Over the last two months I've been a frequent visitor of the Armenian National Library where I've been reading through their collection of այբբենարաններ or alphabet textbooks/primers. The collection of books are fascinating - some of the ones I have seen date back to the late 1600s. My interest in looking at the այբբենարան or aybenaran started from a project with my advisor and classmate in 2010 where we analyzed alphabet textbooks from Ukraine, Latvia, and Armenia which later evolved and included and inspired other studies (for further reading see references below). As part of my critical ethnographic study, I will conduct textbook analyses of textbooks used in the classrooms that I will be observing. Through these aybenarans, I am able to go back in time and space and see how textbooks defined the Armenian national identity. While I have not completed a thorough analysis of the textbooks, I wanted to share some of the data here in order to also help me think through these findings.
Kevork Sarafian’s (1930) The History of Armenian Education is one of the only comprehensive studies available. As noted by Sarafian (1930), the Armenian Church was the major resource for maintaining the Armenian national identity within smaller communities that provided space to cultivate and maintain the identity particularly through religion and education (Sarafian, 1930). The sources used to document Armenian education Sarafian’s literature are a reflection of those who managed to document their perspectives - often times these individuals were the elites, political figures, nobility and clergy members of the community (Sarafian, 1930).
In my findings, I found some alphabet textbooks that resonate with what Sarafian (1930) referred to during the early history when education was primarily meant for boys and for religious purposes. These textbooks were printed in Vienna, Venice, Constantinople, Aleksandropol, Paris, Moscow, among other places. If I were to generalize the findings thus far, I would categorize the late 1600's to the late 1800's as religious education for (elite) boys only. The early 1900s begins to introduce other concepts including the following example with texts about orphans in a 1905 alphabet textbook. Most of the earlier textbooks described the traditional family unit as one with a mother, father, and home at times with siblings as well. Often times the mother was described as the home caretaker with her household responsibilities. By the early 1900s, perhaps the textbook authors felt the need to introduce texts on orphans to support children's conceptualization and acceptance of children who lost their parents. In the late 1880s and early 1900s, this could refer to the wars or genocide happening within this time period. In this blog, I offer a few samples of texts and images and some of my notes about each to share some of the data I found recently.
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| Orphan The shinny sun already set, the moon long ago went and stood. The darkness filled the air and the fall cold wind blew. Every person gathered into their homes, Every child fell into the arms of their mothers, Only the poor orphan, who had no father, mother, No relative, no sister, no brother, Barefoot, naked and hungry Crouched under the wall. The good landlord looked out from above, Invited our miserable orphan inside. And from then on the ill-fated boy had someone to take care of him. Arabajyan, H. (1905). Mayreni Lezoo (badgernerov, krutyan oreenagnerov, kravor varjotyunerov, yev sharjagan ayboobenov): first year. (5th version). Aleksandropol: Hagop Ghazabesyantsee. |
Several alphabet textbooks in the late 1800s included Armenian and Russian texts parallel to each other. This finding could reflect the period of time when Armenia was apart of the Russian Empire.
Of interest to me was a textbook printed in 1860 that had Armenian and Kurdish language which was printed in Constantinople. As one flips through this alphabet book Kurdish language is also available.
Tigranyan, M. (1860). Aybenaran Kyurderen yev Hayeren: e beds mangants kyurdoosdantsvots. Constantinople: Hovhanoo Myuhendesyan.
In a 1942 aybenaran, this text refers to Stalin's defeat of the Germans during World War II and the establishment of the Soviet Union with the following text entitled, Our Victory.
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| Our Victory The German fascists attacked our country. They were the cause of major disasters for our nation. Stalin called upon our people to defend their homeland. Stalin's successful Soviet army beat the fascists. Glory to the Soviet people! Glory to Soviet army! Glory to the great Stalin! Glory to the Soviet people! Glory to Soviet army! Glory to the great Stalin! |
Hayrabedyan, H. & Moushegyan, A. (1942). Aybenaran (2nd version). Yerevan: HayrabedHrad.
Also in this 1942 aybenaran images of the great heroes of the time Stalin and Lenin were referenced in the lesson on the letter «Ը» or "Uh" for Ընկեր pronounced unger which can be translated as comrade or friend.
Hayrabedyan, H. & Moushegyan, A. (1942). Aybenaran (2nd version). Yerevan: HayrabedHrad.
References:
post-soviet textbooks. Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1021187128).
Palandjian, G., Silova, I., Mun, O., & Zholdoshalieva, R. (2018). Nation and gender in postsocialist
education transformations: comparing early literacy textbooks in Armenia Kazakhstan, Krgyzstan, and Latvia. In M. Chankseliani, & I. Silova. Comparing post Socialist transformations: purposes, policies, and practices in education. (pp. 167-192). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education.
Sarafian, K. (1930). History of education in Armenia. California: La Verne College.
Silova, I. & Palandjian, G. (2018). Soviet Empire, childhood, and education. Revista Española
de Educación Comparada. (31), 147-171.
Silova, I., Mead, M., & Palandjian, G. (2014). Pedagogies of space: (Re)mapping national territories, borders, and identities in post-Soviet textbooks. In J.H. Williams (Ed.), (Re)constructing memory: School textbooks and the imagination of the nation. (pp.103-130) Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense.
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