Page 27 - Šolsko polje, XXX, 2019, št. 5-6: Civic, citizenship and rhetorical education in a rapidly changing world, eds. Janja Žmavc and Plamen Mirazchiyski
P. 27
i. elezović ■ civic and citizenship education in croatia ...
EDC. The results have shown that students, especially those from teach-
er faculties, are not sufficiently familiar with standards of human rights
protection, the European system of human rights protection or with legal
norms which determine their rights and responsibilities during the study.
Also, a very small portion of students have participated in community
work and similar activities of the civil sector. On average, they felt moder-
ately informed about many important social issues; they showed an incli-
nation to retreating to the private sphere and a strong distrust towards na-
tional democratic institutions and politicians as well as towards European
and international organizations. The biggest problems in the country, ac-
cording to their opinion, were: bribery, corruption and fraud (73%), un-
employment (48%), the low education level of population (32%) and gov-
ernment irresponsibility and lack of competence (30%). Most of them saw
the way out of these problems through the development of a society based
on knowledge and justice. But they mostly did not recognize the connec-
tion between human rights, democracy and citizenship and their studies.
Around 40% of students did not learn about these themes during their
studies and half of them learn about them only partially. The conscious-
ness about this problem can be related to the finding that more of 80% of
students were interested in introducing subject(s) into higher education
and 25% of them stating that HRE and EDC content should be imple-
mented into all levels and forms of education.
Some findings are comparable to those results. These are from the
research on knowledge and attitudes of 1060 students in grade 4 of sec-
ondary education (both gymnasiums and VET) from 2009 that was con-
ducted as larger regional research (Spajić-Vrkaš and Žagar, 2012). Croa-
tian high school students showed below average knowledge and were
lacking behind their peers in the region. They revealed their discontent
with school and self-evaluated their informativeness on the political sit-
uation in the country and world as insufficient. They are mostly not in-
volved in civil and humanitarian activities, public life is not one of their
interests and they generally do not trust Croatian democratic institutions
and political subjects. On the other hand, they are oriented to individual-
ity and their private life. Regarding learning about human rights, democ-
racy and citizenship they recognized those themes only in some school
subjects, but think they are insufficiently represented. Teaching methods
used are mostly a combination of lectures and discussions and not partic-
ipative and research methods. Also, lessons usually avoid discussions on
controversial social issues and students are not encouraged enough to crit-
ically view problems from different perspectives.
25
EDC. The results have shown that students, especially those from teach-
er faculties, are not sufficiently familiar with standards of human rights
protection, the European system of human rights protection or with legal
norms which determine their rights and responsibilities during the study.
Also, a very small portion of students have participated in community
work and similar activities of the civil sector. On average, they felt moder-
ately informed about many important social issues; they showed an incli-
nation to retreating to the private sphere and a strong distrust towards na-
tional democratic institutions and politicians as well as towards European
and international organizations. The biggest problems in the country, ac-
cording to their opinion, were: bribery, corruption and fraud (73%), un-
employment (48%), the low education level of population (32%) and gov-
ernment irresponsibility and lack of competence (30%). Most of them saw
the way out of these problems through the development of a society based
on knowledge and justice. But they mostly did not recognize the connec-
tion between human rights, democracy and citizenship and their studies.
Around 40% of students did not learn about these themes during their
studies and half of them learn about them only partially. The conscious-
ness about this problem can be related to the finding that more of 80% of
students were interested in introducing subject(s) into higher education
and 25% of them stating that HRE and EDC content should be imple-
mented into all levels and forms of education.
Some findings are comparable to those results. These are from the
research on knowledge and attitudes of 1060 students in grade 4 of sec-
ondary education (both gymnasiums and VET) from 2009 that was con-
ducted as larger regional research (Spajić-Vrkaš and Žagar, 2012). Croa-
tian high school students showed below average knowledge and were
lacking behind their peers in the region. They revealed their discontent
with school and self-evaluated their informativeness on the political sit-
uation in the country and world as insufficient. They are mostly not in-
volved in civil and humanitarian activities, public life is not one of their
interests and they generally do not trust Croatian democratic institutions
and political subjects. On the other hand, they are oriented to individual-
ity and their private life. Regarding learning about human rights, democ-
racy and citizenship they recognized those themes only in some school
subjects, but think they are insufficiently represented. Teaching methods
used are mostly a combination of lectures and discussions and not partic-
ipative and research methods. Also, lessons usually avoid discussions on
controversial social issues and students are not encouraged enough to crit-
ically view problems from different perspectives.
25
