On Wednesday, March 17, 2021, an online expert workshop was held for members of project groups within the international project “Transition Dialogue 2019 – 2021 – Dealing with Change in Democratic Ways.” The Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar led the Croatian team, in cooperation with the Znanje na djelu / Wissen am Werk Foundation.

The meeting dealt with the challenges of transition in education and how the history of economic, political and socio-cultural transformations of the last thirty years is currently taught. Among other things, a new teaching module was discussed. The social significance of such a topic, which has been rather neglected in school lessons in Croatia up to now, became quickly apparent. The national lesson plan on teaching economic transition, withthe example of tourism in Croatia, was presented at the expert workshop. The project leader Caroline Hornstein Tomić, PhD, participated in the expert workshop, together with experts who are currenty engaged in the project: history professor Vedran Ristić and economist Vedrana Pribičević. Drago Čengić, PhD (Permanent Scientific Adviser, Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences) and Velimir Šonje (economic analyst, owner of Arhivanalitika and founder of the expert portal Ekonomski lab) gave feedback from sociological and economic perspectives in order to improve the lesson plan. The majority of feedback referred to what additional topics, concepts and data sources to introduce and how to shape complex data on economy into an understandable teaching material. Expert feedback was then incorporated to the final lesson plan. The outcome of this workshop was therefore a successful shaping of how lesson plans such as these can be designed for the benefit of civic education.