Everyday life in Czech elementary minority school in the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918-1938

Author(s):

Michal Šimáně(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

ERG SES G 09, Students and Teachers in Education

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

09:00-10:30

Room:

A-204

Chair:

Fiona Hallett

Contribution

The minority schools can be seen as one of the elements of the structure of national minorities before the First World War and in the interwar period in years 1918-1939. Author wants to introduce the Czech minority schools, which were founded in linguistically mixed regions of The First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938), especially in Czech-German districts. Why in Czech-German districts? The German population consisted of 30% of the total population of The First Czechoslovak Republic. The research can thus contribute not only to solution of the problems of minority schools, but also to Czech-German relationships, which is still very „hot“ topic today in Central Europe, if we look at almost seventy years-long debate on the Beneš Decrees or compensation forced labor during World War II.

Author concentrates on the one of the parts of complex question of minority schools in the text. Author is interested only in the Czech elementary minority school (ISCED 1) in judicial district Ústí nad Labem. This district is situated in North Bohemia, which was settled mainly by German population in the years 1918-1938. Main objective of this article is to identify, understand and interpret the everyday life of the Czech elementary minority schools during the period of the first Czechoslovak Republic in a broader social context.

The key research question is how did the everyday life of Czech elementary minority school in the district Ústí nad Labem in years 1918-1938 look like? Based on the main question author also formulated a more specific questions. These were particularly focused on, what school building facilities should be available? What was the internal organization of the school? Where did the schooling take place? How way did the schooling take place? What was the composition of school subjects? In this context is interesting to trace, how was the geography and national history in the Czech school and in a German school or school in Czech border and inland taught? This is related to the question of how and where were school trips organized? Did these trips follow the patriotic questions? Or whether, were there differences between the everyday life of Czech schools and German schools in the same area?

However, is necessary to monitor the influence of different factors, which give this development the rhythm. School is strongly linked to wider social context – its running significantly determinate the traditions, national and global culture, political and socio-economic situation, the existing legislation and other standards, and many other factors (Pol, 2009). Especially national question is very sensitive in this topic and can not do without more detailed study. So, next steps must be directed to concepts such as state, nation, ethnic minority and minorities’ loyality to the state. More detail in Czech-German relationships due to the region, where author direct this research (district Ústí nad Labem).

Method

Author uses in his research qualitative methodology. He is relying on a combination of methods used in historical research. On the first place due to the structure of the text he decided to use the approach of macro- and microhistory, whose authors are Carlo Ginzburg and Carlo Poni. Microhistory essence lies in analyzing closely bounded phenomena (such as rural society, a group of families, or specific individuals) almost under a magnifying glass (Nodl, 2004). In this case is that phenomena the several Czech elementary minority schools in the district Ústí nad Labem. Further the author uses the traditional methods of historical research based on Leopold Ranke methodological rules. The default method in this case is so-called direct method consisting of getting the historical facts directly from the source. In order to obtain reliable results in the research, author also uses indirect, progressive, historical-comparative methods. The core of research is the processing of archival documents of Czech and German origin, in particular, the German school annals, which have not been given any attention. Above all it is the archival documents stored in the Archives of the city of Usti nad Labem.

Expected Outcomes

The author is going to present some of the partial results of the research. The results can be divided into two parts. In the first part, which forms the macro level of the paper, the author describes the form of minority schools in the first Czechoslovak Republic in 1918-1938 on the background of political, socio-economic, cultural and other factors. In particular is emphasized the factor of Czech-German relationships, particularly in the area of education. The second part, which complements the first part as micro level, presents selected results of research on the everyday life of the concrete Czech elementary minority schools in the judicial district Ústí nad Labem on the basis of a detailed study of available sources, especially stored in the Archives of the city of Ustí nad Labem.

References

BAKKE, Elisabeth. The Making of Czechoslovakism in The First Czechoslovak Republic. In Loyalitäten in der Tschechoslowakischen Republik 1918-1938. Politische, nationale und kulturelle Zugehörigkeiten (Ed. MARTIN, S.W.). München: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2004, s. 23-44. ISBN 3-486-57587-2. BAMBERGER-STEMMANN, Sabine. Zwischen vielen Stühlen? Nationale Minderheiten zwischen staatsbürgerlicher Loyalität und konnationaler Solidarität. In Loyalitäten in der Tschechoslowakischen Republik 1918-1938. Politische, nationale und kulturelle Zugehörigkeiten (Ed. SCHULZE-WESSEL, Martin). München: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2004, s. 69-86. ISBN 3-486-57587. HAHN, Hans Henning. Hundert Jahre sudetendeutsche Geschichte : eine völkische Bewegung in drei Staaten. Frankfurt am Mein: Peter Lang, 2007. 324 s. HASLINGER, Peter. Nation und Territorium im tschechischen politischen Diskurs 1880-1938. München : R. Oldenbourg, 2010. 531 s. ISBN SBN 978-3-486-59148-4. JÄGGI, Christian J. Nationalismus und etnische Minderheiten. Zürich: Füssli, 1993. 281 s. ISBN 978-3280021651. KÁDNER, Otakar. Školství v republice Československé. In Československá vlastivěda. Díl X. Osvěta. Praha, 1931a, s. 7-222. KÁDNER, Otakar. Vývoj a dnešní soustava školní. II. díl. Praha, 1931b. 654 s. KEIL, Theo. Die deutsche Schule in den Sudetenländern. Form und Inhalt des Bildungswesens. München: Verlag Robert Lerche, 1967. 632 s. NODL, Martin. Mikrohistorie a historická antropologie. In Dějiny – teorie – kritika, roč. 1, 2004, č. 2, s. 237-252. Nordost - Archiv. Zeitschrift für Regionalgeschichte. Bildung und Nationalismus. Die Schule in etnischen Mischgebieten (19. und 20. Jahrhubdert). Band I, Heft 2, 1992. ISSN 0029-1595. POL, Milan. Škola v proměnách. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2009. 196 s. SCHULZE WESSEL, Martin. "Loyalität" als geschichtlicher Grundbegriff und Forschungskonzept: zur Einleitung. In Loyalitäten in der Tschechoslowakischen Republik 1918-1938. Politische, nationale und kulturelle Zugehörigkeiten (Ed. SCHULZE-WESSEL, Martin). München: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2004, s. 1-22. ISBN 3-486-57587-2. TOMASZEWSKI, Roman. History of Education – Solid or Unnecessary Part of Pedagogical Knowledge. In e-Pedagogium [online], 2010, č. 1, s. 141-153. [cit. 2011-05-09]. Dostupný z: http://www.pdf.upol.cz/.

Author Information

Michal Šimáně (presenting / submitting)

Masaryk University

Department of Educational Sciences

Brno

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.