(Department of International, European and Regional Studies, Panteion University of Social and Political Studies, Greece)

Abstract: This article examines the role of education as a factor able to facilitate and achieve reconciliation in countries emerging out of an interethnic conflict. Emphasis is placed on the power and pervasiveness of historiography in creating national identities. Furthermore, the article examines national narratives as basic components of historiography, since we accept that history textbooks are a product of a process that highlights events from the glorious past and silences or ignores any incident that can demonize the nation or diminish its people self-esteem. This article focuses on the case of post-conflict Kosovo, because two nations support exclusive claims on the same territory and these claims are based on myths, oral traditions and narrations. The territorial isolation between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo is exacerbated by the historical textbooks used in the parallel education system each ethnic group has founded, making interethnic reconciliation impossible for the foreseeable future.