Dr Bogomir Novak, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Dr Bogomir Novak, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Development of Slovenian School in Interaction with Educational and Political Culture

Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, Lahti, Finland 22 - 25 September 1999

1.Introduction

The reasons for searching for connection between political and educational culture are the following:

changes in political and educational culture occurred with Slovenian independence. For that reason the relation between political and educational culture is now set differently in the States in transition than it was in socialism1;

joining of Slovenia to the European Union (EU) and approaching of Slovene school to the model of European school;

testing the hypothesis of this paper saying that the school in the autocratic societies is autocratic as it is democratic in democratic societies though it is relatively autonomous in the transition;

it is the school with a democratic way of teaching and learning that instructs in democratic stands, beliefs and values.

My thesis is, that Slovenian school with its changes belongs in the cultural sub-system of society. There is the interaction of political2 and educational culture as two components of the culture the most important. School is becoming a more and more complex and influential organisation of learning in the society. Educational culture used to be subjected to the culture of monopolistic political system of the Communist Party in the socialism. In the multi-party system of political pluralism, educational culture is relatively independent and a differentiated part of the cultural subsystem of society.

From a point of view of communicative interaction, school can act as an environment of political system and as an independent subsystem influencing political environment. Precisely this reflexive influence was neglected in career oriented school of socialism. Thus educational culture of school was supposed to adapt itself to socialistic political culture of Yugoslavia, without the latter adapting to school. As long as school was subjected to political-systemic culture, the characteristics of this culture largely set the characteristics of educational culture as well. Therefore, the latter is only recently breaking off political culture and thus becoming a relatively independent subsystem of society. Educational culture has and will have greater impact on political culture in Slovenia than it ever had in ex-Yugoslavia.

Political and educational culture form a bipolar structure. Thus political or educational culture can be either closed and excluding or open and including. They are in a complementary development relation because social political goals are educational as well. For only an open political or educational culture makes a democratic multiculture. According to the mentioned indicators of our research, the direction of the both cultures can be assessed, ranging from excluding to including, from separating to integrating, from being subordinated to participa- ting. The method used in this paper is historically self-reflexive research of genesis and the actual state of development of political and educational culture in Slovenia in comparison with other European countries in transition and systemic analysis of the position and role of school. The aim of this paper is therefore to show the elements of close (autocratic) model of culture and the elements of open model in Slovenia.

2. Results

2.1. The characteristics of educational culture in school

First, let me give you some changes of Slovene school in the time of Slovene independence (since 1991):

school governed by the Ministry of Education and Sport, the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Education and Sport, with a minor role of civil society (namely, Forum for Freedom in Education, Forum for Administration in Education and State's Forum for Human School) and Catholic Church

differentiation of uniform socialistic, career oriented school to various types of school (e. g. public/ State school, school with concession, Waldorf school)

greater autonomy of school as a sub-system of society

modernisation of school is based on the principles democracy (the rights of pupils and students), autonomy and equality of opportunity, unified under motto "all equal, all different"

laic public school, neutral in values, liberal (atheistic) in politics

turn from eight-year primary school (still predominant) to nine-year primary school; 42 schools participating in the project this year

knowledge and result-oriented school is also qualitative and efficient (more and more students graduating with excellent notes)

due to curriculum reform, Slovene school more similar to European school

new subjects (ethic and society, religions and ethic, citizenship education, learning about learning)

integrative teaching

more room for various strategies of thinking and learning and for teaching styles, choice of educational programmes for teachers in lifelong learning and for students in the context of regular schooling

different value systems in society and school presented (traditional Christian, socialistic and liberal)

youngsters more aggressive (consequently security staff and photo cameras introduced in some schools)

Among all the institutions, school is the most trusting (Toš, II, 1999). The aim of all Slovenian schools4 has not been just an uniformed all-round personality, but the development of a flexible and innovative personality in a cognitive and emotional way. The object of the development of a personality is on each level of school conceptualised in another way with regard to the specialised tasks of a certain school. Elementary school has to develop whole individual personality in its congruent cognitive, emotional and social components. However, some say that the new nine-year primary school cannot achieve this aim yet. The aim of education is creating a person, who will be able to anticipate farsighted consequences and learn from the future, not only from the past. The aim of grammar school is an autonomous reflection of the world. The aim of the vocational schools is international comparative knowledge, skills and abilities for vocation. Multiculturalism and multi-nationalism have become a necessary value in European school as well as in Slovenian school adapted to European model.

The school system in the Republic of Slovenia is becoming more and more competitive. Pupils and students are overloaded but the teachers do not teach yet how to learn more effectively. Therefore symptoms of promotional neurosis arise from the very beginning of their learning. Negative achievements also appear within Slovenian neuroticism (Musek, 1994) when the students are overloaded. Only a few schools are at the same time successful by strict submission to rules of pupil's behaviour and realisation of human upbringing. It seems that students cannot find the efficient way of learning.

Fragmentary teaching and learning are the source of the lack of functional literacy appearing in young generation. Only a few teachers of elementary and grammar schools introduce meditation, which has many purposes (for example: act of being in a silent and calm state, carefully thinking) by teaching of their subjects and they show how it can be taught in more relaxed and successful way.

The path to a stable democracy within schools is not shorter than the path to it in a post-socialist society. Education for democracy does not only mean new principles (such as introduction of individualised and differentiated classes and of new methods, e.g. integrated classes) but also new contents. There are citizenship education5 and subject "religion and ethics" coming up. The subject "ethic and society" was introduced in 7th and 8th grade of elementary school just after the fall of socialism. It was a transformed former subject “social moral upbringing”. Evidently, traditional repressive education cannot be an education for democracy nor can laissez-faire education. However, it is difficult to differentiate among these three kinds of education in educational practice. This also answers the question how school can also be the stabiliser or the accelerator of democratic processes in society.

The question of relation between external control and self-control of students is springing up again. Some public schools have been still too controlled and have not had enough self-regulation and self-control, which should be necessary because of multiculturalism in society. The institutional agents of political and educational culture have been discordant and diffused.There are Janko Glazer primary school, working in accordance with the model of control theory of William Glasser, a primary school comprising elements of Montessori pedagogic, Waldorf kindergarten, primary school and also a first grade of Waldorf grammar school. There are also many types of grammar school: general, classic, technical, art grammar school and a grammar school with concession (Plevnik, 1998). Striving for quality and pluralism of culture and different kinds of schools without bureaucratic securityis just as important as differentiation between public and private alternative schools. Differentiation of educational culture is thus reflected.

Decentralised and autonomous6 public schools have more possibilities for producing and realisation of the proper conceptualised objectives than schools that are centralised and controlled by a particular school's policy. The alternative schools have other conceptualised objectives than public schools in Slovenia and in the world.

There has not been enough done to abolish the external school's monopolistic ideology (in a way school is “apparatus of state”), but it is necessary to solve the school's inner ideology, which can be rooted in misinformation, prejudices, the unknown, false representation and persuasion by inner school's management and teachers. If it happens, it leads to a closed educational culture with stigmatisation and negative selection. This was a point of debate pro et contra existence of Waldorf school in Slovenia.

Education in our schools is partially overcoming repression of social pedagogy and permission of the individual in the sense of admitting autonomy of teacher and student as two subjects of the educational process. Meaning that pluralism, educational interests, capacity, cognitive styles in public and private school should be put forward. Parents start to play a major role in Slovene school.

In comparison with Western countries the lower level of development of democratic educational culture in schools is represented in the following points:

lack of rational argumentation in classes,

the beginning of citizenship education in schools,

lack of inter-institutions between school and university,

lack of team and problem-oriented teaching,

lack of personally important learning and thinking.

2. 2. The characteristics of political culture in Slovenian society

Political cultural developmental tendencies of Slovenia in the process of joining the European Union are the following:

traditionalism and "de-traditionalisation" (Giddens's term)

lagging behind because of imposed and passive adaptation, on the other hand flexible

co-operation in political international relations

freedom against the State becomes freedom within the State as a normal Nation-State

complex of living in a small nation, in particular in relation to lordship and vassalship, and searching for a “third way” (Giddens´s expression)

overcoming neuroticism and totalitarian frustrations by developing civilisational competence, in co-operation with the Central European and Western countries

development from an unstable democracy suffering from "disease of children" to a stable parliamentary democracy

openness of Slovenia, a heterogeneous culture without ethnic conflicts

centralisation and regional organisation of Slovenia

social and political divisions and tendency to national reconciliation

two-faced politics and culture; culture as a form of criticising politics for lacking long-term vision

development from monopolistic and socialistic culture to democratic political culture

historic impact of German, Russian (Soviet), Balkan and Western political cultures

Political culture is mainly an external context of school. Even so, political socialisation of children and youngsters takes place in a family and school. With the independence of Slovenia, the most important principle of political culture has become sovereignty. Some understand it as a tendency to autochthonous culture, which is an argument against joining of Slovenia to the EU7. However, some understand it as a pragmatic adaptation to foreign interests8. The aim of policy of schooling is greater autonomy of school as a subsystem of society.

Simultaneously with the acceptation of the third wave (Huntington, 1991), the Slovenes in their independent State also accept western norms and values. By considering these norms we abandon oscillation between right and left extremism. The development of political culture in the 20th century derives from the authoritarianism of left (communistic) and totalitarianism of the right (nazi-fascistic) parties. The third way of European democracy (Giddens, 1999) could be also ours. But for the quality of our life and for the keeping of the first position among the states in transition, Slovenia will have to create more national richness than it used to according to the fact that European extension of creativity on all levels historically belong to the Slovenians (Makaroviè, 1995).

A pure or complete democratic political culture does not exist. If a country has more elements of authoritarianism or totalitarianism it has less elements of democratic political culture and vice versa. There could be differentiated countries which have adequate inner conditions for development of democratic political culture from those which do not have them like Serbia, Iraq etc. In some countries democracy needs international political support. However, even this is not enough in the countries where internal democratic conditions are frowned upon or not adequately expressed. The developed countries consider themselves an objective measure of the success of the (non)democracy in less developed countries. They also supply the encouragement and sanctions aimed at the final victory of world democracy. There are many cultural-political differences between Slovenia and Serbia. While the Serbian political culture of political system is closed to the world, the Slovenian is open; similarly the Serbian is monopolistic, the Slovenian is already pluralistic.

The way toward a system of democracy is harder and more painful when there is not enough of qualified, trained or competent work force and leadership nor the models of western civilisational competence and too much of pre-modern elements are contained in an eastern, central or southern European culture9. With developing democratic political culture, certain conflicts arise between traditional, pre-modern and (post)modern elements, and between the policies of power (or struggle for power) and the policy of co-operation. Political enlargement of the EU assumes that more co-operation and less traditionalism will take place. Giddens (1996) considers it to be high time for de-traditionalisation (i.e. omitting of some totalitarian elements), the first but not the sole condition of what we take for modernisation. Enlargement of the EU and some other international organisations means destruction of the old political pressures of the last century, created namely by the Russians, Germans and Italians and which has continued.

The most people in Slovenia accept joining of Slovenia the EU as a value. Slovene public opinion is in favour of Slovenia joining the EU (Toš, II, 1999:718, 719). 37% of the Slovenes think this would be good for Slovenia, 31,1% think the process is too slow and 66,6% think that Slovenia should continue the negotiations even if they fail. People with a standpoint blame disagreements between parties for the slowness of the process. 25% think that Slovenia is lagging behind in the area of economics.

A democratic culture is considered developed if it comprises a system of human rights, autonomous ethics of individuals and the autonomy of institutions, i.e. social sub-systems, plurality of the party system and civil-social interests as well as post-materialistic values like love, friendship, co-operation and solidarity. Western culture is developed from the materialistic point of view and this is the basis of its military power, which it tries to spread over the rest of the world. However, if it continues to spread aggressively, it will lose its spiritual cultural power, social cohesion and it will find itself face-to-face with an organised rebellion of the rest of the world.

Despite the processes of globalisation, homogenisation and uniformity, there is a persistent duality and heterogeneity in political cultures among various states and within the borders of each state. This is the reason why not all states accept modernisation in the same way. As an example I should mention the fact that the states which chose socialism themselves saw it differently from the states where socialism was imposed by military intervention. Needless to say, the latter got rid of it sooner than the first.. Yugoslavia and Eastern Germany in relation to the West can be an example to illustrate the fact that imposing a political system can have far-reaching consequences on the political culture of a nation. The importance of this culture can diminish as a consequence of a possible changing of state.

Due to its relative national and ethnicalhomogeneity, Slovenia experienced only a ten-day war (Bernik,1997). Though, the reconciliation, carried out symbolically in the beginning of Slovenian independence, is still a subject to dispute. There are three reasons: (1) creation of a new elite and its view on recent history, lack of a common vision of development and (3) a similar polarity of parties as it existed in the period between the two wars and a fear of a possible dispute between the Liberal party and the People's party. The Slovenians, however, still have a partly rational and a partly mythical attitude towards the past (Toš, I, 1999).

Slovenia is from the Western European point of view, developing too slowly, even though it is undergoing this process very quickly from the Balkan standpointbut not necessary from the point of view of Eastern European countries10. Slovenia has a constant feeling of lagging behind in comparison to the Western Europe. Similarly, it sees a gap between the democratic institutions and the democratic political culture. Democratic political culture is not possible without democratic political socialisation and education. As this socialisation in families and school was mainly autocratic, the Slovenes as late European nation-state have following elements of autocratic political culture: equality, authoritarian personality, neuroticism, lack of democratic tradition and social security, patriarchal moral, anti-intellectualism, narrow loyalty, conservative orientation11 than of democratic political culture (individual liberty, free market, private property, multiparty system with parliament and respect of the human rights). As a cultural nation, acquired by a nation not living in their own country, the Slovenes have always had a cultural syndrome (Rupel, 1998). However, this syndrome persists even when the nation has got their own country. From there, Rupel (1997) takes the explanation of Slovene attitude of freedom against the State and also against the criticism of its politics. The visit of the American president Bill Clinton (June 1999) and of the pope John Paul II (September 1999) reveal two processes going on in the Slovene political culture: westernization and re-Catholization.