POLITICS IN THE CLASSROOM

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to point out the tendencies of increasing politicization of education, especially primary and secondary. The presence of politics in the classroom can be recognized: a) through various political contents in teaching that are prescribed in the official curriculum for primary and secondary schools and they are a derivative of the ruling value system and political culture of the given society; b) in the interactions and communication between students and teachers, between students, in extracurricular activities and the school environment, which all together constitute the “hidden curriculum”; and c) through student participation in school decision making related to teaching and extracurricular activities. In the research for the purposes of this paper, a functionalist theoretical methodological approach was applied, and the basic methods were qualitative content analysis and descriptive analytical method. These methods were applied in the analysis of contemporary and relevant literature in the field of sociological, political and pedagogical sciences, as well as the results of empirical research related to children's participation in school. The results of the research carried out in this paper indicate that in the official curriculum, political education is visible in the educational goals, political content in different subjects and teaching units, as well as in the methodical instructions to teachers for teaching. These factors of political education have their own ideological and political consistency and spill over into textbooks and other teaching aids so that they form an integral part of the educational process and socialization of children. In parallel with the official curriculum, the “hidden curriculum” also functions in the school. Among the numerous factors of the hidden curriculum, the relationship of the children with the teacher, as one of the first authorities outside the family, and then with the subject teachers, stands out in particular. social climate, which refers to the atmosphere in the classroom among peer groups, which favors the consolidation or reshaping of political attitudes and patterns of behavior; and learning culture, which refers to the influence of the school environment on political orientations and attitudes at school. Children's participation in school is expressed mainly as participation in the decision making process on issues of their interest. This paper points to the results of two empirical studies on children's participation. The first was implemented in Serbia in 2009, in Belgrade elementary schools on student leadership; and the second in Croatia during 2017, in primary and secondary schools on the overall participation of children in schools. In the first survey, the results indicate the value system on which children are brought up and the leadership in the department, which largely has the characteristics of political leadership. In the second research, the results show that children's participation is achieved mostly in extracurricular activities and that students consider participation in decision making important, as well as that their level of influence on decisions about changes in the school is low, because their suggestions are often ignored. Many teachers and professional associates at the school, as shown by the research results, pointed out that a higher level of children's participation means more obligations for them, which most do not want, and that is why children's participation in decision making is neglected. In schools, where adults recognize the importance and meaning of children's participation, their participation is more effective and changes are encouraged in school life. From these brief considerations, it is evident that the classroom is not only a room where classes are held, but also the scene of invisible but real influences that also have a political connotation.