Rahaela Varga

Urban School Culture in Croatia: Student Empowerment or Spirit Impoverishment?

The chapter deals with the issue of student position in the culture of urban primary schools in Croatia. It describes the Croatian educational context, and the political attempts made to reform the education system. Those attempts have been going on for more than two decades, and have yielded several important documents. The intention was to create a modernised system but a couple of key questions arise from the analysis of the reform efforts. First, “Have the proposed changes been implemented in schools and to what extent?”. Second, “How have those changes affected the position of the student in the school culture?”. In other words, are students being encouraged to take an active part in their own education and be active citizens in an urban environment, or does the system still primarily seek obedience from students so that the status quo can be preserved?