Review article

Alternative Pedagogical Concepts and Education Policies in Montenegro

Vučina Zorić ; University of Montenegro, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Pedagogy

Abstract

Before the World War I the educational system in Montenegro was officially dominated by Herbart’s paradigm of pedagogy. However, the educational authorities tolerated, to a certain extent, the practice of those teachers who did not apply it in strict terms. Namely, at that time, new and various pedagogical concepts created in Europe began to reach the Montenegrin teachers as well, which was intensified when Montenegro became part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Still, the ideas of the reform pedagogical movements in Montenegro between the two world wars were not applied despite their increasing popularity in the professional circles. The pedagogical expertise of that period was not advanced enough, and the educational policies were not developed independently from the rest of the state, as subsequently when Montenegro become member of the SFR of Yugoslavia and dominant socialist pedagogy. After the dissolution of the state, a clear new space for revisions and a re-start was created, raising the consciousness about the necessity of opening towards different pedagogical concepts, new but also the old ones that had not been sufficiently explored. In the last couple of decades, there have been certain attempts to implement some of the ideas and concepts of the reform pedagogy, such as those by Maria Montessori that have been used in the preschool institutions. Reaffirmation of some ideas of reform pedagogy is often presented as an alternative to the previous educational paradigms. Private initiatives and schools oriented towards alternative pedagogical concepts hardly exist. Also, as an alternative to the “old school“, numerous new projects have been carried out, as well as programmes of the vocational training of teachers and other activities aiming at improvement of teaching and learning process, such as Active learning – applying of active teaching/learning method, Step by Step, Reading and writing for critical thinking, etc. All these activities and some of the ideas of reform pedagogy are increasingly more present in the official documents for education strategies in Montenegro. In those documents and strategies, however, there can be found miscomprehensions and problematic interpretations, which is potentialy reflected on the programs for implementation of the reform pedagogy and contemporary alternative pedagogical concepts.

Keywords

alternative pedagogical concepts; reform pedagogy; educational policy; Montenegro

Hrčak ID:

190033

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/190033

Publication date:

15.11.2017.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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