCentury Skills” conducted in six EU countries: Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Romania, Poland and Czech Republic (Project No.2018-1-HR-01-KA204-047430; 2018-2021). The course content is presented in a form of a story, applying innovative methodologies and tools increasing adult learners’ cultural knowledge and ensuring the skills development. This article focusses on blended-learning in particular, and the course evaluation given by learners and teachers after the course implementation in the six partner countries as well as the development of adult learners’ 21st century skills. Results and conclusion.The results indicate a positive evaluation of the learning platform, the learning methodologies and tasks as well as a positive trend considering the development of learners’ 21st century skills, including the English language competences. Although the results varied from country to country, no extremely significant differences between the evaluation done by learners and the teachers were found, thus the course may be applicable to adult teaching/learning. Practical application.The created blended-learning course may be a viable option for developing adult learners’ 21st century skills and increasing their cultural awareness of the less known EU intangible cultural heritage. Originality.The contribution describes the difference between flipped, hybrid and blended-learning and introduces a novel approach of creating a blended-learning course for adult learners.

Aim. The aim of this article is to examine and trace a selection of double portraits all adhering to social codes and norms, from the Renaissance to the present day depicting married couples who were well known in their day and highlighting that artistic fashion especially in northern Europe. Double portraits of a man and a woman are psychologically complex, since they usually provide a visual document of an emotional relationship. The artists’ styles of presentation analyse the characters and relationships of the couples as well as their social status. Methods. The method applied in this paper was that of a qualitative collective case-study based on specific paintings, the comparing and contrasting of which leads to general conclusions. Ten double portraits were selected. They portray well known figures and were painted by a variety of artists. In the second stage, the chosen works were sorted and catalogued chronologically to reflect diversity in terms of people, professions or status. Next, they were analysed on the basis of the language of plastic art: line, colour, light and shadow, composition and overall unifying organization. Results and Conclusions. Since art reflects reality, I demonstrated the development of the field of double portraits across time and how it clearly reflects social change in the role and perception of the wife. Parallel to the development and change in art from the 15th century to the present day, the topic of the double portrait has also changed; each era had its prevailing conventions in terms of fashion, customs, a woman’s status, the development of technology and industry, freedom, liberation, and ‘artistic license’ that surprised, shocked and changed world orders. All these left their mark on the double portrait, which has come a long way from the height of formality to the hovering Chagall and Bella, or the self-annihilation of Picasso.

Aim. The aim of the study is a description of the types of training designs, based on various classification criteria and illustrated by examples from the authors’ own practice. Methods. We used theoretical analysis and synthesis of scientific information, as well as modelling the training structure. Results and Conclusions. It was proposed to classify the designs of group training, depending either on the internal logic of the teaching material or on the external organisation of the training. Regarding the logic of presentation certain designs, through the analysis of existing learning approaches, are proposed of training, based on different logic: presentation of information, assimilation of information, B. Bloom's taxonomy, and competencies formation. Using these designs, it is possible to construct either the whole training or its separate parts (thematic blocks, exercises). The external organisation of the training includes design of the sum of exercises, or of a coherent story.

Aim. This study examines the characteristics of the individuals who go on the journey to Poland, which is a key element of the Holocaust education curriculum in Israel, their personal connection to the Holocaust, as well as the socio-political developments in Israel that attempt to bridge the gap between the various poles in society – between East and West. Concept. Holocaust education includes the formal part, which is the historical narrative, and the informal part, which is the journey to Poland. This study follows the development of Holocaust education and commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust – from the narrative of the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe to the narrative of the Holocaust among the communities of North African descent. Results and conclusion. The findings of the study indicate a link between family support and ties to the Holocaust, and the journey to Poland, which appears to be in line with findings of Nitza Davidovitch and Dan Soen (2011), who found a correlation between the students participating in the journey and their personal connections to the Holocaust, in contrast to students with no family connection with the Holocaust. For all its importance, the journey to Poland has been found to perpetuate social polarisation. Practical applications. The current study highlights the challenge of Holocaust education in order to build a bridge of shared historical destiny through this seminal event of the twentieth century. Originality. This work sparks the question of how to make the journey to Poland a unifying factor in collective national memory.

Aim. We tend to believe that the religious life of Romanians in the diaspora – living in the proximity of the Romanian borders (we do not take into account the groups that left towards Spain, Italy, Germany, and so on at the beginning of the third millennium) - is a taboo subject. The Orthodox (Romanian) clerical elite focused less on the assiduous study of the religious life of their Romanian brothers outside the borders; in this case, in Hungary. Therefore, we have the scientific duty—but more importantly, the moral duty—to bring to light the truths that are either not known or are known in a distorted form. The road of Voniga (Giula-Giroc) that we followed during the PhD research period was a blessing from the point of view of a scientific void/niche. Methods. In our study, we have applied two “simple” components: the archive and the specialised bibliography. Results. The archive was largely preserved only by Elena Csobai and Emilia Martin. The respectable ladies professionally structured the archive (Romanian Orthodox Church in Hungary) and saved hundreds of research sources from the depth of history. Conclusion. As Moisa noted (2011), the puzzling ethnographic, linguistic, cultural, and historical bulk material is without a doubt focused on the Church. The church is inextricably linked to the lives of Romanians in Hungary. Going through the tens of thousands from the mentioned fields, even superficially, there is an undeniable truth: the spirituality is present, more or less, in the writings of most of the select researchers who have worked in the scientific field for the past three decades.

Aim. The primary aim of the study is to examine how the issue of Holocaust is integrated into teaching of history at primary schools and grammar schools in the Slovak Republic. The secondary aim is to present the methodological ideas, suggestions and recommendations for teaching Holocaust in Slovak schools. Methods. The subject of the study is analysis of basic state educational documents defining the compulsory content of education and training for the school subject of history at primary school and grammar school, thus the National Educational Programme for lower secondary education (second stage of primary school) and the National Educational Programme for grammar schools (completed secondary general education), with emphasis to Holocaust. The method of analysis is applied to textbooks of history that contain information of Holocaust. The study also includes a detailed analysis of methodological recommendations and suggestions prepared by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the National Institute for Education to assist teachers in teaching Holocaust issue. The study is supplemented by knowledge from educational practice what was obtained through interview method with 15 teachers of history. Results. Holocaust is an integral part of teaching history at primary schools and grammar schools. Students get acquainted with Holocaust issue in Slovak and global historical context in the 9th year of primary school and in the 3rd year of grammar school with a four-year educational programme. The basic content of education is defined in the eduational standards of national educational programmes. Teachers can specify and concentize it even more within teaching of history. Its development is aided not only by textbooks of history but also by various educational and professional activities defined in various methodological materials and manuals.

Thesis. Jan Švankmajer’s Kunstkammer is a project with a complex constellation of meaning that defies clear-cut categorization in the context of Pomian’s theory of semiophores.  Discussed concepts. The paper describes the kunstkammer art project created by Jan Švankmajer, a Czech surrealist, in the context of Pomian’s theory of semiophores and compares it to traditional and historical equivalents, using the concepts of micro- and macrocosm, the world as a stage (Theatrum Mundi), hermeticism, and alchemy.  Results and conclusion. Jana Švankmajer’s Kunstkammer should be analyzed primarily in the individual and subjective context, rather than in the social one. Originality/cognitive value of the approach. Pomian has described many examples of traditional kunstkammers, but there are also several modern collections that have not yet been described in the literature.

Aim. The aim of the research is the comparative study of literary cat characters in Children’s Literature texts in Greek and Spanish and their instructive function in the transmission of social stereotypes. Methods. The research subscribes to the field of Literary Animal Studies based on the theory of Children’s Literature (Lukens, 1999) and through the intercultural perspective of Comparative Children’s Literature (O’Sullivan, 2005). Published children’s books from Greece, Spain and Spanish-speaking America were compared using textual analysis methods of Imagology (Beller & Leersen, 2007). Stereotyped variants were identified and organized in categories related to name, physical appearance, gender, behavior, and function of literary cat characters. Results. After examining a corpus of 37 books, 23 in Greek and 17 in Spanish (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain), textual analysis findings were compared, organized, and classified by language, country and readers’ age groups to locate that literary cat characters are usually pets or feral, and they remain consistently stereotyped as anthropomorphic and subversive. Cats with seven lives and magical powers are common perceptions, dominating in both cultural contexts, stereotypes extended to strong superstitions about black cats. Conclusions. In Children's Literature texts, cats are linguistically, literally, and socially defined literary constructs, can have usually human-like features, intercultural influences, and are potentially shaped by intertextual relations. They serve also as a narrative motif for the transmission of social values about non-human animals and the textual familiarization of nonadult readers with society’s cultural stereotypes.