CHAPTER 5: Foreign Influence and Economic Insecurity in International Partnerships for Civic Education: The Case of Post-Soviet Estonia

The Berlin wall fell in November, 1989, and not long after the Baltic states—annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II—declared independence. Within months, Gorbachev officially dissolved the Soviet Union, instigating a flood of aid and triumphalism from the West. Wellmeaning donors and experts arrived in lands whose histories, languages and cultures they mostly did not know, ready to provide the right answers for countries that were expected to make a smooth transition to democratic governance and market economies. Education reform—particularly the removal of propaganda and the development of appropriate materials to fill the void—was perceived to be critical to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the recent political and economic changes. American and European programs were developed to support the development of democratic citizenship education across Central and Eastern European Europe. Very little, however, was known about the effectiveness or influence of foreign programs for civic education.