engleski

Teacher education in Croatia: reforms and challenges

This paper deals with education in the context of economic, technological, social and cultural changes taking place in the Croatian society since Croatia's independence proclamation in 1992 and accession to the European Union in 2013. Since 1991, the Croatian society has been a social construct of different national, ethnic, linguistic and other entities in which teaching and education were unified by the programme content. Croatia’s commitment to European coexistence means accepting new socio-cultural values, new standards in all areas of life and at the same time preserving its own cultural and historical values as well as its national identity. The paper provides a brief overview of the entire education system to help understand the needs of initial teacher education. It discusses the changes that were introduced into the initial teacher education by the Bologna Process. Moreover, it points to the importance of professional training and lifelong learning of teachers. The paper also gives an analysis of numerous educational reforms, which have always taken place from top to bottom and have not motivated any changes of the teacher education study programmes that are needed as outlined in the paper. Thus, the education reform as well as the initial education of teachers still pose a great challenge for the Croatian society.

tteacher education, initial teacher education, Bologna reform, professional development, Croatia

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