The pedagogical education of teachers in Serbia: From the first instructions to teachers to the Center for teacher education

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of key events relevant to the education of teachers of specific subjects in Serbia up until the founding of the Center for Teacher Education in 1971, and aims to establish the key stages in the development of this education. Taking into account the position of pedagogical knowledge relative to the initial education of teachers of specific subjects, the content, organization, initiators and practitioners of teacher education, four stages can be distinguished in the development of the education of subject teachers. The first begins in 1838 with the publication of the first set of instructions for secondary school teachers. The second stage was characterized by the introduction of pedagogy into the curriculum of the highest educational institution in Serbia and the passing of the law on teacher examinations. The third significant stage comprises the founding of the Department of Pedagogy at the Great School and the work of Vojislav Bakić. The fourth stage relates to the work of the General Pedagogical Seminar, which was founded in the interwar period and resumed its work in changed circumstances in 1948. The paper concludes that the development of teacher education in Serbia has followed a similar course to that in Europe, but that the process in Serbia has been characterized by long periods of discontinuity, which has slowed down the institutionalization of this type of education. In addition, it suggests that the reconstruction of the development of teacher education can lead to more detailed insight into the process of professionalization of the teaching profession, and also to a better understanding of the development of particular pedagogical disciplines, notably teaching methodology.