Educational innovation and the panacea of school reform – the Slovenian case

Abstract

The most important current innovation in the Slovenian educational system is the reform of all the pre-university levels of schooling. Officially defined as 'school renewal', this wholesale reform is expected to bring about a series of innovations, some of which are so trenchant as to represent a radical departure from practices which had hitherto been current in the country. These changes have to be considered in two contexts, the educational one and the historical; in other words, the movement toward school renewal can only be understood in the context of the previous attempt at educational reform, and the current radical transition of Slovenian society. The last radical school reform was implemented in 1981. After the turmoil of the sixties many countries tried to solve the social unrest they experienced through the reform of their educational systems (Husen, 1985), and this is also true of Yugoslavia, of which Slovenia was then part. In 1974, the Yugoslav Communist Alliance Congress confirmed the political platform for educational reform in the whole country. There had been a long period of thorough surveys, comparative analyses and conceptualizing done by experts and well-known educators before the plan for that reform was tabled. The main and declared aim of the school reform was to make education more effective in responding to the needs of the country's economy, and also to ensure that it truly provided equal opportunities for all. In order to achieve the latter goal, the Gymnasiumand Matura-type schools were abolished, the curricula of all types of secondary schools were made alike or very similar, and entrance to university was no longer regulated through examinations. Indeed, all levels of education were to become equally accessible to all, irrespective of the level of schooling one had previously completed. The needs of the economy were moreover to be met through the design of instruction according to the demands of the productive sector, and through encouraging students to enter that sector as early as possible. This school reform provoked an unprecedented reaction in civil society. Teachers, academics, parents, students, journalists, joined hands in protesting against it in a very organized and clearly articulated manner. Needless to say, given the times we are referring to, such an opposition was also extremely brave, reflecting the determination to resist a reform which was condemned as obsolete and not at all in touch with a modern vision of education. Despite all the opposition, the reform was implemented, to the detriment of schools and a whole generation of teachers and pupils. One of the most crucial outcomes of the reform was, however, a very positive one. The long years of public dispute on the reform led, at the beginning of the 1980' s, to the right to voicing an opinion about public issues (Hladnik & Sustersic, 1986). The experience of the resistance movement against educational reform had provided a basis for empowerment, encouraging civil society to a degree which turned out to be crucial when the moment of transition came ten years later. Toward the end of the 1980' s, the notorious flaws of the educational changes introduced by the regime were gradually addressed in a process which was popularly called 'the reform ofthe reform': some Gymnasia were re-established and the curricula of secondary schools were diversified again. The most recent school reform inscribes itself in the legacy of this shift away from the 'destreaming' that had been introduced, to so much opposition, and with such little success. The historical context in which the current school reform is set refers to the so-called 'transitional period' of Slovenian society, a period in which four radical changes occurred. First, there was the secession from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the establishment of an independent Slovenian State on the force of a referendum in December 1990. For the first time in history, Slovenia was proclaimed a sovereign state in June 1991. Momentous changes were set into motion, with the transformation of a one-party political regime into a system of representative democracy, and the replacement of the state-run command economy by a liberal free market. In many respects, the transition of Slovenian society is marked by a radical thrust-it is not, however, a complete departure from the past, but rather the culmination of a much longer process of societal transformation that had gone on for a decade before. By the end of the 1980' s the political situation in the Yugoslav federation had deteriorated to such an extent that the course for the future of Slovenia and its two million inhabitants had slowly become increasingly clear: independence, democracy and membership in the European Union. That political vision had galvanized much of the population, making the process of transition less traumatic and troubled than it could have been, and than it has in fact been for many of its Balkan neighbors. The aspiration was for the Slovenian State to become a member of a 'civilized', democratic community of states, an equal member of the 'new integrated' Europe, completely detached from the Balkan region and its so-called historic problems. Democracy, human rights and civil freedoms would, it was hoped, bring Slovenia a prosperous future. Such a political vision had to be also vehicled by an educational system which reflected those same goals, and which therefore had to be shaped in the image of European-type schools in order to create democratic and efficient citizens. The break from the past through educational reform was signaled early on in the transition process, and indeed had already been announced in 1992. It is important to note, however, another reason behind the politics of school reform in Slovenia, and that was that it served to legitimize the new state and the new power elite, besides affirming the new political vision that had to be accomplished through the system of education.