Abstract
<p><em>During the first century of secondary school literature textbook publishing (from the introduction of Slovenian language as a school subject after the March Revolution in the Austrian Empire to the first Five-Year Plan after World War II) over a hundred texts featuring the topic of mining and related activities were included. The first writings have a clearly affirmative attitude towards mining, perceived and presented as a way of promoting general prosperity. The first mentions of the negative aspects of mining and the deceptive folly of coveting precious mineral resources appear towards the end of the 19th century. Only during the interwar period, however, were there various texts which presented mining as an inhumane and dangerous activity. After World War II the approach was again optimistic: in central literature textbooks mining was depicted as the glorification of socialist progress. Relevant texts were published in eight series of textbooks, the first as early as in the Bleiweis series for lower secondary schools in 1850 and the last in the ethnic Slovenian Beli?i? series of textbooks in 1947. The discovery of mercury in the Idrija mine was described by Valvazor, Kastelic, Hrovat and Oblak</em><em>.</em></p>
Highlights
This article deals with the topic of mining in secondary school literature textbooks over the first century of their publication, based on research carried out on the topic in literature textbooks from the times of Austria–Hungary, the interwar period (in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Italy, which at that time included the Littoral (Primorska) region), and in literature textbooks published up until 1950
The texts partly belong to the field of educational literature, since because of German language as the language of instruction in lower secondary schools during the second half of the nineteenth century, Slovenian classes included natural sciences, geography and economics subjects, and such a situation continued into the twentieth century mostly in the literature textbooks of civic (Note 1) and vocational secondary schools, often including experiential and imaginative texts with a literary ambition and value
The article is limited to the period from 1850 to 1950, i.e., from the beginning of publishing secondary school literature textbooks in Slovenian territory, when the second industrial revolution greatly increased the importance of exploiting natural resources, up to the 1950s, when social and international relationships gained priority after World War II
Summary
This article deals with the topic of mining in secondary school literature textbooks over the first century of their publication, based on research carried out on the topic in literature textbooks from the times of Austria–Hungary, the interwar period (in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and later in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Italy, which at that time included the Littoral (Primorska) region), and in literature textbooks published up until 1950 (in FLRJ—Federal People’s Republic of www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/seltStudies in English Language TeachingVol 6, No 3, 2018Yugoslavia—and in cross-border ethnically Slovenian territory under the Allied Military Government). The texts revealed three types of attitudes towards mining: the first draws attention to its positive and negative aspects; the second deals only with the positive aspect, i.e., economic development or, according to popular modern wording, growth in domestic product; and the third focuses on the negative aspect, namely the gruelling work that endangers miners and their health and often increases man’s alienation The latter aspect appeared more frequently in interwar literature textbooks, while during the period after World War II a typically pessimistic perspective was balanced by the addition again of some optimistic texts relating to social and economic developments of the period. In contrast to the changed attitude after World War II mentioned above, the first three texts are explicitly affirmative, and only the 1946 text brings the discovery that, besides wealth, mercury brings suffering as well
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