Teachers' opinions on implementing educational standards in Serbia and Croatia

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to compare the way in which the concept of educational standards and its introduction into educational policy and school practice is perceived by teachers from Serbia and teachers from Croatia. The paper also investigates teachers’ perspectives on educational standards in the Croatian and Serbian primary and secondary education and contrasts them with the understanding of standards elsewhere. A qualitative methodological approach was applied in conducting the interviews and focus groups with teachers, accompanied by a thematic analysis of the collected data. The interviews and focus groups were carried out as a part of research within two PhD theses. The sample consisted of 101 teachers, out of whom 57 were primary school teachers from Serbia and 44 were secondary school teachers from Croatia. The results show that teachers from these countries have very similar perspectives on the implementation of educational standards in their respective countries. The findings are presented within three connected themes: 1) distrust in the educational administration; 2) thinking about education as a public good, and 3) standards as the ways of overcoming some shortfalls in professional identity.