Suchergebnisse

Higher education in Croatia has experienced many significant changes since the introduction of the Bologna process nearly a decade ago. With efforts to harmonize higher education into the European Area of Higher Education have come many challenges related to access, affordability, and accountability. The Bologna Declaration outlines a basic framework for transforming higher education in Europe and has two main goals: to achieve grater compatibility and comparability of the systems of higher education to promote grater employability of higher education graduates in the European labor market, and achievement of international competitiveness and worldwide attractiveness of the European higher education system. Although a number of students enroll in tertiary education (somewhat similar to U.S. technical college), a smaller proportion entered higher education (somewhat similar to U.S. four-year baccalaureate college), but the number continues to increase each year. Historically, government funds supported all or nearly all of the higher education student' s tuition ; however, as more students choose to enroll, tuitions are rising and generally students are being required to fund a portion of their costs. Although accountability in Croatian higher education is not currently addressed directly, it is being addressed indirectly through related concepts such as competence-based curriculum, social responsibility, and quality assurance. In addition, efforts such as the Tuning Project are especially important for accountability. Indeed there are challenges, but also bright future ahead for higher education in Croatia.

As an independent state, Croatia has a relatively short history of less than twenty-five years and is one of the youngest members of the European Union; nonetheless, since ancient times its culture and history have been deeply embedded in the Central European and Mediterranean heritage. Until the nineteenth century, Croatia had been divided into two social and cultural circles. The northern part was predominantly linked with the Hungarian and later the Austrian Empire, whereas the Mediterranean (Adriatic) region was ruled or influenced by the Republic of Venice. In the nineteenth century, similar to other national tendencies across Europe, Croatian nobility and intellectuals initiated political and cultural movements with the idea of preservation and enhancement of Croatian national culture and life, but at the same time new notions of entering into a political union with other South Slavs were also emerging. These ideas came into life after the First World War.

The main feature of the publication is the Framework of Teacher Competences (FTC) presented in the 2nd Chapter. It has been developed through regional cooperation, knowledge and practice sharing, taking into the account the existing and newly acquired research based evidence on teaching profession and the latest international and European Union developments regarding teachers. The framework of teacher competences consists of 7 competence domains, each with three competence categories : knowledge and understanding, skills, values and attitude. In total 76 learning outcomes have been identified and agreed in crosscultural consultations.

Schools and families share responsibilities for the socialisation and education of the child. The involvement of parents in the life of schools and their participation in school activities and decision-making is a major vehicle for constructing shared goals and co-ordinated practices. It is a democratic accountability mechanism to be pursued as a value per se, and can be a strong predictor of the child's academic achievement. However, parent participation is an underexplored area in the public education systems of SEE countries. For the purpose of better understanding how and to what extent parents are involved and influential in school life, and to explore the ways in which variations in school-based activities seeking to engage parents reinforce or ameliorate social exclusion, a large-scale study was conducted in ten SEE countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. The analysis of legislative acts and other documentation revealed that educational bodies with parental participation are regularly found at the school level, such as school boards and parent councils, while representation is negligible above the school level. Schools in all SEE countries have school boards with decision-making power in which parents also participate, with varying shares, although their number never prevails. In Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia school parent councils with a consultative role also exist, comprised of class parent representatives. Romania also has a national federation of parent associations, Bosnia and Herzegovina cantonal associations of parent-school co-operation, Kosovo a parent committee established by the Minister, while Albania has several free parent associations. At the municipal level, no parental organisations or participatory bodies have been detected. The main part of the research consists of a comparative empirical analysis which explored the views of parents on parent-school collaboration and their participation in school life according to six broad dimensions (parent-teacher meetings, getting relevant information from school, assistance with learning at home, volunteering at school, participating in school decision-making, and mediating community-school relationships), along with parents' role attribution between the family and school, parental beliefs about school-parent partnerships, parents' motivation and sense of self-efficacy. The empirical research was inspired by Epstein's framework of parent involvement (Epstein, 1996), Sheridan & Kratochwill's conceptualisation of partnership versus the traditional approach to family-school relations (Sheridan and Kratochwill, 2007), Hoover-Dempsey's model of the parental involvement process (Hoover-Dempsey, 2007), scattered research evidence from the SEE countries indicating a prevalent traditional approach in school-family relationships (e.g. Polovina, 2007), a recent study on principals' views on parent participation showing limited efforts and effectiveness in meaningfully engaging parents on the school side (Pop, 2009) and a preliminary qualitative study including focus groups from all participating countries conducted with the aim to refine the research questions and create a valid instrument. A total of 11, 125 parents were surveyed with structured face-to face interviews, selected by stratified random sampling. The stratification was undertaken according to relevant geographical regions and by the location of the community served by the school (urban/rural). 30 schools were selected from each country and between 20 and 40 parents were randomly chosen from each school, proportional to the size of the school as well as five parents' representatives. In each country, a booster sample of parents was interviewed from two additional schools in communities which contained a high proportion of inhabitants who are Roma (except in Moldova, where other excluded communities were targeted). The main structure of the sample (including the main sample, parent representatives samples and Roma booster samples) was the following: Sample A (mainstream – regular parents sample): 9058 Sample E (Roma parents from the excluded parents sample): 504 Sample B (parents' representatives sample): 1354 Parent representatives from Sample E school: 85 Sample E (non-Roma parents from the excluded parents sample): 124 The questionnaire which was the basis for the interviews captured the following data: • socio-economic data on the child's family (wealth indicator, education level, education aspirations etc.) and basic information about the child (age, gender, school achievement etc.) ; • a report on participation in school life, which combined Epstein's dimensions of participation (whether the school invites parents to participate according to each dimension) with basic characteristics of the participation process (how parents feel about it, do they participate if invited, do they assess it as useful, are they motivated, do they feel competent etc.) ; • mediating variables – self-reports on the motivation of parents, their beliefs about school-parent partnerships and perceptions of school openness, and of the work of the parent representatives ; and • a self-assessment of parents' satisfaction with the child's well-being and progress at school, the communication with the school and with the influence the parent can exert. Parent representatives and parents from minority groups were surveyed with special additional sets of questions. The analysis of legislative acts and other documentation revealed that educational bodies with parental participation are regularly found at the school level, such as school boards and parent councils, while representation is negligible above the school level. Schools in all SEE countries have school boards with decision-making power in which parents also participate, with varying shares, although their number never prevails. In Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia school parent councils with a consultative role also exist, comprised of class parent representatives. Romania also has a national federation of parent associations, Bosnia and Herzegovina cantonal associations of parent-school co-operation, Kosovo a parent committee established by the Minister, while Albania has several free parent associations. At the municipal level, no parental organisations or participatory bodies have been detected. The main part of the research consists of a comparative empirical analysis which explored the views of parents on parent-school collaboration and their participation in school life according to six broad dimensions (parent-teacher meetings, getting relevant information from school, assistance with learning at home, volunteering at school, participating in school decision-making, and mediating community-school relationships), along with parents' role attribution between the family and school, parental beliefs about school-parent partnerships, parents' motivation and sense of self-efficacy. The empirical research was inspired by Epstein's framework of parent involvement (Epstein, 1996), Sheridan & Kratochwill's conceptualisation of partnership versus the traditional approach to family-school relations (Sheridan and Kratochwill, 2007), Hoover-Dempsey's model of the parental involvement process (Hoover-Dempsey, 2007), scattered research evidence from the SEE countries indicating a prevalent traditional approach in school-family relationships (e.g. Polovina, 2007), a recent study on principals' views on parent participation showing limited efforts and effectiveness in meaningfully engaging parents on the school side (Pop, 2009) and a preliminary qualitative study including focus groups from all participating countries conducted with the aim to refine the research questions and create a valid instrument. A total of 11, 125 parents were surveyed with structured face-to face interviews, selected by stratified random sampling. The stratification was undertaken according to relevant geographical regions and by the location of the community served by the school (urban/rural). 30 schools were selected from each country and between 20 and 40 parents were randomly chosen from each school, proportional to the size of the school as well as five parents' representatives. In each country, a booster sample of parents was interviewed from two additional schools in communities which contained a high proportion of inhabitants who are Roma (except in Moldova, where other excluded communities were targeted). The main structure of the sample (including the main sample, parent representatives samples and Roma booster samples) was the following: Sample A (mainstream – regular parents sample): 9058 Sample E (Roma parents from the excluded parents sample): 504 Sample B (parents' representatives sample): 1354 Parent representatives from Sample E school: 85 Sample E (non-Roma parents from the excluded parents sample): 124 The questionnaire which was the basis for the interviews captured the following data: • socio-economic data on the child's family (wealth indicator, education level, education aspirations etc.) and basic information about the child (age, gender, school achievement etc.) ; • a report on participation in school life, which combined Epstein's dimensions of participation (whether the school invites parents to participate according to each dimension) with basic characteristics of the participation process (how parents feel about it, do they participate if invited, do they assess it as useful, are they motivated, do they feel competent etc.) ; • mediating variables – self-reports on the motivation of parents, their beliefs about school-parent partnerships and perceptions of school openness, and of the work of the parent representatives ; and • a self-assessment of parents' satisfaction with the child's well-being and progress at school, the communication with the school and with the influence the parent can exert. Parent representatives and parents from minority groups were surveyed with special additional sets of questions.