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The Role of Formal Education in Croatia in the Identity Process Formation

On June 1, 2016 more than 50, 000 people across major Croatian cities protested in support of educational reform and the new curriculum. It was the culmination of a controversy over the design of curricular reform, which marked the discussions in Croatian public, media and politics between 2015 and 2020. In doing so, there has been a strong polarization of attitudes in the political arena, as well as in the whole society towards the role and purpose of education. The main point of contention was the relation to modern history, which is interpreted as the basis of modern Croatian national identity. On one hand, the importance of including certain topics as compulsory content is emphasized, while on the other hand, there is an intention to give professors more freedom in the choice of content to be transmitted to students. It is a continuation of the ideological conflicts in the public space that have characterized the development of Croatian society since gaining independence in 1991. The controversy is represented by different interpretations of World War II and the period of socialist Yugoslavia. It deepens in different approaches to analysis of the 1991-1995 war for independence, followed by the issues of preserving Croatia's national identity in the context of EU membership, and given the wider process of globalization, which in recent years has resulted in strong emigration of young people from Croatia, and on the other side the increasing arrival of migrants from the Middle East as part of the European migrant crisis. The aim of this paper is to analyze the discourse of political actors as well as interested public in the process of designing curricular reform. It is based on the analysis of official reactions presented in the public debate that took place on Government of Croatia's online application "e-Consulting" and in the media, which will be contextualized by the analysis of key policy documents. According to the basic thesis, the research will confirm the importance that social actors attach to formal education in the identity process formation. In doing so, different approaches to the topic of national identity will be mapped in a global context depending on the political positions from which individual actors emerged. The interpretation will also use the results of a survey taken among high school students across the Republic of Croatia (n = 2000) conducted as a part of the Cultural Heritage and Identities of Europe's Future project (Horizon 2020) and interviews conducted with students at three locations - urban, semi-urban and rural (n =60) as part of the same project. This will allow conclusions about the (in) justification of the theses presented in the discussions around curriculum reform.

Youth, formal education, identity, history, education

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