The objectives of the project are to determine, using modern methodological approaches and critically analysing archival material, factors that were of crucial importance in the process of creation and functioning of Croatia’s school system and for the influence this system exerted, to evaluate correlation of Croatia’s school system with the school system in the Habsburg Monarchy and its reflection on the network of power in the society in the period of (proto)modernisation. Furthermore, the project should lay down guidelines for future research that could, in the long run, result in a, methodologically speaking, innovative comprehensive synthetic survey of Croatia’s school system in the 18th and 19th century, based on an interdisciplinary approach. These objectives will be reached at several levels:
- Preparing three volumes of selected material on the history of Croatia’s school system in the 18th and 19th century. The volumes would comprise selected and critically analysed material for which it has been estimated, based on a comprehensive archival research, that it presents the documents that were of crucial importance for the development of Croatia’s school system as well as documents reflecting realistic potential for the implementation of legislative and normative acts. All the material would be analysed on an interdisciplinary level in a comprehensive introductory analysis and equipped with a scholarly apparatus. By individual volumes, the material would be thematically processed as follows:
Volume 1. School Legislation (2017)
Editors of the volume: Dr. Ivana Horbec, Dr. Maja Matasović and Dr. Vlasta Švoger
Participants in preparing the documents: Mislav Gregl and Dr. Dinko Župan
Volume 2. Conceptual Proposals and the School System in Croatia-Slavonia (2017)
Editors of the volume: Dr. Ivana Horbec, Dr. Vlasta Švoger
Participants in preparing the documents: Mislav Gregl
Volume 3. Reports and memorial books (2018)
Authors of the volume: Dr. Branko Ostajmer and Dr. Dinko Župan
- Internet database on students studying at higher schools in the Habsburg Monarchy. The database comprises names, surnames and time of studies for all students originating from Croatian Lands (including Dalmatia) who studied at institutions of higher learning in the Habsburg Monarchy. The objective of the database is not only to provide additional information on individuals who finished their studies abroad, but primarily to obtain data that would make possible to analyse as to what extent the established higher education system in the Monarchy had influence on the area of Croatian Lands, to do regional analyses, and to analyse the studies abroad as a medium of intellectual transfer and a means for making a successful career and fast climbing up the social ladder.
The search of the database is publicly accessible here as of 1 May 2016.
- Interactive Map of Educational Institutions in the Area of the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia. The interactive map will present locations of all educational institutions which, as established, existed in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia in the 18th and 19th century and provide further links and some additional content, such as pictures and texts. The objective of making the interactive map is to make possible an analysis of the spread of the network of educational institutions in the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia in individual periods as well as of the representation of individual types and categories of educational institutions at the territorial level. The data for drawing the map originate from the material of central and local school administration bodies. The map and the results of the analysis will be open to public access on the project website.
- Setting up a database of teachers and professors in the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sources for the database are preserved reports submitted by schools to executive authorities and contemporary publications. The database will be designed and set up and the data entry will follow the progress in analysis of material. The same researchers conducting research within the framework of this project would be in charge of the necessary follow-up organised either by the Croatian Institute of History or by an international project. More about the database
The search of the database is publicly accessible here as of 1 May 2016.
- Research papers. Each team member will write at least one research paper per one year of the project duration. The approach to the research are interdisciplinary and topics of the papers are a follow-up to the basic research carried out within the framework of the project. The main topics of the research are: hegemonic aspect of the school system (symbolic domination, language domination in a specific period, political and social lines of force related to the ideologisation of the school system, “regimes of truth” related to curricula and textbooks), the impact of education on individual careers (public administration, military, economy, professionals – engineers, physicians, midwives etc.), national and ethnical aspect of the school system (school system and national integration, Hungarian, Serbian and German schools), religious-secular aspect of the school system (religious schools, resistance of the Church to school system reforms, secularisation of school system), economic aspects of the school system (vocational and apprentice schools, Realschulen and school gardens), intellectual aspect of the school system (gymnasium/grammar school with classical languages and Universities in Vienna, Budapest, Prague and Zagreb as nurseries of Croatia’s intellectual elite, intellectual transfers), social aspects of the school system (accessibility of primary, secondary and higher education, literacy and social stratification, system of Maecenate), gender aspect of the school system (divisions of schools and school curricula by gender) and cultural-anthropological aspect of the school system (everyday life of pupils, attitude towards one’s body, hygienic measures and health protection in schools). Furthermore, team members take part in conferences dealing with the topics above, in particular international ones.
- A workshop for doctoral students: History of the school system in Croatia in 18th and 19th century: sources and methology
The workshop for doctoral students dedicated to a topic from the history of the school system was held on November 16th 2015 in the Croatian School Museum.
The workshop will include a presentation of the material and archival holdings pertaining to the history of the school system, a presentation of critical analysis of the material and lecture on methodology used in the research of the school history. Interested doctoral students will be offered with an opportunity to take part in the activities of the project implementation on a voluntary basis. They will also be encouraged to conduct independent researches into the topics from the history of the school system with the view of writing research papers and/or doctoral dissertations. More information about the workshop
- Organising a scientific conference on the topic Being a Student in the Habsburg Monarchy (2017). The conference will cover the topics of primary schools, grammar schools/gymnasiums and faculties. Methodologically, the emphasis will be laid on the history of memory, childhood, growing up and shaping of collective and individual identities.
More information about the conference
- Organising an exhibition in the Croatian School Museum on the topic Being a Student – School System of the 18th and 19th Century from a Students’ Perspective.
The exhibition is to be held before and during the conference and organized in cooperation with the Croatian School Museum.
Author of the exhibition: Dr. Dinko Župan, in cooperation with the Croatian School Museum.
