CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2008
| Author | Bianchi, Elena |
|---|---|
| Title | FIGHTING WITH POST-TOTALITARIAN GHOSTS: CIVIC EDUCATION AND GOOD CITIZENSHIP IN SLOVAKIA |
| Summary | Civic education and the way people understand their citizenship status are related in a predictable way. The aim of this thesis was to explore civic education and citizenship attitudes of civic education teachers in Slovakia in order to show whether and how the uncivic mentality of Slovak citizens is preserved by this institution. 15 interviews with civic education teachers from the Bratislava region were conducted and analyzed using the method of content analysis; moreover the national curriculum and parts of the textbook for the civic education course were analyzed. Civic education in the forms as it is taught in Slovakia still preserves the mentality of the former regime, moreover it focuses on the legal (thin) aspect of citizenship and on political participation on the state level and does not focus on community engagement or civic participation. No relationship between the conservative values of the teachers and their perceived importance of obedience and hierarchy in the context of citizenship was detected. The way how teachers perceive citizenship and understand the concept of good citizenship and their perception of the aims of civic education seem to be related in a predictable way. There is a negative relationship between the real level of participation and the feeling of satisfaction with the level of one’s own participation. Finally, when studying civic education, one has to focus and distinguish different levels: the level of the state (curriculum and textbook), the level of real practice of teaching and the level of teachers´ individual conceptualizations as these might differ significantly. |
| Supervisor | Enyedi, Zsolt |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2008/bianchi_elena.pdf |
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