The development and prospects of teacher education in Croatia

Abstract

The beginnings of organized teacher training in Croatia are associated with the introduction of state school legislation during the Habsburg Monarchy in the 1770s. Until the mid-19th century teachers were educated using the normal school/pedagogical courses within normal and major schools as well as small gymnasiums. With the establishing of a two-year Teacher Training Course in Zagreb (1849), which is the first State Teachers College, the process of an institutional education of teachers in Croatia begins. From the mid-19 th century up to 1918 the teacher education in the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia, as constituents of the Hungarian part of the Monarchy, was regulated in terms of an autonomous school law from 1874 and 1888. In Dalmatia and Istria, together with the Military Frontier until the annexation to the civic Croatia as components of the Austrian part of the monarchy, the education of teachers was regulated by provincial school protocols, pursuant to the Austrian school law from 1869. The dominance of Herbart's pedagogical heritage could not influence the flow of the educational reform of the European fin de siècle. A pedagogical twist, in the form of a didactic-methodological renewal based on the principles of mobility of a working school, occurred between two world wars. Teacher education is mostly influenced by the forming of the Higher Pedagogic School in Zagreb (1919), which provided the option of continuing one's education after completing normal schools. During the 1960/1961 school year, the last generation of students enrolled in the five-years long teacher high school program. The gates to the long desired academic community were now open to teachers by the introduction of a two-year long study program, defined by the Pedagogic Academy Law (1960). A four-year classroom teachers study program was introduced in Croatia in 1992. From the academic year 2005-2006, with the reform of higher education in accordance with the Bologna process in Croatia, a five-year long teacher education study program was being introduced within the integrated undergraduate and graduate teachers' education program, together with the opportunity for a scientific postgraduate education. The recent development of modern society, the focus on training, but also of the initial education of teachers, is now increasingly being transferred from specialized educational institutions to the different methods of formal, non-formal and informal approaches to learning within the modern society of knowledge, in which the teacher is an active co-creator of his or her own education. The focus is now re-directed from the control of the education process i.e. teacher training to the measurement of learning outcomes and competencies that a teacher has, regardless of the process of their acquisition.

Full text

The development of teacher education
in the countries of
Central and South-Eastern Europe
Proceedings of the International Conference
Maribor (Slovenia), 11-13 October 2012
University of Maribor, Faculty of Arts
edited by
Edvard Protner and Simonetta Polenghi

«History of Education & Children’s Literature», VIII, 1 (2013), pp. 43-62
ISSN 1971-1093 (print) / ISSN 1971-1131 (online)
© 2013 eum (Edizioni Università di Macerata, Italy)
The development and prospects of
teacher education in Croatia
Štefka Batini
Croatian School Museum, Zagreb
(Croatia)
sbatinic@hsmuzej.hr
Igor Radeka
Department of Pedagogy, University of
Zadar (Croatia)
iradeka@unizd.hr
ABSTRACT: The beginnings of organized teacher training in Croatia are associated with the
introduction of state school legislation during the Habsburg Monarchy in the 1770s. Until the
mid-19th century teachers were educated using the normal school/pedagogical courses within
normal and major schools as well as small gymnasiums. With the establishing of a two-year
Teacher Training Course in Zagreb (1849), which is the first State Teachers College, the
process of an institutional education of teachers in Croatia begins. From the mid-19th century
up to 1918 the teacher education in the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia, as constituents
of the Hungarian part of the Monarchy, was regulated in terms of an autonomous school
law from 1874 and 1888. In Dalmatia and Istria, together with the Military Frontier until
the annexation to the civic Croatia as components of the Austrian part of the monarchy, the
education of teachers was regulated by provincial school protocols, pursuant to the Austrian
school law from 1869. The dominance of Herbart’s pedagogical heritage could not influence
the flow of the educational reform of the European fin de siècle. A pedagogical twist, in the
form of a didactic-methodological renewal based on the principles of mobility of a working
school, occurred between two world wars. Teacher education is mostly influenced by the
forming of the Higher Pedagogic School in Zagreb (1919), which provided the option of
continuing one’s education after completing normal schools. During the 1960/1961 school
year, the last generation of students enrolled in the five-years long teacher high school
program. The gates to the long desired academic community were now open to teachers by
the introduction of a two-year long study program, defined by the Pedagogic Academy Law
(1960). A four-year classroom teachers study program was introduced in Croatia in 1992.
From the academic year 2005-2006, with the reform of higher education in accordance
with the Bologna process in Croatia, a five-year long teacher education study program was
being introduced within the integrated undergraduate and graduate teachers’ education
program, together with the opportunity for a scientific postgraduate education. The recent
development of modern society, the focus on training, but also of the initial education of
teachers, is now increasingly being transferred from specialized educational institutions to

44 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
the different methods of formal, non-formal and informal approaches to learning within
the modern society of knowledge, in which the teacher is an active co-creator of his or her
own education. The focus is now re-directed from the control of the education process i.e.
teacher training to the measurement of learning outcomes and competencies that a teacher
has, regardless of the process of their acquisition.
EET/TEE KEYWORDS: Teacher Education; Teacher Centre; History of Education;
Educational Legislation; Education System; Croatia; XVIII-XX Centuries.
The following work provides an overview of the development of organized
training and institutional education of teachers in Croatia1 with special emphasis
on recent changes within the subject field. The text also focuses on pedagogical
education and the possibilities of teacher education with regards to the current
situation and prospects for further development. The pedagogical component is
an indispensable part of teacher2 education and it has played an important role
throughout history in their professional self-realization. Teachers played a key
role in the development of pedagogy as an academic discipline.
The development of teacher education, as well as the educational system
in general, is a continuous process influenced by historical heritage and social,
political and educational conditions of a specific period. Territorial disunity
together with the administrative affiliation of Croatian lands to various national
communities throughout the country’s history had the effect of non-uniform
and uneven development of education. This paper covers the period from the
second half of the 18th century to the beginnings of the 21st century, during
which teacher education in Croatia went through an evolutionary journey
from the normal school courses and two-year teacher schools to five years long
university studies. During this period Croatian lands were almost continuously
under the rule of Habsburg or Austro-Hungarian Empire3. In the period
between the two world wars a segment of Croatian lands became part of the
new national community – the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from
1929 known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), with the exception of Istria, Rijeka,
Zadar, and the islands of Cres, Lošinj, Palagruža, and Lastovo which belonged
1 This part of the article partially refers to the book Teachers in Croatia 1849-2009 by Š.
Batini, S. Gaina Škalamera, Zagreb, Croatian School Museum, 2009.
2 The term teacher in this paper is used in the sense of primary teachers. This is the largest
subgroup of teachers who teach students during the first four years of primary and compulsory
school. Each teacher takes a group of students, i.e. one class, from the beginning of their schooling
in the first grade and coordinates them to the end of fourth grade by teaching them most subjects
and caring for their systematic education.
3 Dalmatia and Istria were provinces of the Venetian Republic until 1797, when they became
part of the Habsburg Monarchy. From 1808 until 1815 they were under the French rule, and then
again returned to Austria, along with Dubrovnik, which was an independent republic before the
French administration.

45
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA
to Italy. Later on, from 1941 until early 1945, the Independent Croatian State
was established, but without Istria, part of Dalmatia and most of the islands
that remained under the rule of Italy, as well as without Meimurje controlled
by Hungary. From 1945 Croatia was part of socialist Yugoslavia4, and from
1991 an independent state.
The beginnings of organized training and institutional education of teachers
With the development of a state public education, a need for an organized
training of teachers emerges. These processes within Croatian lands were
associated with the beginnings of state school legislation in the Habsburg
Monarchy during the 18th century. With the implementation of the General
School Order5 (1774) and the school system Ratio educationis (1777)6
requirements were set regarding the training and duties of common teachers.
Within normal or main schools, which were established in all provinces as
exemplary schools, educational courses for teachers were organized. Teacher
candidates had to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in order to
properly perform the duties of honest teachers. These consisted of knowledge
of the subjects to be taught in school, knowledge of methods, practical teaching
training, upholding of school discipline, keeping the catalog and receiving
school inspections7. The most important source of all necessary knowledge
for future teachers was Johann Ignaz Felbiger’s methodological manual called
Methodenbuch für Lehrer der deutschen Schulen in den kaiserlich-königlichen
Erbländern (1775), the «book of books», which collected all the knowledge
4 The history of teacher education in all constituting countries of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats
and Slovenes (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and later the Federal National Republic of Yugoslavia
(which from 1963 until its collapse in 1991 was called the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia),
was published in the work of E. Protner, Z. Medveš, Š. Batini, S. Miovska Spaseva, I. Radeka,
V. Spasenovi, S. Šušnjara, V. Zori, N. Vujisi Živkovi, entitled The Development of Teacher
Training in the States of Former Yugoslavia, within the proceedings of Lehrerbildung in Europe.
Geschichte, Struktur und Reform, Frankfurt am Main [etc.], Peter Lang, 2012, pp. 239-265.
5 Allgemeine Schulordnung für die deutschen Normal-, Haupt-und Trivialschulen in
sämmtlichen k.k. Erbländern, [Wien, 1774]. The General School Order was an important milestone
in the development of education in all countries of the Habsburg Monarchy, although indirectly
valid only for the Austrian and Czech Hereditary country, and for Croatian lands only for the
Military Region. In 1777, following the path of the Order, the Ratio educationis was released as a
fundamental legal document designed for the planning of education in the countries of the Crown
of St. Stephen, or more precisely, for the countries in the eastern part of the Monarchy, to which
belonged Croatia and Slavonia (cfr. I. Horbec, V. Švoger, Education as politicum: General School
Order from 1774, «Annals of the History of Education», n. 9, 2010, pp. 5-47).
6 Ratio educationis totiusque rei litterariae per regnum Hungariae et provincias eidem adnexas.
7 Allgemeine Schulordnung für die deutschen Normal- Haupt- und Trivialschulen in sämtlichen
k.k. Erbländern, cit.

46 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
required for the practical work of teachers, principals and school supervisors,
and which functioned as canon for all who were involved in the implementation
of the school reform8.
Croatian teachers were most likely trained using one of the abbreviated
edition of the Methodenbuch such as Kern des Methodenbuches, besonders
für die Landschulmeister in den k. k. Staaten (first published in 1777), the
Förderungen an Schulmeister und Lehrer der Trivialschulen… (1778) or the Pest
edition published under the title Kurzer Leitfaden zur vorgeschriebenen Lehrart
besonders für Lehrer auf dem Lande in dem Königreich Hungarn und dessen
Kronländern9. The above assumption is based on the fact that there is no printed
Croatian translation of the Methodenbuch and that the abridged versions were
acceptable for teacher candidates, which is evidenced by surviving manuscripts
found in bequests of the teachers such as Joseph Herovi (Methodus, 1797),
Ivan Juriševi (Vpelivanje of podvuchanya decze vu školi, 1835), and Vjekoslav
Premzl (Czeli navuchanija nachin iliti Methodus razelujesze na 3 strane,
1835)10. Comparison confirmed that the first manuscript was a translation
of Methodenbuches Kern des… (Vienna), while the other two books were
translations of Kurzer Leitfaden… (Pest). A series of similar methodological
manuals appeared in the first half of the 19th century, most notably Joseph
Peitl’s Methodenbuch11, which was used for normal school courses in Croatia,
Slavonia, and the Military Region. Its Italian translation (Metodica di Giuseppe
Peitl), on the other hand, was in use as part of the methodological courses in
Dalmatia12.
The Normal School of Vienna was the example that was followed by other
major cities of the provinces. In Zagreb, for example, the Main National School
was established in 1776, which was attended, along with the regular students,
by young men preparing for the teaching profession. Candidates for the teaching
profession coming out of the Military Region would travel to Vienna, where
they were acquainted with the Felbiger method, and upon return they would
pass on their knowledge to future teachers of the Region13.
8 J.A. Helfert, Die Gründung der österreichischen Volksschule durch Maria Theresia, Prag,
Verlag von Friedrich Tempsky, 1860.
9 There are preserved editions of the book from 1796 and 1806 in the Croatian School
Museum in Zagreb which are completely identical in content and scope, with only a small part of
the book that differs from Kern des Methodenbuches.
10 The manuscripts are preserved in the Croatian School Museum.
11 Methodenbuch oder Anleitung zur zweckmäßigen Führung des Lehramtes für Lehrer in
Trivial- und Hauptschulen. Wien, 1820. Until the mid 19th century about ten different editions of
this textbook were published.
12 A. Ströll, Puko školstvo u Dalmaciji od godine 1814. do godine 1900, Zadar, Nagraena
tiskarnica Petra Jankovia, 1900, p. 26.
13 A. Cuvaj, Graa za povijest školstva kraljevina Hrvatske i Slavonije od najstarijih vremena
do danas, sv. 1, Zagreb, Naklada Kr. hrv.-slav.-dalm. zem. vlade, Odjela za bogoštovlje i nastavu,
1910, p. 525.

47
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA
With new school legislation in the early 19th century (Politische Verfassung
der deutschen Volksschule, 1805, Ratio educationis, 1806) there was an
attempt to improve education and the position of teachers. However, normal
courses at normal and main schools during the 19th century, as well as in the
male general program secondary school, was still the only organized form of
education of teachers within the Croatian region. The courses would usually
last three, and then six to nine months, finally to reach a time span of two years.
An edict – Systema scholarum elementarum (A System of Primary Schools) – in
1845 defined a two-year teacher-training course at Internship Institutes, where
the teacher candidates would acquire adequate methodological training14. It
was a step toward the establishment of teacher-training schools as independent
institutions.
Teacher education within Croatian regions from 1848 to 1918
During the second half of the 19th century the education of teachers becomes
more professionalized and standardized. The practice of training professional
teachers through normal courses15 was gradually abolished and replaced by the
systematic creation of a network of state schoolteachers. The first such school
was opened in Zagreb in 1849. A year earlier, at the monastery of the Sisters of
Charity of Zagreb, a Women’s Teacher Training College started its activity and
was given the right of public access in 1851. The first teacher-training school in
Dalmatia that used Croatian language for teaching was established in 1866 in
Arbanasi (near Zadar), while a two-year teacher-training course using Italian
language – Corso Biennale de Preparandi Maestri existed in Zadar since 1852.
The two institutions were combined into a single bilingual one in 1870 – the
Imperial Royal Male Normal School located in Arbanasi, while from 1879 the
teaching language was Croatian. The teacher-training school with the Italian
teaching language was active from 1870 until 1873 in Rovinj, from where it was
moved to Koper. In Slavonia the first teacher-training school was established
in Djakovo in 1857 and was active until 1875, when it ceases to exist along
with the female teacher-training school established in 1870 by the Sisters of St.
Cross. The center for teacher education for the Military Frontier region became
Petrinja, where in 1862 at the Lower General Program Secondary High School
a two-year teacher-training course was established, only to be transformed into
14 Ibid., sv. 3, p. 146.
15 Since in the beginning there were not enough teachers’ schools, the normal courses in the
1850s were still educating a large number of teachers. In terms of duration and taught subjects
they were approaching the standards of teacher training schools, but often lacked qualified normal
teachers and were not ‘permanent bureaus’, as the new candidates would not enroll each year but
according to the needs i.e. when the public competition was announced.

48 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
a teacher-training school in 1871. During the 1870s four additional teacher-
training schools were established: two Serbian Orthodox schools – Pakrac
(1872) and Karlovac (1875), a State Women’s Teacher-Training School in
Dubrovnik (1875), and the Hungarian Teacher-Training School in akovec
(1879). The last state teacher-training school in the 19th century was founded
in 1893 in Osijek. In the early 20th century Croatian teacher-training schools
were founded in the Croatian Littoral region and Istria – in Kastav, where the
Croatian Department of the Teacher-Training School was moved from Koper
in 1906, and in Pazin where the Women’s Private Teacher-Training School was
founded in 1912. During the early 20th century within the region now know
as Croatia a total of 11 teacher-training schools were active. If we add to this
number two female lyceums (in Zagreb and Rijeka), where future women
teachers were being educated, it is possible to state that there were a total of 13
teacher-training institutions.
Through modern and liberal laws both education and the position of
teachers were improved. The Austrian school law (Reichsvolksschulgesetz)
from 1869 provided a legislative framework for the regulation of education in
Dalmatia and the Military Region where, through the consent of the Vienna
State Ministry for Education, teacher-training schools lasted three instead of
four years as previously defined by legislature. A four-year teacher education
in Dalmatia was introduced in the school year 1904/0516. The Croatian School
Law from 1874, which regulated public education and teacher education within
the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia, also maintained a three-year teacher
training educational system. With the School Law of 1888 it becomes a four-
years long system, and it will remain as such until 1929. As the Croatian school
laws were largely in accordance with Austrian School Law, the education of
teachers was based on similar formal and subject matter basis in all Croatian
regions.
Teacher-training schools allowed admittance to healthy and morally sound
young boys/girls who reached the age of 15 and have completed a junior
gymnasium, a general program secondary school or a civic or higher public
school. At the end of the fourth grade, a matriculation examination had to
be taken and it conferred the status of temporary teacher, while a steady
placement was achieved with a training certificate, obtained after two years of
teaching service and the passing of the proficiency exam. Based on the School
Law of 1888, in 1889 a curriculum was established for teacher-training schools
in the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia (Table 1)17, which in essence was not
different from that of the Dalmatian teacher training schools.
16 I. Dizdar, Zakoni i propisi za ope puke i za graanske škole u Dalmaciji, Zadar, 1913,
p. 91.
17 In relation to the curriculum of 1875 there was a change in the schedule of specific subjects,
and new courses were introduced such as Mechanical (rotary) Operations in a Workshop within
the male, and Household in the female teacher-training schools. During the school year of 1892/93,

49
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA
Table 1. The teacher-training schools curriculum in the Kingdoms of Croatia and
Slavonia in 1889
Subjects 1st
year
2nd
year
3rd
year
4th
year
Total
Religious Education 22228
Pedagogy and Practical Exercises - 4 6 9 19
Croatian or Serbian Language 433313
German Language 222211
Geography, History and the Teaching of the
Constitution
333211
Mathematics and Geographic Drawing 333211
Natural Sciences 32117
Physics 22116
Economics 22217
Mechanical Operations in a Workshop - - 2 2 4
Calligraphy 1 1 - - 2
Free-hand Drawing and Modeling 42219
Music and Singing 22127
Piano 22116
Organs - - 2 2 4
Gusle-playing (elective) (2) (2) (2) (2) (8)
Gymnastics
Total 32 32 32 32 128
NOTE: In teacher-training schools for women, home economics (2 hours per week) and manu-
facturing for women (11 hours per week) were taught instead of economics, piano and organ
playing18.
The most hours per week on average belonged to pedagogy together with
practical exercises, which was, among other things, a sign of emancipation of
professional teachers. The weekly schedule for pedagogical subjects during
the first years of the Zagreb Biennial Normal School was rather limited, while
the first teachers of pedagogy were priests. During the first semester one hour
per week was dedicated to teaching psychology (soul-teachings) and didactics
(general science of nurturing), while during the next year and a half one or two
hours per week were dedicated to the teaching of pedagogy (general science
Mechanical Operations was replaced by Slöjd (Handcrafting Wood), which was taught until the
first decade of the 20th century.
18 Ustrojni štatut za uiteljske škole u kraljevinah Hrvatskoj i Slavoniji, Zagreb, 1889, pp. 27
and 41.

50 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
of nurturing). As there were no pedagogical textbooks by Croatian authors,
three textbooks were published anonymously in 1849 in Budim, compiled on
the basis of methodological manuals from the first half of the 20th century.
The published books were the following: The Science of Nurturing, General
Educational Science (Didactica generalis) and Special Teaching Science
(Didactica specialis). This last of the three titles is the translation of «Specielle
Methodik» from Methodenbuch by J. Peitl.
The first Croatian pedagogical textbook authors were priests: Stjepan Ilijaševi
(Training of Children or Katechetika, 1850) and Stjepan Novotny (Gojidba and
oba uba, 1867). Ilijaševi’s text was primarily for religious instructors, while
Novtny’s textbook was written for teacher-training schools. Later on, Novtny’s
textbook completely replaced the outdated Budim textbooks, although among
the authors ‘at hand’ Novotny particularly emphasizes Franz Hermann, the
author of the textbook Allgemeine Unterrichts – und Erziehungslehre, nach dem
bestehenden Methodenbuch bearbeitet (Prague, 1861). Hermann’s textbook is
actually an adapted version of J. Peitl’s19 Methodenbuch, which means that the
influence of popular Methodenbuch was already present in the second half of
the 19th century.
By arriving to the Normal School in Zagreb in 1875, a young teacher
Stjepan Basariek, as the first secular teacher of pedagogy, was probably already
working intensively on his first books – since in 1876 he published a textbook
entitled Theory of Pedagogy or Science of Education, and the following year
Kratko izkustveno dušoslovje, which became the first Croatian textbook about
psychology. That same year (1877) Josip Glaser, a teacher at the Teacher-Training
School in Petrinja, published a Psychology Draft, and a year later Logic. As a
student of Dittes’s Paedagogium, Glaser was introduced to the pedagogical ideas
of Professor Friedrich Beneke from Berlin. Therefore all of his textbooks were
based on Beneke’s empirical psychology. Soon, however, it became clear that
the pedagogical-psychological profile of prospective teachers was structured on
Baseriek’s textbooks that had their theoretical basis in the works of the German
educator Johann Friedrich Herbart. During the 1980s the complete collection of
Basariek’s pedagogical works is being published (Uzgojoslovje, 1880, History
of Pedagogy, 1881, Obe obukoslovje, 1882, Posebno obukoslovje, 1884),
which will soon be adapted «for school use» and see numerous publications, as
well as become the dominant pedagogical textbooks used in Croatian teacher-
training schools until the 1920s. The statement made by Brezinka20 about the
19 R. Gönner, Die österreichische Lehrerbildung von der Normalschule bis zur Pädagogischen
Akademie, Wien, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst, 1967,
p. 93.
20 W. Brezinka, Uspon i kriza znanstvene pedagogije, «Anali za povijest odgoja», n. 7, 2008,
pp. 7-21.

51
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA
increased interest in scientific pedagogy in Austria among elementary school
teachers, whose professional self-perception was based on science they were
researching, can also be applied to Croatia.
An important component of any education of teachers was also the
professional training conducted either through self-education or through
various other activities such as courses, lectures, professional seminars and
meetings. Pedagogical literature was considered to be the most appropriate
instrument for additional teacher education/training. Teachers initiate and edit
educational journals as an important form of professional communication.
From 1859, and the publishing of Napredak (Progress), the first pedagogical
journal in Croatia, until the First World War, about 30 different pedagogical
journals were published in Croatia. During the second half of the 19th century
teachers’ associations were being established, which, besides protecting the
rights and interests of teachers, cared about the improvement of teacher
education. The most important role in this field had the Croatian Pedagogical-
Literary Society, which already in the year of its founding (1871) presented two
important initiatives – the organization of the first Croatian General Assembly
of Teachers in Zagreb and the publishing of the translated textbook Didactics by
J.A. Komenski as the first book of the Library for Teachers. In this edition, until
1917, the Croatian Pedagogical-Literary Society published 54 books, including
translations of pedagogical classics such as Spencer, Rousseau, Pestalozzi and
Rabelais.
The issue of improving teacher education was a frequent topic of public
statements and debates within professional journals. The idea of academic
education was first mentioned during the Croatian General Assembly of
Teachers held in Petrinja in 1874. About ten years later, during the discussions
about the revision of the School Law from 1874, certain specific suggestions
about the improvement of teacher education were made. Ivan Filipovi21, for
example, in 1883 proposed teacher-training schools as two-year vocational
institutes that would only teach pedagogy and related sciences, and would
be attended by teacher candidates only after their completion of a higher
gymnasium or a general program secondary school. In the early 20th century the
issue of academic training for teachers was raised once again. A teacher named
Josip Biniki22 presented a teacher training concept along the lines of what was
21 In 1882 and 1883 a series of unsigned articles was published in Napredak, later to be unified
in a booklet publication titled Revision of the School Act from October 14th 1874, in which the
author criticized the proposed revisions of Mažurani’s School Laws, particularly emphasizing
the questions of teachers. Within Pedagogical Historiography Ivan Filipovi is repeatedly being
referred to as the author of the articles.
22 During the 23rd General Assembly of the Croatian Teacher Associations Biniki presented a
paper entitled How to Organize the Education of Common Teachers According to Modern Times
Needs? The presented paper, along with some other works by J. Biniki, was published in the book
The Question of Teachers in Croatia, Zagreb, 1910.

52 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
advocated by Filipovi – a general education acquired within a comprehensive
high school education followed by a two-year vocational training at a teacher
academy. The situation in Croatia, however, was still not adequate for such
proposals regarding the educations of teachers, mostly due to a lack of consent
within the teachers’ community, as well as within the political structures.
Five-year teacher training between the two world wars
For almost a decade attempts were made within the new union of states –
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (since 1929 known as the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia) – to create uniform school laws for all levels of schooling. It
finally happened in 1929 with the introduction of a special Teacher-Training
School Law. A teacher-training school became a five-year long senior high
school education program which only students with completed four years of
lower secondary school education or a civic school education could attend, and
only after passing all of the final and admittance exams. After the completion
of the five year long program the candidates had to take a final diploma exam
in order to gain their qualifications as public school teachers together with the
possibility of obtaining positions as temporary teachers. After a successful two-
years working period, a temporary teacher could, and within a time period of
four years had to, take the practical exam in order to acquire the status of a
permanent teacher. Teacher-training schools were obliged to provide trainees
with a general and professional (pedagogical) qualifications, to educate them
in the spirit of the state and national unity and religious tolerance as well as to
accustom them to the national, educational and cultural mission ahead of them.
The curriculum for teacher-training schools was unified for all students within
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia23.
According to the curriculum from 1931, the students studying for five years
in teacher-training schools, had to attend 23 different courses, with 32 hours
of class time per week in the first three grades and 31 or 30 hours during their
fourth and fifth grades (Table 2).
23 Zakon o srednjim školama i Zakon o uiteljskim školama, Belgrade, Izdavaka knjižarnica
Gece Kona, 1930.

53
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA
Table 2. The curriculum for Teacher Schools in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Belgrade,
1931)
Courses I. II. III. IV. V.
Psychology and Logic (3rd grade)
Psychology of Children and Pedagogical Psychology
(5th grade)
--4-2
General Pedagogy - - - 4 -
History of Pedagogy ----2
Methodology - - - 2 2
School Work - - - 4 6
School Organization and Administration ----1
National Economy with Basic Sociology ----2
Study of Religion 22222
Common Language 44333
Foreign Language (German or French) 33332
History 22232
Geography 2 2 2 - 1
Natural Science 3222-
Chemistry and Technology 2 2 - - -
Physics - 2 2 2 -
Mathematics 3332-
Hygiene ----2
Agriculture and Household 2 1 1 - -
Drawing and Calligraphy 2 2 2 - -
Singing 11111
Playing Instruments 2211-
Manufacture 2 2 2 - -
Gymnastics 22222
Total hours per week 32 32 32 31 30
The changes of pedagogical paradigms, announced in Europe in the early
20th century by reformatory pedagogical movements, were also significantly
present in Croatia. The shortcomings as well as positive sides of the New
School were listed and pointed out, while «the mere theorizing» was criticized
and practical work praised. The inertness of the new state – the Kingdom of
SCS and its educational policies versus the modern educational tendencies,
was supplemented through professional activism and an intense pedagogical
work of teachers. They were the leaders of the practical school reform, more
precisely the didactic-methodological renewal that promoted a working school
as a universal pedagogical principle. From the mid 1920s to the mid 1930s

54 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
they organize ferial educational courses aimed at professional development
of teachers and the successful implementation of the internal school reform.
The courses were organized continuously in Zagreb, but also on other, mostly
coastal, locations such as Sušak, Krk, Kraljevica, Novi Vinodolski, Crikvenica,
Selce, Rab, Dubrovnik and Delnice.
The creation of such reformatory climate finally influenced the official
educational policy, which was confirmed by the mentioned curriculum for
teacher-training schools, which in some elements anticipated the changes to
come. This refers, for example, to differentiation of pedagogical groups of
subjects. The subject Children and Pedagogical Psychology is taught as a
separate subject in the fifth grade, while Methodology and School Work are
taught as separate subjects in the fourth and fifth grade, which is in accordance
with the requirements of the acquaintance with the child and the reorganization
of the practical methodical segment. General Pedagogy was taught four hours
a week in the fourth grade, History of Pedagogy for two hours and School
Organization and Administration for one hour per week in the fifth grade.
Under the idea of the unification of teacher education, a centralist educational
policy was carried out which projected teachers as an important supporting
element needed for the implementation of Yugoslav ideology. In the 1920s the
Croatian teacher-training schools are no longer using Basariek’s textbooks,
which were continuously re-released until his death in 1918. Pedagogy teachers
probably did not abandon Basariek’s textbooks, especially as the Serbian
author of a new official Pedagogy textbook – Ljubomir Proti – was also a
student/supporter of Herbart’s school of thought. Only in the 1930s was there
an appearance of a few Croatian pedagogical manuals created by Croatian
teachers working as educators in teacher-training schools. Names such as Josip
Demarin, Salih Ljubuni, and Zlatko Špoljar were suggested to teachers and
teacher trainees, together with textbooks and authors such as Radmila Vui
(Basics of Pedagogy, 1934), Dušan Rajii (Special Didactics, 1921) and J.
Schmieder (General Didactics, translated into Croatian in 1933).
In the mid-1930s, after ten years of organizing ferial educational courses, a
state project set up model schools that were supposed to serve as examples in
the spirit of the new working school24, but also as the indicator of the future
development and direction «of the Yugoslav Pedagogy». The first model school
was founded in 1935 in Belgrade as an example that was supposed to be
followed by other 13 model schools established in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
before the beginning of the school year 1938/39. The first model school in
Croatia was established in 1937 in Zagreb. During the first four months of
1938 it was visited by approximately 650 teachers.
24 The teachers were supposed to follow the Pedagogical-Psychological Instructions written
by Dragoljub Brankovi in 1937, an inspector of the Ministry of Education in Belgrade.

55
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA
The continuation of formal education after the completion of a teaching
school in Croatia becomes possible in 1919 when a biennial Higher Pedagogical
School25 was founded in Zagreb. Its purpose was to educate teachers for higher
elementary (civil) schools, school supervisors and teachers working at teacher-
training schools, simultaneously contributing to the promotion of reformatory
pedagogical ideas. By 1945, 97726 participants (mostly teachers) graduated
from the Higher Pedagogical School.
It is difficult to establish the number of teacher-training schools present
in the region that is today Croatia due to the administrative structure of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the fact that from 1918 Istria, Rijeka, Zadar and
the islands of Cres, Lošinj, Palagruža and Lastovo were under the rule of Italy.
The data in Table 3 relates to the region of Savska and Primorska Banovina,
with the exception of one school (in Mostar) in Primorska Banovina, which is
not part of Croatian territory today.
Table 3. Teacher School in Savska banovina and Primorska banovina27
Year Number of Teachers Schools Number of students
Savska
banovina
Primorska
banovina
Savska
banovina
Primorska
banovina
1928/1929 12 2 1.753 369
1937/1938 7 2 617 161
The closing of teacher-training schools and the reduction of teachers were
explained by a large number of unemployed teachers, but the real problem was
in their ineffective allocation and utmost disregard for the implementation of
compulsory education. An attempt to correct this situation was made during the
brief existence of the Croatian Banovina (1939-1940), which had the freedom
of autonomous decision-making regarding its educational policies. During
this brief period it was concluded that there was a deficit of 800 teachers. An
attempt to solve the problem was made by re-arranging the existing teachers
in a more effective way, the use of part-time teachers from the ranks of high
25 From 1926 to 1930, and then from 1941 until 1944 the Higher Pedagogical School lasted
four years.
26 Cfr. Zbornik Pedagoške akademije Zagreb 1919-1979, Zagreb, Pedagoška akademija
Zagreb, 1979, pp. 204-211.
27 According to S. Gaina Škalamera, Dinamika razvoja osnovnih i srednjih škola u Hrvatskoj
od 1900. do 1940, «Anali za povijest odgoja», n. 3, 2004, pp. 83-111.

56 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
school graduates and graduate students of the Faculty of Philosophy, University
of Zagreb, and increasing the number of teacher-training schools28.
During the Second World War, in the Independent State of Croatia teacher-
training schools lasted four years, while a possible fifth grade with pedagogical
studies subjects was offered to high school students who wanted to become
teachers after their graduation. The subjects present in the curriculum remained
the same as they were in the 1930s, with the exception of the Italian language,
which was now taught alongside the German language. In the period from
autumn 1943 until the end of the war, Partisan teacher training courses were
also organized. Besides pedagogical knowledge, the candidates would acquire
professional knowledge about various disciplines within the boundaries of the
subject at hand, as well as the compulsory ideological-political lectures.
The education of teachers for socialism – a step towards the academic
community
An insufficient number of teachers after the Second World War, caused by
war causalities, devastation and by the increased number of elementary schools,
was solved by various forms of abbreviated, specialized, and accelerated
education. Alongside teacher-training schools various functional classes were
also organized. Preparation A Classes were organized for gifted children of
peasants and workers who had outgrown their regular education (13-17 years),
and finished their elementary schooling with better results and a few grades
of their junior high school education. The classes were organized in order to
compensate for the incomplete junior high school education and in order to be
able to continue their education at a teacher-training school. The Preparation B
Classes were intended for students over 17 years of age who were in the teaching
service, but still had not completed their junior high school education. After
attending preparatory classes, they would attend a one-year long pedagogical
course organized for students who were too old for regular education, and had
passed the lower course exam («little graduation»). After one year of attending
the curse, they would be qualified to work as teachers. A similar function was
assigned to the so called Special Classes, intended for teacher assistants, who
would also acquire the necessary professional qualifications through a one-
year long educational period. Alongside some teacher-training schools (Zagreb,
Karlovac), there were courses intended for students who had completed their
high school education. The courses offered pedagogical subjects for those
who wanted to become teachers after completing high school and passing the
matriculation examination. Finally, during a four-year period, from 1947/48 to
28 Godišnjak banske vlast Banovine Hrvatske, Zagreb, 1940, p. 41.

57
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA
1950/51, regular students in teacher-training schools would complete the fourth
grade after the first semester, in order to start working as soon as possible29.
Starting with the school year 1952/53, teacher-training programs once
again lasted for over five years. Simultaneously the teacher’s education reform
was once again being debated. Serious thought is given to the possibility of
abolishing teacher-training schools and the establishing of teacher academies,
which in turn resulted in 1953/54 with students not being able to enroll in first
grade at teacher-training schools. However, real changes occurred only after
the introduction of a federally regulated, compulsory eight years long school
education (1958). Discussions about the four-year Pedagogical Academy
concept were still current but, as it was the case earlier, the prevailing opinion at
that moment was that such goal was not achievable, so as a realistic solution the
concept of a two-year pedagogical academy was accepted. The enrollment of
the last generation of students of the five-year teacher-training school occurred
in 1960/61.
Contemporary changes, as well as the new social and political situations,
also influenced the curriculum. During the first five post-war years they were
frequently changed and adjusted. Russian was taught as a foreign language, the
Constitution of the Federal National Republic of Yugoslavia was introduced as
a separate subject, General Marxism-Leninism was taught as part of the fourth
grade curriculum, while in all four grades two hours per week were dedicated
to pre-military training. In the 1950s a total of 21 subjects was taught as part
of the five-year teacher-training school curriculum, the weekly student schedule
was somewhat relieved, the foreign language was no longer exclusively Russian,
an increase in course hours developing work habits and skills was noted, while
seminar work for the major groups of subjects, focused on the development of
individual and independent working skills, was introduced on an alternating
two hours per week basis (Table 4).
Table 4. Teacher School Curriculum in 195230
Number Courses I. II. III. IV. V.
1. General Pedagogy - - 2 2 2
2. History of Pedagogy ----2
3. Psychology and Logic - - 4 2 -
4. Methodology and Practical Exercises - - - 5 8
Seminar Work and Pedagogical Groups of Subjects ----(2)
29 The data from this segment can be found in the National Republic of Croatia – Ministry of
Education Yearbook 1949-50, Zagreb, 1951.
30 Nastavni plan i program za uiteljsku školu, Zagreb, Savjet za prosvjetu, nauku i kulturu
RH Hrvatske, 1952, p. 3.

58 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
5. Croatian or Serbian Language and Literature 44444
Seminar Work and National Language and Literature ----(2)
6. Foreign Language (Russian, English, French, German) 32222
7. Basic Marxist Philosophy - - - 2 -
8. Social Structure and Polity of FNRY ----2
9. History 32222
10. Geography 2 2 2 - 2
Seminar Work – Social Scientific Group of Subjects - - - (2) -
11. Natural Science 2222-
12. Chemistry with Mineralogy 3 2 - - -
13. Physics - 3 2 2 -
Seminar Work – Natural Scientific Group of Subjects - - - (2) -
14. Mathematics 33222
15. Hygiene ----2
16. Economics - - 2 1 -
17. Manufacture 2 3 - - -
Exercises in Women Manufacturing (2) (2) (2) - -
18. Music Lesson 3332-
19. Drawing, Calligraphy and History of Art 3321-
20. Physical Exercise 2222-
21. Pre-Military Training - 2222
Total hours per week 30 33 33 33 30
The task of teacher-training schools was to «successfully build the image
of a common teacher» or «a pedagogical and social workers, who has a solid
general, pedagogical and ideological-political education»31. The Pedagogical
Academy Law (1960) introduced a two-year study program for teachers. At
the same time pedagogical high schools were established, while middle teacher-
training schools were abolished. The academic year of 1960/61 was marked
by the enrollment of the last generation of students in middle teacher-training
schools. Most teacher-training schools and higher pedagogical schools were
now transformed into pedagogical academies. During the early 60s there were
14 pedagogical academies in Croatia. It soon turned out that this number was
disproportioned, especially as some of the academies did not have adequate
work conditions. This resulted in 1965 with a gradual abolishment of academies
in Karlovac, Šibenik, Dubrovnik, Pakrac and Slavonski Brod, while the nine
remaining, located in Zagreb, akovec, Petrinja, Gospi, Rijeka, Pula, Zadar,
31 Ibid., p. 3.

59
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA
Split and Osijek, continued with their work. Until 1978 specialized teachers for
upper elementary schools were educated alongside classroom teachers within
the academies.
With the development of pedagogy as an academic discipline there is a
gradual abandonment of its perception as a «professional science» for teachers.
In the second half of the 20th century this role was taken over by different
methodologies, which are now separating from pedagogy and didactics and are
becoming «autonomous inter-disciplines in which the key roles are now divided
between educational and mainstream sciences»32.
Both the emancipation and the affirmation of the methodology of different
subjects as individual disciplines in the last decades of the 20th century, and
the emphasized ideological nature of pedagogical subjects in the first decades
after World War II are both influential characteristics of the pedagogical aspect
of teacher training in the second half of the 20th century. All subjects had to
be «imbued with originality», but the fact that the «pedagogical group of
subjects was relating directly to the philosophical and political issues»33 very
much influenced not only the pedagogical profile of the post-war teachers, but
also the future development of pedagogy in Croatia. Teachers were considered
to be «first-class social workers», so the question of their «pedagogical and
methodological qualifications» was «a first-class social and national issue». In
order to achieve a good or, more precisely, correct pedagogical education it was
not enough to acquire a certain amount of pedagogical knowledge and skills.
What was important was that «the future teacher, within his/her theoretical
and practical pedagogical training and during his/her schooling, acquires such
an ideological and political orientation which will not remain only a matter of
understanding, knowledge, intellect and theories, but also a matter of the heart
and will, a Marxist-Leninist-oriented feelings and subsequent actions»34.
In the early post-war years the pedagogical education of a ‘new teacher’
was structured around the use of translated Russian pedagogical textbooks
edited and published by P.N. Gruzdjev, B.P. Jesipov or N.K. Goncharov. In
1951, structured on the Russian model of collective work and edited by Stjepan
Pataki, the textbook General Pedagogy was published. Teacher-training
schools primarily used the textbook, and many subsequent editions followed
the original version. Through pedagogy courses the students were expected
to adopt the Marxist-Leninist understanding of education as a segment of
32 A. Bežen, Metodika: znanost o pouavanju nastavnog predmeta: epistemologija metodike
u odnosu na pedagogiju i edukologiju – s primjerima iz metodike hrvatskoga jezika, Zagreb,
Uiteljski fakultet, Profil, 2008, p. 347.
33 K. Škalko, Kvalitet nastave i ideološko i struno usavršavanje nastavnika, u knjizi
Didaktika pitanja, (ur. Ivo Toši), Zagreb, Pedagoško-književni zbor, 1946, p. 8.
34 S. Pataki, M. Koleti, P. Šimleša, O pedagoškom obrazovanju nastavnikih kadrova,
«Pedagoški rad», 3, 1949, pp. 155 and 161.

60 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
social life, to become familiar with the aims, objectives, content, methods and
organization of socialist education as well as to be trained for work as educators
of a nation35.
The abolishment of teacher-training schools and the elevation of the
education of teachers to a higher pedagogical school level coincides with the
affirmation of methodology as a science, which according to Bežen36, occurs in
the 1960s with the introduction of methodology as a compulsory subject present
within the teacher education curriculum. The methodological training of future
primary school teachers is set apart from the general pedagogical training, and
it becomes not only equal, but, according to Bezi, a unifying element in a
three-part corpus teacher education37. Moreover, the methodological training is
characteristic for the teacher-training school, and a teacher’s competence comes
out of and reflects his/her methodological training.
The status and prospects of teacher education in the independent Croatia
After three decades of existence of the two-year teacher-training program
at the pedagogical academies, in 1992 a four-year professional study program
for primary school teachers was introduced. The first two years of the program
were mostly dedicated to substrate sciences as the basis for teaching courses in
the first four grades of elementary school and the pedagogical-psychological
group of subjects, while the third and fourth years of the program were reserved
for methodological training. New changes occurred already in 1997 with the
introduction of an advanced study of one subject (usually the mother tongue,
history or mathematics) within the existing curriculum of teacher-training
studies in higher teacher-training schools. The purpose of such changes in the
curriculum was to provide teachers with additional competencies38. A similar
model was also preserved after adaptation of the teacher-training studies to
the principles of the Bologna Declaration during the 2005/06 academic year.
The following transition from a professional to an academic program, and the
35 Nastavni plan i program za uiteljsku školu, cit.
36 Metodika: znanost o pouavanju nastavnog predmeta: epistemologija metodike u odnosu
na pedagogiju i edukologiju – s primjerima iz metodike hrvatskoga jezika, cit., p. 352.
37 A three-part corpus of teacher education consists of: the subject materials of the substratal
professions, pedagogical-psychological materials and subject methodologies (cfr. K. Bezi, Uitelj
u zemlji udesa, Zagreb, Hrvatski pedagoško-književni zbor, 2003, p. 137).
38 Primary education teachers, besides the basic educational work within a classroom, had the
possibility to teach subjects which they specialized in within their advanced studies or in the upper
grades of elementary school (from the fifth to the eighth and final grade). This was done under the
condition that there were no graduate students who have completed the specified studies with a
full study load (which was due to the lack of specific profiles of teachers in Croatia not a rare case).

61
THE DEVELOPMENT AND PROSPECTS OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN CROATIA
possibility for a scholarly development within a postgraduate program, or a
purely professional orientation within postgraduate specialized programs,
defines an important qualitative shift in the education of teachers.
Structural changes caused by the development of a society of knowledge,
and the introduction of the Bologna Process redefined the teacher within
a modern school as no longer an exclusive source of knowledge. He is an
assistant, an adviser, a manager, mentor and a mediator who by encouraging
his/her students to actively learn actively causes them to change and accelerates
their becoming independent. New circumstances demand an educational and
ethical, pedagogical and psychological, didactic and methodological and finally
technologically qualified teacher who can deal with the challenges of modern
times. A quality teacher today is the conditio sine qua non for stepping out of
the traditional elementary school into an initial education and training that will
be dedicated to preparing students for lifelong learning.
Within the concept of lifelong learning, the development of a teacher is a
continuous process that does not end with the teacher’s diploma, but is instead
in synergy with continuous improvement. After the initial education, the
training for the teaching profession, a teacher must be ready for a permanent
and continuous education in order to effectively respond to new requirements
that are continually being set in front of him/her.
Since the second half of the 20th century, the continuing training of teachers
is being approached with particular seriousness. This type of education,
characteristic mainly for Europe, developed in two phases. The first phase
was voluntary and informal, while during the second phase it evolved into a
structured activity based on legal provisions committing teachers to participate
in them39. The training of teachers in Croatia is a legal obligation defined by a
separate legal ordinance40 and it is, despite many problems41, observed closely.
The lifelong education of teachers becomes particularly significant when the
connection between teacher education, the activities of a teacher and student
learning is taken into account. In this regard, four different levels of action
have been identified, in accordance with the idea of a distinguished teacher in a
contemporary society: (1) a model teacher, possessing skills every teacher should
39 In some European countries, continuous training of teachers is simultaneously introduced
at all levels (primary and secondary) of schooling (Germany, Austria, Portugal, Scotland and
Norway), and in countries where this is not the case (Spain, France and Luxembourg), a formal
teacher training for people working in elementary schools was first introduced. Today, the
regularized training of all categories of teachers is present almost everywhere. These regulations
have a variety of shapes – laws, ordinances, regulations, decisions etc., and they determine the
details of the organizational methods, or just the most general goals.
40 Pravilnik o napredovanju uitelja i nastavnika u osnovnom i srednjem školstvu, «Narodne
novine», 1995, p. 89.
41 For more information see I. Radeka, Cjeloživotno obrazovanje nastavnika u Hrvatskoj, u
zborniku Kurikulumi ranog odgoja i obveznog obrazovanja: Curriculums of Early and Compulsory
Education, Zagreb, Uiteljski fakutet Sveuilišta u Zagrebu, 2009, pp. 659-670.

62 ŠTEFKA BATINI, IGOR RADEKA
exhibit in the form of (2) teacher competencies. According to the competencies
that are defined as education goals, it is necessary to develop a concept and a
model for the (3) education of a teacher that will enable the achievement of the
competencies and finally determine the model for the evaluation of (4) teacher
activities in order to determine its effect, simultaneously taking into account the
impact made on student learning. In this way each of the three links are clearly
positioned within the casual chain – the education of teacher, teacher activities
and learning activities of students42. Currently there is an increasing quantity
of scholarly research and academic conferences dedicated to the articulation
of new models for the application of teacher education aimed at the needed
competences, and required standards.
The lifelong education of teachers, as the first segment of the initial
education and the second segment of a continuous professional development,
can no longer be reduced solely to the more specialized high schools for teacher
education. The formal training of teachers today is strongly complemented
with non-formal and informal forms of learning opportunities offered by the
contemporary society of knowledge. Moreover, during initial teacher education
studies, students are increasingly choosing their own educational content. The
focus of attention shifted from a controlled process of education (i.e. teacher
training) to the measurement of learning outcomes (i.e. competencies), which a
teacher has to administer, regardless of the terms of their acquisition. In these
circumstances, the teacher is becoming an active co-creator of his/her own
education.
42 E. Terhart, Standardi za obrazovanje nastavnika, «Pedagogijska istraživanja», n. 1, 2005,
pp. 69-83.