Taching Traditions and the Logic of University Education Modernization in Serbia: a Historical and Cultural Essay

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the issue of modernizing Serbian university education. Modernization as a transnational process has had a tangible influence on education. The debate on modern university education highlights the education models associated with pan-European traditions, with the German one serving as a key and needing to be localized. In historical and cultural context Serbia has always been open to accommodate efficient Western practices to local realities. The central challenge to such a modernization is to meet existing needs of scientific development, expert qualification and preserve the cultural continuity throughout the history. The University of Belgrade, the first one in the country and a leading one, followed the German academy model. However, its development was conditioned by cultural and political shifts, with changes in educational policy after each of the World Wars and the student movement of 1968 serving as examples. The Faculty of Philosophy has always had a special place among the oldest university schools, intertwining the classics (which later manifested themselves in philological research) and the positivist knowledge (history, psychology, sociology, etc.). Modern teaching demonstrates the continuity of traditions combined with innovations, which is essential to development of any educational system. This trend meets the national interests of Serbia as a European country, with its great history and openness to peaceful intercultural communication.