Elements of the Transformation of Preschool Curriculum and Educational Practices

Abstract

The development of a curriculum poses a challenge for theoreticians, practitioners and educational policy makers. The official curriculum of a country represents the guidelines that should serve as the basis on which practices are developed in educational institutions. However, every institution modifies and applies the curriculum differently. The level of a practitioner’s professional development, as well as the culture of the educational institution in question profoundly influence the manner in which the curriculum is evolving in a particular educational institution. For that reason, it is especially important to facilitate access to systematic and high-quality professional development for preschool teachers, so that they are capable of developing the curriculum in line with the challenges of our time and contemporary scientific findings on early childhood education and care. The practice of many preschool teachers in Croatia reflects an outdated understanding of educational work involving children, and the official curriculum does not have much of an impact on that fact. Despite the fact that the practices of individual preschool teachers, even within the same institution, can differ significantly, there are certain shared traditionalisms that represent a burden for practice in Croatian preschools, and that are not easily removed. In order to gradually remove them, i.e., replace them with more contemporary methods of educating children, it is necessary to first become aware of them, as it is precisely the lack of awareness that such traditionalisms exist that causes them to remain a part of the practice.