(Post)Socialist Transformation of Primary Schools

Processes, Stories and Challenges in the Czech Republic
2024
ISBN: 978-3-031-58767-2
Verlag: Springer Nature Switzerland

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 617 g

This book addresses the transformation of primary education in the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) after the fall of the communist regime in 1989. It follows the overall transformation of education and school policy and offers original insights into the everyday life of the schools at that time. It also provides a unique perspective on the whole transformation process. The work discusses the school environment in the context of specific local characteristics, such as parents, community, regional institutions, and national and international contexts.

The book specifically focuses on the changes in primary school management in terms of economics, organization, and personnel. The processes of pedagogical change are an essential theme of the book. They cover how teachers proceeded through the changes in their work at the time of the transformation and the reasons for their resistance to change, including the challenges that the transformation introduced into their work and personal lives. The book also monitors how the teachers navigated the selection and use of new textbooks and tools, such as digital tools.

The work originates in historical-pedagogical research, based primarily on the oral history method and complemented by the study of contemporary documents.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Zounek, Ji¿í

Zounek, Jirí

¿Imán¿, Michal

Poloucek, Oto

Šimáne, Michal

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Lehrerausbildung, Unterricht & Didaktik Methoden des Lehrens und Lernens
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Bildungssystem Bildungspolitik, Bildungsreform
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Pädagogik Geschichte der Pädagogik, Richtungen in der Pädagogik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I: Contexts of Czechoslovakian School System Development.- Chapter 2. From the Habsburg Monarchy to the Czechoslovak Republic: Education in Historical Context.- Chapter 3. From Stalinism to the Prague Spring – Education in Complicated Times.- Chapter 4. Schools and Teachers Two Decades Before the Fall of the Communist Regime.- Part II: Schools and Teachers in the Period of Changes.- Chapter 5. Transforming the Education System: A Difficult Return to Democratic Europe.- Chapter 6. Schools: Everyday Life in the Period of Post-Socialist Transformation.- Chapter 7. Schools in a Network of (External) Relationships.- Chapter 8. Teachers: Various Life Stories and Perspectives.- Chapter 9. Learning and Teaching: The Legacy of the Socialist Era and New Challenges.

Über Autor(innen)

Jirí Zounek is an Associate Professor at the Department of Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University, Czech Republic. For a long time, he has focused on the history of (Czech) pedagogy and the school system in the 20th century and on the use of digital technologies in education. Between 2020 and 2022, he was the main researcher in the research project . Between 2014 and 2016, he was the grantee of the research project Everyday life of basic schools in the normalization period as seen by teachers: Applying oral history to research in the history of contemporary education. He is a (co-)author of books about the history of Czech primary schools in communist Czechoslovakia. These include the monographs   (2017) and  (2017). He publishes in academic journals, such as  and  From 2017 to 2019, he was the main researcher on the research project(Czech Science Foundation, 17-06152S).He was a member of the large team responsible for the Czech National Strategy for Digital Education 2020. He publishes the results of his work in scientific journals and presents them at conferences such as the European Social Science History Conference, European Conference on Educational Research, and the International Conference of Education, Research, and Innovation. He is a member of the Czech Oral History Association and a member of the Czech Association of Educational Research (member of European Educational Research Association). He is also a member of the Science Advisory Board (SAB) of the vice rector for research at Masaryk University.

Michal Šimáne is a graduate of the Department of Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University, Czech Republic. He currently works as a head of the Department of Social Sciences and the deputy director of the Institute of Lifelong Learning at Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic. His focus is on the history of pedagogy and education in the 19th and 20th centuries and on the problems of vocational education. Between 2019 and 2022, he was the main researcher in the research project . From 2014 to 2016, he was a member of the research team for the project . He is the author or co-author of several books on the history of Czechoslovak education in the interwar period and in the socialist period. These include the monographs (2023), (2019),  (2017), and  (2017). He regularly publishes in academic journals, such as , , and He is on the editorial board of several academic journals. 

Oto Poloucek is an Assistant Professor at the Department of European Ethnology at the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He has a Ph.D. degree in Ethnology (Masaryk University) and a master’s degree in contemporary history and oral history (Charles University, Prague, CZ). In his professional and scientific work, he focuses on the border between ethnology and contemporary history, mainly using the oral history method. He focuses on the transformations of Czech society in the period of late socialism and post-socialism with an emphasis on studying and understanding the perspectives of people from non-privileged backgrounds, such as rural areas, and outskirts of towns. He is also interested in understanding recent history with regard to continuity and long-term processes in the form of research of social norms, values, and stereotypes shaping life strategies and thought patterns. His previous research has focused on social life in the Czech countryside during the socialist and post-socialist periods. Currently, he is the project partner in the Czech Science Foundation project  (2020–2022). He has published one academic book and several studies in academic journals. He lectures on qualitative data analysis, oral history methodology, and rural change during socialism and post-socialism. He won an award from the Czech Ethnological Society for the best book of 2020.