Professional paper
Contribution of the Croatian School Museum to the Development of the Croatian School System
Elizabeta Serdar
; Hrvatski školski muzej, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
The Croatian School Museum is the only museum in Croatia specialising in the field of school system and schooling. Although museums as institutions normally belong to the field of culture, in this case it is an institution specialising in the school system and schooling, and as such has its place between culture and education. Another unique feature of this institution is that it covers the entire Croatian territory, although the City of Zagreb functions as the founder thereof, assuming all corresponding rights and obligations. Since its establishment in 1901, the Croatian School Museum performs very complex tasks. Although it was established as a museum, it has a double role – as an institution dealing with history and collecting and studying the archival material for the future, but also as an institution mediating between school material suppliers (in the beginning only for primary schools) and the schools themselves. The Museum is organised in two departments – the Historical and the Modern. In the future, the Museum will focus on the activities of collecting, conserving, studying, displaying and publishing the information related to the material kept by it. Having been active in the 20th century, the Museum made a considerable contribution to the development of the Croatian school system. The Croatian School Museum has prepared around 300 exhibitions so far, most of them dedicated to certain segments of the history of the Croatian school system and presenting the most prominent persons and institutions in our school system and education (Drawing Teaching in Croatia, Schooling in Croatia in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Adult Education, Technical Education in Primary Schools, Computers in Education, Milka Pogačić, 85th Anniversary of the Association of Pedagogy and Literature, etc.). All these well–researched and deeply studied topics from the past have always provided a signpost and guide in search of new, improved and more sophisticated solutions in certain circumstances, in which the school system was in different periods of time. Among the exhibitions prepared there are obviously those which were not dedicated to the historical topics, which tried to make a bridge between various institutions or persons participating in the school system, which was also the case in the period when the Museum was established. These are mostly connections between equipment manufacturers and schoolbook and children’s book publishers, or presentations of individuals whose work is related to children and schools. There are also presentations of other regions, other countries, their school systems as well as comparisons with our school system in order to find better solutions for the improvement of schooling. The Croatian School Museum is one of the first institutions in Zagreb and in Croatia which attaches special importance to museum pedagogy. With its various forms of work with pre–school and primary school children but also with adults and the elderly, the Museum is actually included in the system of education. Due to its specialisation, it pays most of its attention to the students of pedagogical sciences, i.e. pedagogy. Apart from thematic exhibitions, it develops a special approach to its visitors, the school children being the most important among them. The Museum sometimes off ers them almost a direct inclusion into teaching plans (curricula) and programs, and it often leaves its premises to make a presentation. Cooperation with schoolteachers and professors is also very important. In 1980 the Museum organised the seminar The Role of Museums in the Reform of Education and continued to cooperate with other museums in Zagreb regarding the discipline of museum pedagogy, which resulted in the formation of a separate department within the Croatian Museum Society.
With its publishing activities in certain periods the Museum made a considerable contribution to the Croatian school system. Important publications include The Anthology of School and Education, a periodical dedicated to the history of schooling and education, which was published in the period from 1964 till 1991 in cooperation with the Museum of Ljubljana and the Museum of Belgrade (24 volumes). Unfortunately, the publishing activity in relation to the exhibitions is very limited in scope because of continually occurring financial difficulties. We hope that this part of our activities will be intensifi ed in the near future.
Apart from our own publishing activities, the Museum also offers consulting services (insights into collections, preparation of material, expertise studies) to users, publishing houses and schoolbook publishers. With the above listed forms of work, the Croatian School Museum has been an active participant in the development of the Croatian school system since the beginning of the 20th century.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
334746
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2003.
Visits: 490 *