Visions,Provisions and Reality: Political changes and education for democratic citizenship in Croatia

This paper is an attempt to describe and critically analyse the emergence and development of education that is directed at promoting citizens' empowerment and responsibility in the framework of political changes and democratic challenges that Croatia faces as a post-Communist and post-war country within a prospect of European integration. In the beginning, a short reference to a politically unstable, economically extremely unfavourable and culturally complex context of education for democratic citizenship is given. Following the vision/provision/implementation/evaluation rationale for achieving the expected results, the author addresses three main issues: the changes in the government's priorities for the period 1991-2001, with special emphasis on education; the implementation measures that support educational changes pertinent to the quest for citizens' empowerment; and their actual outcomes. The gap that exists between the visions and reality is explained as resulting from number of structural and psychological barriers that may be resolved through a more pronounced, coherent and co-ordinated development-oriented policy and implementation strategy based on consensus and commitment.     

Primary school teachers as a tool of secularisation of society in communist Czechoslovakia

This study focuses on the secularisation of society in communist Czechoslovakia (1948–1989) as a process in which primary school teachers played an important role. It aims to describe and explain typical everyday situations in which teachers were forced to fulfil tasks in connection with the Communist Party’s politics of secularisation. The text is based on witness memories obtained through oral history interviews, and on examination of historical archival sources and legislation. The study shows that the situations in which teachers found themselves in connection with performing these tasks were often not easy to face. This was, on the one hand, due to the expectations of the political establishment that teachers would obey their instructions meticulously and without reservations. The teachers, on the other hand, strove to interfere in negative ways with the lives of their students (and their families) as little as possible.     

The Transformative Impact of Blended Mobility Courses

Several pedagogical assets of the blended‐learning courses conducted within the ADRIART.net partnership originate from their novel site‐specific approach and intercultural value. Conducted outside school environments across Austria, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia in 2011–2014, over a dozen of these intensive Master's programme workshops mixed students and mentors from different cultural and professional backgrounds, intersecting the realms of film, new media, photography, performance, architecture and contemporary art. These short‐term academic mobility courses concluded with public exhibitions, screenings or performances, often at eminent cultural venues or in public spaces pertaining to the site‐specific character of each course. This article discusses key issues that proved beneficial for conceiving and implementing this fruitful academic collaboration format. Several curricular and organisational solutions are presented that increased the positive impact on students as well as other stakeholders in this project‐based pedagogical piloting of the Media Arts and Practices international Master's programme. Set against its curriculum‐development framework, the article examines new methodological solutions, joint mentoring models and group dynamics management, as well as some specific logistical issues. Next to developing relevant employment skills and attitudes, such production‐oriented, but process‐aware course designs offer timely academic provisions as a response to a ‘glocalised’ world. More importantly, these course designs can also foster students' engagement with the actual (social, economic, natural, political) environment and the development of life‐long learning habits.     

How important is it to my parents? Transmission of STEM academic values: the role of parents’ values and practices and children’s perceptions of parental influences

The success of science education in classroom and out-of-school settings can be influenced by parents’ behaviours and STEM-related values. The present study investigated pathways in parent-to-child transmission of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) values by examining at same time parents’ values and behaviours, along with their children’s perceptions of these parental influences. The study included 1071 students (M_age?=?12.15) and the same number of their parents. Path analysis revealed that children’s importance value of the STEM school fields was best explained by their perceptions of parental values and behaviours in STEM. On the other hand, parents’ self-reported values and behaviours had a weak effect in predicting children’s values, which can be explained by inaccurate children’s perceptions of their parents. The results suggest that parents more easily convey beliefs about the utility than the attainment value of STEM. Namely, parents’ utility value had a larger effect in predicting children’s value, partly mediated through children’s perception of parents’ encouragement of STEM interests. The study highlights the role of children’s perceptions of their parents’ beliefs and behaviours and the importance of communicating STEM-related values within the family. Practical implications for parents and science educators are discussed.     

Religion and education: Comparative and international perspectives

International Review of Education -     

Selected aspects of conditions in the use of new media as an important part of the training of teachers in the Czech Republic and Poland - differences,risks and threats

The paper presents the complex problems of preparation of pedagogy students to work as teachers in the context of their readiness to use ICT in the didactic process. The complexity of this subject matter has been proved by the current, ongoing, discussion about the direction of the expected transformations of contemporary schools and the prospective teachers education system in the age of prevalent digitization. Considering the complexity of conditions, the main research problem has been formulated as follows: Conditions of what type affect the preparation of prospective teachers to use new media in learning and teaching process?. Thus, the empirical analysis conducted in the paper focuses on the following issues: the style of using new media by students, identification of students’ attitudes towards media, subjective (from the students’ point of view) assessment of how university level schools are prepared to shape modern media competences among their students and self-evaluation of media and IT competences in the group of prospective teachers. Czech and Polish students, despite being the so called digital natives, do not present homogeneous styles of using new media. They also reveal different attitudes toward applying digital solutions to the didactic process. Factors such as: low evaluation of one’s own competences or lack of evaluation in this area, lack of creative approach to the use of new media, lack of education in the area of new applications, lack of skills necessary to handle basic digital tools (e.g. interactive board, e-learning platforms) negatively affect, in most cases, the attitude toward the active use of ICT tools in future didactic work. On the basis of the gathered empirical data and inductive qualitative analysis a typology of students attitudes toward new media was developed. It consists of four categories: techno-optimist, techno-realist, techno-pessimist and techno-ignorant. The whole of analyses has the character of comparative research and involves two neighboring countries of the Visegrad Group: Poland (N?=?466) and Czech Republic (N?=?168).     

Libraries and Financial Literacy: Perspectives From Emerging Markets

The article uses conceptual correlations between information literacy and financial literacy as a basis for arguing that financial literacy services have a place in library settings. The article discusses the general requirements, profile of services, and various challenges related to the introduction of financial literacy programmes in public libraries. An intensified interest in financial literacy matters may be assigned to the global financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. The interdependencies between financial crisis, financial literacy, and the potential of public libraries is illustrated by the example of one South-Eastern European country whose economic transformations and developments reflect the importance of financial literacy.