Anali za povijest odgoja, Vol. 2 No. 2, 2003.
Pregledni rad
The Infl uence of Political Change on Public Education
Stane Okoliš
; Slovenski šolski muzej, Ljubljana, Slovenija
Sažetak
The enforcement of obligatory elementary education by the state also marked its stronger intervention in the field of education. Along with the banishment of illiteracy, schools were used to infl uence public awareness and its attitude towards the state authorities. In such a manner, the state’s care for a better education of its citizens overlapped from the very beginning with the attempt to project political aims into the daily life of its population. In a way, school was seen as an auxiliary tool to bring the state’s goals and values to the hearts and minds of the people. Education and upbringing became a matter of state policy, the school itself a matter of state, a “politicum”. The state school, being from its very beginning in a subordinate position towards the state, was naturally strongly influenced by political change. Due to financial and space restrictions, lack of teachers, etc. the state’s influence was, in the beginning, very limited. In the period of absolutist Austrian rulers (Mary Theresa, Joseph II) a visible effort to promote the state’s unity was seen in enforcing German as the official school language in a multiethnic Monarchy. The first attempts made it clear that the state was not very successful neither in setting up a school system, nor in the upbringing of children. It therefore leaned on the Church and shared with her the burden of schooling, keeping always the upper hand in educational affairs. With the arrival of German liberal circles at the helm of the Austrian state in the late 1860s, a new division of influence was negotiated between the state and the Church. In the 20th century, great political changes and upheavals kept the school system under constant pressure to adapt to swiftly changing political environment. The influence of state politics on the schools increased. This political impact was made easier in a developed school system. In totalitarian regimes the relationship between the school and the state is characterized by the ideological subordinance of school to the politics of the state. This is mirrored in the indoctrination of the educational content. The school was thus not only a “politicum”, but also an “ideologicum”. By means of ideology the school helped maintain the ruling regime in power. However, all such ideological attempts remained limited due to the complex nature of the social environment and the limits of infl uence of school education in the formation of young generations.
Ključne riječi
political changes; schooling and education; the politicization of school; Slovenia; 20th century
Hrčak ID:
334766
URI
Datum izdavanja:
31.12.2003.
Posjeta: 323 *