Marija Javornik Krečič

Slovenian national minorities and emigrants in selected primary school curricula and textbooks

The article analyses the curriculum of the primary school subjects Geography, History and Civic and Homeland Education and Ethics, along with some textbooks for these subjects. The purpose of the paper is to determine whether these subjects include material on Slovenian national minorities and emigrants and objectives closely related to such material, which content and objectives are included and to what extent. Pupils in Slovenian primary school address real issues concerning Slovenian national minorities and emigrants, while the message and quantitative representation differ, depending on the basic definition and purpose of the subject. In addition to curricula and textbooks, the behaviour and attitude of pupils to Slovenians abroad is influenced primarily by teachers and their knowledge of their own subject and other subjects, their understanding of the processes of knowledge construction and knowledge of the school vertical and the horizontal.