Assessing Youth Engagement in the Preservation and Promotion of Culture Heritage: A Case Study in Korça City, Albania

In the National Strategy for Culture 2019–2025, in addition to the preservation and protection of heritage and its promotion, one of the cultural policies predicted the goals that the Ministry of Culture of Albania would pursue is the design and implementation of an educational platform through art and cultural heritage institutions and the pre-university system, with the specific objective being the Education Program Though Culture (MK 2019) The program consists of several activities undertaken by cultural heritage institutions such as the Little Archaeologist, of The Monument's Friend, My Museum etc. which aim to increase children's interest in cultural heritage values and strengthen the cooperation between the schools and the museums. In the Albanian education system, cultural heritage knowledge has been taught in all levels of education. Inheritance education begins with the integration of heritage knowledge into the school curricula. In primary education (5 years), culture, traditions and customs’ knowledge is integrated in the course Education for Society. The education and awareness of cultural heritage is strengthened from the subject ‘History’, by acquiring knowledge about the heritage of ancient civilisations. In addition to formal education, ‘History’ is also learned through informal education by participation in extracurricular projects and visiting museums and cultural heritage sites.

In secondary education, pupils develop their heritage knowledge in the subjects of History and Geography. In 9th grade Geography, students analyse the interaction between the physical–geographical, social and economic systems of Albania and the area surrounding Albanian. One of the main issues dealt with is the Natural and Cultural Heritage of Albania and the development of tourism. Regarding cultural heritage, students learn to assess and describe the following, namely: the general features of cultural heritage, its categories and the utilities associated with each of these features from the point-of-view of tourists (Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth 2019). Schools also organise activities that are related to local cultural heritage and conduct art competitions, which promote students’ creative abilities in presenting cultural values.

In high school curriculum, cultural heritage is better covered in Geography. By dealing with the regional geography of Albania and other Albanian territories, the Geography of the XI grade provides students with knowledge on cultural and natural heritage, their values and their categories. In XII grade Geography (this is an optional subject), it is intended that students understand and appreciate the cultures, lifestyles and development of the world by regional over-viewing of the population, cultures and economic developments (Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth 2017). However, the knowledge that students acquire up to this level of education is considered insufficient to raise the awareness of these young age groups in the context of cultural heritage and its protection.

The study programs at Fan S. Noli University of Korça (UNIKO), have integrated the available knowledge on education for cultural heritage, but only a little and only through a meagre number of study programs. The History–Geography study program plays a major role in providing knowledge on cultural heritage, but there are also some programs – such as Master in Tourism or Tourist Guide – which provide knowledge on cultural heritage and cultural tourism. The Curriculum of the History–Geography study program offers education on heritage through the following subjects, namely: Archaeology, Ancient History, Natural and Cultural Heritage and Tourism Geography. Education and knowledge about cultural heritage are provided together with geographical analysis. Students are introduced to the definitions of heritage, world cultural heritage and European and international organisations for the preservation and protection of heritage in general (UNESCO, ICCROM) and also of the elements of cultural heritage of Albania, its categories and its protection and management. In addition, the curriculum of the master professional degree also provides knowledge on the Application of GIS Technology in Natural and Cultural Landscapes (Department of History and Geography 2020).

The teaching practices that take place in the region and in the entire country also play an important role in educating and raising awareness of students on cultural heritage and the protection of its values. Occasional visits to museums and cultural heritage sites, as part of the informal education, are as well applied to students. In addition, an important role in heritage education is played by the involvement of students of the History–Geography study program in internships, voluntary internships during the tourist season in the city's museums and in other activities for the promotion and protection of heritage values. These students, on the basis of their experience, attain better learning outcomes that are related to knowledge, behaviour, inspiration, critical thinking, attitude and transmission of experience to others. In determining how useful the learning outcomes of students are in encouraging them to take up the cause of cultural preservation and transmission and propagate it among their peers, an important role is played by the academic staff that is expected to play a nurturing role in encouraging and promoting students’ engagement in collaborations with local institutions in the fields of heritage, tourism and environmental preservation. It is also worth mentioning the involvement of several students of the History–Geography study program in the Erasmus Mundus Program (exchange students) with the University of Porto, Portugal as a host institution, which has helped students gain knowledge and experience about cultural heritage in and out of Albania. Moreover, History and Geography students who complete their higher education are employed, and offer their services, not only as teachers in secondary and higher education, but also as specialists in cultural institutions such as museums, libraries etc. In addition to the universities, regional cultural heritage institutions (Regional Directory of Cultural Heritage, National Museum of Medieval Art, Archives) and the local government have initiated actions for cultural awareness of students and youth through visits to cultural heritage sites in the region. Institutions and local and regional authorities can play a significant role through funded programmes, with the objective of enhancing the interest of young people to participate in protection and promotion of heritage values (UE 2011).

Actually, the Ministry of Culture has implemented UNESCO's project (2020–2022): Community based inventory of ICH in Albania with a view to safeguarding and transmitting to future generations (UNESCO 2019). The objectives of the project are the involvement of communities in the safeguarding process through a limited national inventory in three selected districts of Albania (Korça is one of three pilot cities) as well as strengthening the transmission of living heritage-related knowledge and skills in the three regions. Some students from Fan S. Noli University are also included in the project to facilitate their contribution to the inventory elements of local intangible heritage.

Korça is one of the main cities in Albania. It is located in the south-eastern part of the country; this location falls in the cross-border area with Greece and North Macedonia. The city has its historic centre with a number of heritage buildings with regional and national values. Archaeological findings identify the existence of a settlement that has been inhabited since ancient times, while written sources date the city to the first half on the 15th century (Selenica 1982). The city began to develop rapidly in the mid-nineteenth century as an important centre of the region, traditionally known for its important role in economic, social, educational and cultural development. Evidence of this continuous development is offered by the existence of many old buildings and other cultural heritage objects in the city and its surrounding area, protected by the national status of Cultural Monument. In addition the city and its surroundings are mentioned for their rich spiritual traditions and elements (Table 1).

Among them, museums are distinguished by the diversity of heritage objects that they collect. National Museum of Medieval Art (1980) is an important part of the historical, cultural and artistic heritage, mainly related to the Byzantine and post-Byzantine Christian heritage, and it consists of a collection of icons by 150 Albanian and foreign authors as well as artefacts made of stone, wood, metal, fabric etc. Particularly, the iconographic collection that this museum possesses is one of the largest in number (about 6500) and just as beautiful and comparable to all other Byzantine and post-Byzantine art created in neighbouring territories that are part of the former Byzantine Empire. Besides the National Museum of Medieval Art, the Museum of Education is the symbol of one of the most important historical and cultural events of all the Albanian territories, since this is the place where the opening of the first school in Albanian language on March 7, 1887 took place (MTM 2018). Well known are also Archaeological Museum, Oriental Museum Bratko, Gjon Mili Photography Museum and others with regional and local values (Fig. 1). Apart from their functions such as institution of collection, preservation and promotion of historical and cultural values, they are also considered to be an educational institution for young generation. While heritage education in classrooms contributes to the development of skills and competences that encourage students to participate in the creation of critical citizenship, informal education through cultural and heritage activities in museums develop the memory, generates emotions, identity and sense of belonging in children of the school-going age (Escribano-Miralles et al. 2020).

Fig. 1

The architecture developed in 19th and 20th century is represented by the existence of old buildings with two to three floors, of the type of villas with aesthetic values and special architectural styles. Old bazaar is the main architecture object inherited in its current condition from the second half of the 19th century, and it contains many old buildings, especially shops with decorative elements. The cathedral in the centre of the city, although build in 1995, is one of the most attractive buildings with architectural and artistic values (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

In addition to its tangible heritage, the city is widely known for the traditions, culinary skills, celebrations and festivals and organisations such as Carnivals, the Eastern Celebration, and Beer Festivals (Menkshi, 2014). Because of traditional architecture, museums, old buildings carved or constructed out of stone, events and celebrations, the city is being visited by numerous domestic and foreign visitors recent times, which have made many of the objects of cultural heritage to be deployed towards its development. New usages of old buildings are related to their restoration and adaptation towards activities such as hotel restaurants but also commercial businesses such as souvenir shops or business centres. In addition to being adapted with new functions, the old buildings have been reconstructed (or rehabilitated), to preserve the original and authentic elements in both parts of the buildings, namely their exterior facades and interior parts (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3

However, there are also some new buildings which have not preserved the architectural elements in the external facade (decorative elements, painting colour), disrupting the harmony of constructions, especially in the historic centre of the city. At the same time, some of old heritage buildings suffer lack of investment and are in danger of losing their values due to destruction. In general, the development of the city as a tourist destination, through the restoration, rehabilitation and reuse of heritage buildings, is aimed at preserving their historic values.

In addition, cultural heritage can also be preserved through the development of creative and cultural industries (Spiridon et al. 2014). In this context, the development of some small and medium enterprises in the city – which can be classified under the creative and cultural sector (prominent examples of such enterprises being those dealing in handicrafts, textiles, performing arts, studio design etc.) – is considered to be important in protecting, promoting and transmitting the heritage values of Albania to the younger generations. A research conducted by the local project of municipality Clusters & Social Enterprises Incubators in the Field of Culture/Tourism and Folk Tradition Inclust, (Interreg IPA II Cross-Border Cooperation Program Greece-Albania 2014–2020), Mapping and Evaluation of Cultural & Creative Industry Organizations in the Area of Korça (City), identified the cultural and creative sectors and, among other things, analysed the role of these sectors in preparing young people for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage elements. Based on the author's research conducted for the project, it can be that the heritage and cultural sector is one of the main sectors that can be considered developed and it is represented mainly by public institutions (museums, the theatre, the library etc.). Regarding the regular practices of cultural activities or events, all these institutions conduct cultural events on specific days and undertake activities in their premises to educate young people, school pupils and students. The vision of the institutions is to increase cultural activities and services for tourism development and especially the empowering of the connection between the youth and the Albanian cultural heritage (Menkshi, Braholli 2019). At the same time, performing arts and crafts sectors claim that their main activities consist of promoting and transmitting their traditions and heritage values through training of young people. Through these activities involving the cultural and creative sector, young people contribute in preservation of local and national cultural heritage elements. Furthermore, since the culture can consider one of the important component of sustainable development, the education for heritage and the engagement of youth in cultural and heritage activities can be consider as a means towards sustainable development (Gesche-Koning 2018).

The increasing of the accommodation structures and the businesses that develop activities in the tourism sector has created more opportunities for the employment of young people (Menkshi 2020). In this context the University of Korça can play an important role in preparing the skills of young people for the creative and cultural sectors especially by instituting 2-year courses for professions that the area has traditionally developed over centuries of Cultural innovation. At the same time, thanks to the cooperation that the university has with local government and other institutions, there is already an established practice of engaging History and Geography students in voluntary 1–3 month internships in the city's museums, libraries, archives and cultural heritage sites (Figs 4, 5).

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Also, the implementation of the Smile Albania project engages and at the same time employs many students and young people during the tourist season, and these promote tourist attractions at customs checkpoints, in the city and its surrounding areas. In addition to their engagement in the protection and preservation of culture and heritage, the young people play also an important role in promoting their values in social media.

To assess their level of knowledge, respondents were initially asked about the meaning of the term cultural heritage, how much they know about the cultural heritage values of the area wherein they live, how much they value them, what they understood by the concept of protection of cultural values and how important they consider it to be. Specifically, being asked about what they understand to be cultural heritage, the respondents have responded with different opinions. Most of the high school students have a good perception claiming that cultural heritage means archaeological objects, religious objects, songs, dances and many other things that we have inherited from the past. Only a few of them have specified to be transmitted to the future generation. The meaning of cultural heritage is broader and more complete in the opinion of university students, especially those who have completed a bachelor's degree in History–Geography. According to the opinions expressed, they define cultural heritage as tangible and intangible values of human society, monuments, buildings, sites, museums, religious objects, traditions, language, songs, music, celebrations etc. inherited from the past and that should be transmitted to the future. Better knowledge about the concept of culture heritage by students of the History and Geography study program (bachelor and master) is related to the specific subjects of heritage that they have developed. To identify the level of knowledge about local heritage, the participants in the survey were asked whether they know these values and how important each of them is as a tourist attraction. Most of the respondents (89%) stated that they knew the local heritage through some objects located in the cities and the surrounding area, while 82% of the respondents stated that they knew the values of these objects to some extent. To get young people's opinions on the importance of some elements of tangible and intangible cultural heritage as tourist attractions, we presented some key elements and they expressed their opinion through Likert-scaled answers that ranged from 1 (not at all important) to 5 (very important). According to their assessment, most of the respondents (60%) evaluate as very important tourist attractions the city museums, traditional architecture (56%) (the old bazaar, traditional buildings), religious objects (46%), gastronomy (46%), folklore (43%), archaeological sites (42%) and festivals (40%). While we perceive the figures obtained, most of the young people whose opinion was solicited as part of the questionnaire evaluate religious objects to be highly attractive and important domestic as well as international tourist destinations (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7

By cross tabulating the data gathered from the assessment given for the cultural attractions with the three levels of education of the respondents (Table 3), it is discovered that most bachelor and masters students considered museums, archaeological sites, architecture and religious objects as very important attractions. On the other hand, most of high school students consider gastronomy, folklore (music) and celebrations as very important. The selection of museums and other sites of tangible heritage may be explained by student's knowledge of the importance that these sites present as attractions for income generation, i.e., tourism.

The young people who participated in the survey were also asked where they acquired most of their knowledge about heritage values (secondary education, high school, bachelor). 51% (amounting to most) of the participants answered that they have gained knowledge in high school, 25% in bachelor, 21% in secondary education and 3% did not respond. Contemplating this statement, we suggest that by expanding heritage knowledge in the high school curriculum as well as by getting involved in different cultural activities through informal education, high school can play an important role in heritage education among young people of this age group and others who study different programs in university.

When asked about their perception of cultural heritage preservation, most of the respondents (52%) share the same opinion, perceiving it as protection from destruction. In addition to this, students of History and Geography, in their statements, consider the protection of cultural heritage as preservation, reconstruction and maintenance of original values. Moreover, the question of how important the preservation of local heritage is considered to be (based on another Likert scale), 62% (amounting to a majority of the respondents) consider it to be very important, 21% important, 11% less important, 5% sufficiently important and 1% not important. In general, the majority of young people (83%) favourably consider the importance of preserving culture heritage. Also, regarding the question of how important young people consider the promotion of cultural heritage for the development of tourism in their area, we have ascertained that 59% consider it very important, 20% important, 13% sufficiently important and 8% less important. In both the above questions there is a number of students who express reservations about the protection and promotion of local heritage values. They are young people who have stated that they don’t know the values of local cultural heritage. When it comes to the question of whether local government and responsible institutions do their best to protect and promote cultural heritage, most of them (61%) say no and the remainder (39%) say yes. When asked what should they do more?, 54% of those who answered (no) among other responses emphasise that the values of cultural attractions should be promoted more in Albania but also abroad. History–Geography students (n = 23) also emphasise the need for more investment in their maintenance and preservation of values from alienation because of urban development.

In order to identify the involvement of young people in activities for the protection and promotion of cultural heritage, we initially wanted to find out if the respondents were part of any youth structure or youth network in the country. Asked about this, most of the respondents (82%) have stated that they are not part of any structure or youth organisation in the country and only 18% of them have stated that they are involved in some structures such as youth centres in Korça and the youth network in Albania. (Non-involvement in youth structures or networks in the country can be explained by the fact that there are not many youth structures in Albania and they are mainly oriented towards the involvement of young people in decision-making.)

When asked ‘Have you ever participated in activities or projects related to the protection and promotion of cultural heritage?’, 59% of the respondents answered that they have never participated in cultural projects and activities and 41% of them said yes. Next, the latter have specified that their engagement consisted of being part of the national heritage promotion project Smile Albania, voluntary practice (guide) in the city's museums, participation in summer schools such as Living between cultures?, initiated by the Institute for Democracy Media and Culture (IDMC), guides for foreign tourists who have visited the area and Albania, participation in fairs and celebrations promoting local tangible and intangible values, workshops organised by the Ministry of Culture or other institutions to promote heritage etc. Moreover, 63.4% (n = 26) of the engaged students revealed that they were informed about these projects by the announcements made by the local government and other institutions, 26.8% (n = 11) in the university by the professors of their study program and 9.8% (n = 4) by the announcements on social networks. The majority of the engaged respondents (n = 33) stated that their work was voluntary and the rest of them (n = 8) indicated that they were paid (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8

Regarding the duration of these engagements, for 36.6% (n = 15) of the engaged respondents it lasted for 1 day; for 26.8% (n = 11) of them it lasted several days; for 19.5% (n = 8) of them it lasted for 1 month and for 17.1% (n = 7) it lasted for more than a month. Asked ‘Have your knowledge and skills been valuable for your commitment?’, 51.2% (n = 21) of the engaged respondents said that they were sufficient, 24.3% said they were good, 22.0% very good and 2.5% insufficient.

To further analyse the relation between the perceived knowledge and abilities and the level of education of the respondents the Kruskal–Wallis H-test was performed. The test showed that there was a statistically significant difference in the respondents’ perceived knowledge and abilities with regard to their study program and level of education, with c²(5) = 22.537 and p < 0.05 (Table 5). The highest mean rank is 29.68 and belongs to students of History–Geography, and the lowest is 12.00 and belongs to IT, Biology and Chemistry students. Tables 4 and 5, show that these history and geography students (which are also the ones with better knowledge) have experienced fewer difficulties in their project engagement and feel more secure in their abilities. At the same time, this prompts us to think that the more knowledge the Albanian youth have about cultural heritage, the more confident they will be in their abilities, which also could generate more interest in this kind of activities.

Lastly, in terms of the knowledge and skills they needed when engaging in activities, most of the respondents have identified the need to combine theoretical knowledge with practice, the need for more knowledge about the values of national heritage obtained from experience in practice etc.

Most of the respondents (79%), expressed interest and desire in engaging in promotion and preservation of culture heritage activities, but highlighted the fact that there are not many activities in the field of heritage protection. When asked ‘What do you expect to benefit from engaging in such activities and projects?’, young people say that such activities help them to acquire new knowledge, gain experience, raise their awareness for the protection of cultural values, expand their contacts with other young people, share experiences and knowledge with young people and other people etc. A graduate student in History–Geography expresses, through commitment I gain experience, learn more about cultural heritage so I can give my contribution to its promotion.

The young people who participated in the study were next asked ‘What do you think would increase the engagement of young people in the protection and promotion of heritage in your destination?’ Through the Likert-scaled answers furnished by the respondents, it has been ascertained that the respondents who consider increasing the interest of local government and cultural institutions to involve them in activities and projects with this interest as very important are 54% and important, 35% (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9

In addition, they consider important (51%) and very important (22%) the expansion of knowledge about heritage from the lowest levels of education, and also very important (46%) and important (32%) the involvement in more field trips, trainings, workshops etc.

Meanwhile, it is interesting to observe that the number of young people who think to be important ((55%; n = 55) and very important ((18%; n = 18) integrating more knowledge in other related programs, could explain the deficiencies identified in high school curriculum and in study programs related to culture heritage, tourism or other disciplines. We suggest that it is also a necessity to increase the sufficient level of knowledge of the youngest people engaged in projects and cultural activities. Finally, 90% of the respondents reacted positively to the statement that students can play an important role in preserving and promoting heritage values in the destination, while 10% did not agree.

The study is a modest attempt by authors to assess the level of youth engagement in the protection and promotion of cultural heritage in a local area. Since the study was conducted during Covid-19, the available time and scope was limited. We suggest undertaking future studies in which there is inclusion of a larger group of young people throughout the country.