Croatian Pedagogy in the 19th Century – the Transfer of European Pedagogical Ideas

Abstract

The transfer of European pedagogical ideas and practices to Croatia during the 19^th century, when the Croatian pedagogy was being established, could be observed at three basic levels: at the level of formal pedagogical education of teachers, at the level of scholarly texts on pedagogy and the level of studying and professional development abroad.

Teachers had a pivotal role in the development of the practice and theory of pedagogy, which was important to them for the improvement of their teaching, as well as for their professional identity. For that reason, they were initiating publication of subject-specific journals, writing textbooks on pedagogy and translating European pedagogy classics to Croatian. The publishing activity of the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly had a major influence on the appearance of scholarly texts on pedagogy. Immediately upon its establishment in 1871, it initiated an editorial series Knjižnica za učitelje (Library for Teachers), within which 54 volumes were published by 1917, including the translations of the works by major pedagogy authors, such as Comenius (Didaktika, 1871, Informatorijum za školu materinsku, 1886, Velika didaktika, 1900), Spencer (Nauk ob uzgoju, 1883), Rousseau (Emil ili ob uzgoju, 1887-1889), Pestalozzi (Miroslav i Bogoljuba, 1891) and Rabelais (Misli o uzgoju, 1894).

The Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Assembly also published a compilation of pedagogical textbooks by Stjepan Basariček – Uzgojoslovje (1880), Povijest pedagogije (1881), Obće obukoslovje (1882) i Posebno obukoslovje (1884). His textbooks were theoretically based on the works of the German pedagogue Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776-1841) and were used in teacher education schools, with some revisions and new editions, until the 1920s.