Exhibition
TEACHERS IN CROATIA 1849–2009
Organizer
Croatian School Museum, Trg Republike Hrvatske 4, 10000 Zagreb www.hsmuzej.hr
On the Behalf of the Organizer
Branka Manin
Authors of the exhibition
Štefka Batinić
Sonja Gaćina Škalamera
Visual Design of the Exhibition
Nika Pavlinek
Damir Prizmić
Costume designer
Željko Nosić
Educational Programme
Ivana Dumbović Žužić
The exhibition and catalogue were financed by the City Office for Education, Culture and Sports and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia.
From January to March 2010
The professionalization of the teaching vocation, including clear standardized regulations on the schooling and training of teachers, proscribed working responsibilities, rights and payments, as well as profiling teaching into an educational activity, develops on the territory of the Croatian lands during the 19th and the first half of the 20th century.
One of the key processes within complex processes of the modernization of the entire economy, state and society is the general democratization and differentiation of public, state educational system.
Educational activity, as a public service, and educational system are proscribed and regulated by laws and legal provisions.
From the very beginning of the development of modern school system, both teachers and professors were considered civil servants, whose work was defined with school laws and laws regarding civil servants.
Teaching profession, besides its proscribed rights and responsibilities, had a whole set of specific roles in the educational process itself, teaching work and school, as well as the engagement in their social environments. It was so especially at the time when teachers – educated people, were not numerous in relation to majority of the uneducated.
From the middle of the 19th until the beginning of the 21st century the education of teachers evolved from the two-year normal schools to the five-year university study with a possibility of a scientific postgraduate study.
By perceiving education as the main prerequisite and argument of professional and class affirmation, Croatian teachers speak of the need for university education as early as 70ies of the 19th century and their journey to the academic community was over a century long.
The inaccessibility of academic education, on one hand, and true dedication to their vocation on the other, were for many teachers throughout history important encouragements for further professional upgrading and self-education. Precisely elementary school teachers largely contributed to the development of many disciplines of educational sciences in Croatia.
In spite to all difficulties accompanying the training of teachers we can easily agree with the old truth that „becoming a teacher was always much easier than being a teacher“.
During more than two centuries of the state school system development, teachers were a building element of the initial, and from the 70ies of the 19th century also compulsive, education.
The foundation of educational institutions, teacher’s schools, made systematic and integral education of teachers possible.
Over a century and a half period of their existence, teacher’s schools developed from secondary vocational schools into higher-education faculty professional and scientific institutions. That was a logical course that reflected the development of the pedagogical sciences, the development and the modernization of the whole school system and the advancement of the overall educational level of population.
Teacher’s schools / academies / faculties educated hundreds of generations and thousands of teachers who were main building elements of the whole school system of elementary education in Croatia.
The professionalization of the teacher vocation is the reflection of many factors – the development of pedagogical sciences, educational substances and educative models, affirmation of vocation, educational policies, modernization and general improvement of society.
During almost one hundred and forty years of organized teacher’s activities through professional associations, savings and loan associations and unions played an important and influential role in professionalization and improvement of teaching profession. Protection of teacher’s interests and rights as well as their economical and social solidarity was one of the key factors in accomplishing better professional level.
Teacher’s forces in the second half of the 19th century can also be seen in the fact that well organized teachers built a representative palace of the Croatian Teachers Home, which then became a housing place for all important teachers’ associations of then Kingdoms Croatia and Slavonia. It was a central place for all professional, educational, class and cultural activities of teachers.
It was the very initiative of teachers themselves that boosted the opening of the Croatian School Museum. The Museum was opened in 1901 and its first permanent exhibition was laid out thanks to rich and diverse donations of teachers.
From the very beginning it was defined as a museum specialized for the history of education, and in 109 years of its existence it collected a valuable museum, archival and librarian material.
In the year 2009 we are marking few important anniversaries from the history of Croatian teachers – 160 years from the founding of the first state teacher school in Croatia (1849, Normal School in Zagreb), 150 years of the Progress magazine (1859), 120 years of the existence of the Croatian Teachers Home in Zagreb (1889) and 90 years of the higher education of teachers (in the 1919 the Higher Pedagogical School in Zagreb was founded).
By the exhibition and the catalogue entitled Teachers in Croatia 1849-2009 we are presenting the development of the education of teachers, class activities and the development of the professional identity of teacher profession and trying to learn on the role and importance of elementary school teachers throughout last two centuries in educational and public life of Croatia.