engleski

A Look at the 19th Century Elementary School Textbooks in Dalmatia: Promoting the Ideas of Social Stability, Loyalty and Obedience to the Emperor

School textbooks are valuable historical sources. They can show rather accurately what was taught and how in any particular area during any period. For the purpose of this paper, there have been selected school textbooks published in Dalmatia in the course of the first half of the 19th century, soon after Dalmatia became an integral part of the Austrian Empire in 1815. Research has been limited to catechisms and primers for two reasons. First, catechisms and primers were the first school textbooks that children came across during the years of their education. Second, with their highly suggestive and persuasive form of questions and answers, these sorts of textbooks best suited the needs of the authorities. Catechisms and primers were analyzed from the two aspects: the nature of the content taught and characteristics concerning the methods of teaching as reflected in the nature of textbooks. The scope of this paper is to demonstrate how the authorities used catechisms and primers for the purpose of their own objectives and interests. The author concludes that these kinds of textbooks served not only for teaching the basic moral principles and religious truths or for teaching the basic reading skills but also for teaching the ideas of social stability, loyalty and obedience to the Emperor.

school textbooks; catechisms; primers; 19th century; Dalmatia

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