A Contribution to the Definition of Dimensional Characteristics of „Cultural Identity” of High School Students in Croatia

Mijatović, Antun and Žužuč, Ante. (2004). A Contribution to the Definition of Dimensional Characteristics of „Cultural Identity” of High School Students in Croatia. Pedagogijska istraživanja, 1(1). pp. 41-65. ISSN 1334-7888

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Abstract

The culture is undoubtedly the proto-task of education (Confucius), the oldest and classical issue of every planned activity that we call schooling. Due to numerous circumstances and evident reasons, the culture is on the way of becoming marginally represented in order of importance in relation to other functions and tasks of contemporary school. The special threat is the simplification of culture to some manifest and technical forms which do not essentially represent the basic dimensions of a concrete ethnical culture and its identity. This threat has been noticed during the last decade in all the systems which emphasize the competitive role of school and insist on a high quality of knowledge, whose definition is questionable in several ways. Besides the critical approach to such a reality, to which many scientists and some UNESCO’s materials have drawn attention, the author points to the necessity and possibility of adequate exploration and solution of the issue of culture within the realms of actual changes in Croatian education. One of the many possible and variable routes for the adequate solution of the issue of culture in contemporary school is more precise and reliable definition of many questions directly or indirectly related to identity. The cultural identity is nowadays changing faster than ever before (globalization, homogenization, unification, cultural relativism, etc.), resulting in constant and unpredictable changes in derivations from this identity, such as cultural profile, cultural dimensions, cultural characteristics (ontoculture, phyloculture) and, by all means, the culture of knowledge as the new determinant of information society. The basic problem of this study comes down to identification of some determinants pointing to the possible direction of school activities with the purpose of achieving desirable qualities of individual culture as well as of culture in community.

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