Czech Context Research Articles

Changes in the Educational Practice in Kindergartens in the Czech Republic

Relatively extensive changes are currently taking place in the system of preschool education in the Czech Republic, which will mainly affect the educational landscape of kindergartens. A personality--oriented model of preschool education requires a considerate, understanding and helping approach to each child. The joint education of all children, where inclusion occurs for certain children who were excluded from children’s communities in the past, is happening within the context of Czech and international legislation. Supporting measures are provided to children where required. However, such measures may ultimately also benefit the teacher

Public opinion on connected and automated vehicles: the Czech context

Despite limited experience with Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), the general public has been developing beliefs and attitudes about them. These expected benefits, concerns, trust, and other psychological factors play an important role in the way of accepting and adopting this new technology and as such should be available to various stakeholders. This study surveys the Czech public perceptions and attitudes relevant to policy-making in the area of CAVs. Between November 2017 and January 2018, a representative survey was conducted among the general population in the Czech Republic. Overall, 1 065 randomly selected persons aged above 15 were personally interviewed. The sample, there were 523 (49%) women; the average age was 50 years (SD = 17). Results showed that more than 65% of participants (i.e. 693) heard about CAVs before the survey. At the same time, 87% of the respondents with previous knowledge of the topic (i.e. 586) declared only limited awareness regarding CAVs. When it comes to the general opinion on CAVs, almost 40% of the respondents stated rather positive or very positive view. Also, more than 50% of the respondents associated wide usage of CAVs with better traffic safety. The majority of those sharing the negative opinion was members of an older generation, achieved a lower educational level and having lower household income. When it comes to the policy recommendations, the first wave of implementation should focus on applications in the more structured and controlled environment such as airports or metro.

Novice teachers in the Czech Republic and their drop‐out intentions

AbstractThe current paper presents the results of the first research study of drop‐out intentions of novice teachers in the Czech Republic. The study focuses on the reported satisfaction of novice teachers in primary and lower secondary schools with external factors that influence their socialisation and that can be seen as predictors of novice teachers' decision to stay in their current school. In the paper we present the results of quantitative research conducted in 2015–2017. Our main findings include the key significance of factors at the school level, especially the influence of school culture and climate, cooperation with colleagues and leadership. We conclude that in the Czech context teachers tend to stay in schools provided that they work in a well‐functioning school, with cooperative colleagues and good head teachers.

Andersen’s beautifully clueless fairy tales

The article reviews the recently reprinted Czech monograph Slavíci, mořské víly a bolavé zuby: Pohádky H. Ch. Andersena: mezi romantismem a modernitou (Nightingales, Mermaids and Toothaches: Andersen’s Fairy Tales between Romanticism and Modernity) by Helena Březinová. By outlining the Czech context of research in the field of children’s literature and analyzing Březinová’s book, the review shows the substantial contribution of the publication for the Czech speaking audience. Březinová carefully analyzes several examples of Andersen’s work to convincingly show its ambiguous, disturbing potential, which was lost in the vast majority of Czech retellings and adaptations. Consequently, Andersen’s work is commonly perceived as purely children’s literature in the Czech context. Březinová questions this notion by thoroughly uncovering Andersen’s subtle play with genre norms and readers’ expectations on multiple text layers. Březinová’s book is intended not only for literary experts, but also for a wide audience of readers with her eloquent and witty writing. Her primary focus is a narratological analysis, however, she makes good use of translation studies, literary history, linguistics, and philosophy as well. In her close readings, she shows Andersen’s simple, yet highly sophisticated stories as rooted in romanticism but also anticipatory of modernist themes such as the crisis of language and subject.

Limitation of public debt on the verge of financial crisis

The foretaste of the financial crisis raises the question of the functioning, application and enforcement of measures to ensure sound and sustainable public finances. The limitation of public debt was enshrined in law in the Czech legal system in 2017, and in April of this year one of the established fiscal rules was amended. The aim of this article is to critically analyze the adjustment of the public debt limitation that has been undertaken in the context of the current crisis caused by the spread of COVID-19. The introduction of the article will describe the European and Czech context of the limitation of public debt and setting budgetary responsibility. Subsequently, the article briefly summarizes the effects of the coronavirus crisis on the implementation of the state budget and, consequently, the justification for the legislative change of the set fiscal rule. The methods used in the article are mainly the method of literary research relevant sources, the method of description of the limitation of the public debt regulation in European union and in passages describing the current state of budgetary responsibility rules. Method of evaluation appears in the parts of the work evaluating the legislative adjustments to budgetary responsibility rules due to the coronavirus crises.

Hope in Homeless People: Potential for Implementation of Person-Centred Planning in Homeless Shelters?

In this paper we lay the foundation for research into the concept of hope in homeless people in the Czech context. The text is based on partial data from a broader empirical study. The main aim of the paper is to gain a complex understanding of the role of hope in setting goals for homeless people living in shelters. Specifically, we have focused on how homeless people conceptualise hope and how their concepts of hope can be used to set future goals as part of individual planning in a shelter? In the research, we used a qualitative strategy combining traditional techniques such as in-depth interviews and case studies with projective technique. We have identified four main concepts of hope and a range of sources and limits of hope in homeless people living in a shelter. Based on the findings, the possibilities of implementation of person-centred planning in shelters in the Czech Republic are discussed herein.

CLIL and Productive Vocabulary Acquisition in the Czech Context

This paper sheds light on productive vocabulary development in classes of CLIL (content and language integrated learning). Participants in the study were pupils of lower-secondary school (aged 11-15) in the Czech Republic having experienced CLIL instruction in History or Civics. The investigation was aimed at measuring vocabulary acquisition gained during a year of CLIL. Half of the pupils in the experimental group already had one year of CLIL experience prior to the experiment; the second half of the pupils started with CLIL at the time of the experiment. Both of these groups were compared to one another as well as to a control group with no CLIL instruction. Data collection instruments were created on the basis of standardized Laufer & Nation’s vocabulary levels tests (Laufer & Nation, 1999). As it turned out, previous experience with CLIL as well as the role of the teacher were significant factors. The study points out differences in productive vocabulary development in CLIL in terms of a one-to-two-year time frame. The role of the teacher appeared to have an undeniable importance as well. These factors are discussed in terms of language education improvement.

Not Quite What You Expected: The Curious Case of Brexit Scrutiny in the Czech Parliament

AbstractThe aim of the article is to explore how the Czech bicameral parliament has reacted to the process of the United Kingdom's (UK's) withdrawal from the European Union (EU). Drawing upon insights from the theoretical expectations of parliamentary power, the inquiry researches the ways that Czech legislatures have developed in terms of engaging with and influencing the Brexit process. In this regard, the Czech case is exceptionally interesting and worth exploring, since the EU agenda has become a highly politicised issue within the Czech context. The significance of this inquiry has been further highlighted by the high level of party-based Euroscepticism typical of Czech politics as well as the frequent changes that the Czech party system has been undergoing in recent years. Throughout the in-depth analysis of parliamentary scrutiny activities—conceptualised as comprising four aspects: (i) the institutional adjustment; (ii) articulation of priorities; (iii) interactions with the government and (iv) parliamentary party politics—the article considers how these activities compare between both chambers of the Czech Parliament.

Adaptation of the negative effects questionnaire into the Czech context

Objective: The aim of this study was to adapt the Negative Effects Questionnaire (NEQ) into the Czech context and to assess its psychometric properties as well as the extent to which it covers important areas of the negative aspects of psychotherapy. Method: A total of 226 respondents answered an online survey. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were conducted to assess the NEQ factor structure. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the open-ended NEQ item. Results: In terms of confirmatory factor analysis, the six-factor model proposed by the authors of the NEQ did not demonstrate an adequate fit. In a subsequent exploratory factor analysis, a more parsimonious, five-factor solution was proposed instead. Furthermore, a thematic analysis revealed some areas underrepresented in the NEQ, particularly clients’ relationships with their relatives. Conclusions: The NEQ is a reliable instrument with a high added value for research and practice. Several directions for future development are suggested.

Identity at Intersection of Cross-National Relations (Ukrainian Issue in Polemics with Cultural Vision of S. Hurban-Vajanský)

The paper focuses on the ways of interpreting the Ukrainian issue (manifestations of independent Ukrainian national identity) by representatives of the Slovak national movement. At the late 19th and early 20th century this issue became a part of polemics between two opposite strategies of contemporary Slovak culture.
 On the one hand, there were prominent figures of the national life whose activities were connected to Martin, contemporary Slovak cultural center. On the other hand, there were representatives of a young generation who proposed their own solutions for improving the Slovak political and cultural situation. The journal “Hlas” provided coverage of their activities. The periodical was launched with the help of Czech politic and philosopher Tomáš Garique Masaryk. His ideas influenced the members of the Slovak cultural movement who called themselves ‘hlasisti’. Above all, they were opposed to the cultural and ideological views of Svetozár Hurban Vajanský who was the key figure of Slovak national movement in the last two decades of the 19th century. His vision was deeply influenced by the idea of Slavic unity and conservative rusophilia. Ukrainian issue questioned the legitimacy of the idea of a unified Slavonic world with accepted hegemony of Russia. It revealed contemporary antagonisms between Slavic nations that were ignored by the earlier generations of the Slovak national movement. The impulses from Czech cultural background, where emancipation of Ukrainian nation was discussed with more attention at the end of the 19th century, played a crucial role in this differentiation of the Slovak national life. The main point was the refusal to identify own national identity with a common Slavic one. The key figures of the Czech national movement had an uncertain and critical approach to social and political circumstances of contemporary Russia. In Slovak and Czech context, the reflection of Ukrainian efforts to reach national emancipation gave an opportunity to clarify questions connected to their own national and cultural identity.

The Poverty Business: Qualitative Analysis of Czech Media from 2006 to 2017

he poverty business has recently become a frequent issue in public discourse. The Program Declaration of the Government of the Czech Republic also reflects this, as the poverty business is mentioned here in relation to the abuse of the welfare system through overpriced lodging houses. In spite of the political significance oft he poverty business, the research on this issue has been scant. No attempt has even been made to clarify the meaning of this concept. This study is meant to be a first step in understanding the poverty business in the Czech context; it aims to explore how this phenomenon was represented in the Czech news media. The research was based on the theory of representation and qualitative content analysis, a method that was devised for thematic analysis of media content. The data were drawn from the Ano press IT database. Out of 1,277 texts containing the term “poverty business” and similar relevant terms, 66 texts were selected for the analysis. The analysis found that the poverty business is mainly presented as a matter of housing; however, other meanings were also identified, all of which were connected to the idea of exploitation of the poor and vulnerable segments of society. The victims of the poverty business include not only the clients of poverty entrepreneurs but also other people who were categorized according to their alleged decency or indecency. The consequences of the poverty business were seen as relating to clients, interethnic coexistence and the public administration. The main subjects identified in media communications were the state, municipality, and poverty entrepreneurs, who played the role of culprits, profiting subjects, and rectifiers. To conclude, the poverty business was represented asa highly politicized issue that concerns the misuse of housing benefits and is seen both as a socio-economic and ethno-cultural problem. The solution to the poverty business was mostly conceived as a technical intervention in to the welfare system, ignoring the agency of the victims of the poverty business.

Kafka’s Other Prague: Writing from the Czechoslovak Republic by Anne Jamison

Reviewed by: Kafka’s Other Prague: Writing from the Czechoslovak Republic by Anne Jamison David Suchoff Anne Jamison. Kafka’s Other Prague: Writing from the Czechoslovak Republic. Northwestern UP, 2018. x + 222 pp. Anne Jamison’s Kafka’s Other Prague: Writing from the Czechoslovak Republic breaks new ground in the reading of Kafka as a translinguistic, postnational, and Jewish writer. Focusing on the period from Czech independence in 1918—the end of German’s linguistic domination of Prague—to Kafka’s death in 1924, the “other” of the book’s title opens up Kafka’s Czech linguistic, literary, and political connections more historically and textually than previous studies. Jamison expertly presents unknown—to non-Czech readers—linguistic, political, and literary texts that shaped Kafka’s late work. She does so without the least monolinguistic determinism, in order to launch acute new translinguistic readings of well-known Kafka works. “The primacy of language” in Kafka’s world, as she writes of his post-1918 situation, “brings the text closer to, rather than further away from, events and relations in the extra-textual biographical, and historical ‘real world’ of Kafka’s Czechoslovak Prague” (111). Kafka’s Other Prague offers a powerful revision of Delueze and Guattari’s capture of Kafka’s concept of small or minor literatures, using Czech writings and debates on language and identity from the period. Jamison sees the other not as seeking to inhabit the major but as a multiple historical perspective that opens up a different cultural space. Jamison shows how the sharp difference between spoken Czech, which Kafka used to enable him to keep his insurance job after 1918, and its standard form, which he had not mastered, opens up a translational perspective on the linguistic politics in his writings, creating critical effects in his thematics of gender and in his views of the minority voice. Rich readings of Czech context show how Kafka’s “assault against boundaries” (qtd. in Jamison 77), as his 1922 diary entry put it, took a multiplicity of forms. Jamison reads Kafka’s The Castle against an earlier 1921 diary entry that describes an assault that can take place “von unten” (78), or from below, or “von oben,” above, and hence as linguistically multiple against the social background. The ascendancy of Czech in 1918, for a German-speaking but Jewish Fremder, or foreigner, as The Castle describes K., could mean that a previously dominated Czech populace could be felt as an “assault . . . from below,” as well as an “assault from above,” given the newly sovereign linguistic order. The brilliance of Kafka’s Other Prague consists of such readings: its ability to take “a frame of reference far removed from the contingent, quotidian Prague” and then use material from Czech in the period to portray a “basic structure” (79) in Kafka, “in which [End Page 743] the terms and their interrelations are in flux” (79–80). Jamison uses Czech texts like Sergej Karcevskij’s later “The Asymmetric Dualism of the Linguistic Sign” or Jan Mukařovský’s ”On the Problem of Functions in Architecture” to make available the multiple meanings of architectural space and public sculpture as multiply inflected languages in Imperial German- and Czech-speaking, then-sovereign Prague, as in the case of the Jan Hus monument. Jamison shows how such imagery of nativity parallels scenes in The Castle that bring the question of foreignness as part of the native into focus, helping to establish Kafka’s practice of “establishing and deforming patterns” in his work (143). Jamison provides linguistic surveys and their debates as well as important analyses of Prague’s Czech Press, which published philological and avant-garde journals that Kafka was familiar with and the first translation of Kafka (by Milena Jensenská). For Jamison, Kafka’s method is enlarged by “cultural realities such as bilingualism, intermarriage, and translation” (10), which enabled him to use univocal icons in unique ways: in Kafka’s Other Prague, rather than serving as an image of unifying authority, the Castle’s tower becomes instead a symbol of formative linguistic differences. Jamison thus sees no “either-or logic of the nation state for Kafka” (6) and, for critics, no either-or choice between Kafka...

Emerging Mission from the Czech Republic

This article focuses on international mission from Protestant churches in the Czech Republic since 1989. It analyses the contemporary missiological literature related to the Czech context and engages the cross-cultural aspects of Czech mission, both inside and outside of the Czech Republic. The author argues for greater missiological reflection on international Czech mission.

Bidgood, Lee Czech Bluegrass: Notes from the Heart of Europe (review)

REVIEWS 563 Abroad’ in music, giving particular, though not totally uncritical, attention to that remarkable cosmopolitan, Arthur Lourié (see SEER, 93, 3, 2015, pp. 550– 52). Also in this section is a thorough examination by Elena Dubinets of the sense of identity felt by Russian émigré composers today, when migration has become the norm rather than the exception. Partsix,‘1991andAfter’(pp.359–421),comprisesthreearticlesbeginningwith Laura Fay’s account of chaos in music as the Soviet Union collapsed, focusing particularly on Zhdanov’s successor Tikhon Khrennikov who lasted from the original chaos in 1948 as official leader until 1991; to many he was an odious figure, but in his memoirs Evgeny Kissin recalls him as a benevolent Maecenas. William Quillen discusses the way in which the highly experimental 1920s in music were treated by musicians and musicologists after glasnost´, when previously suppressed composers and works were allowed to emerge again. Finally, Lidia Adler in a wide-ranging article discusses the struggle to create new paradigms of contemporary music in twenty-first-century Russia. The editors deserve praise for producing a book of both professional and amateur interest, which is rich in details of fact and ideas, and should be welcomed by musicians, musicologists and enterprising music lovers alike. London Arnold McMillin Bidgood, Lee. Czech Bluegrass: Notes from the Heart of Europe. Folklore Studies in a Multicultural World. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Chicago and Springfield, IL, 2017. xx + 168 pp. Illustrations. Map. Notes. Glossary. Bibliography. Recommended media. Index. $24.95: £20.99 (paperback). Czech Bluegrass is an important, original and highly personal contribution to the defining characteristics and development of one of the more unlikely (but nonetheless significant) forms of musical expression in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. Bidgood’s approach, which is broadly ethnomusicological, renders his work accessible to a range of readers with a general interest in Czech culture and folk-spectrum music, as well as to musicians and musicologists with a more specialist knowledge of and/or liking for bluegrass. I am very much in the former category, and can claim no expertise in the making or interpretation of music, but I still found much of the content engaging and perspicuous. Thestudy,whichincludesaForeword(pp.vii–ix)byTonyTrischka,comprises an Introduction, five chapters, and (appropriately enough here) a so-called ‘Tag’. The Introduction (pp. xi–xviii) outlines the author’s own involvement in bluegrass music, and how he came to undertake ethnographic fieldwork in the SEER, 96, 3, JULY 2018 564 Czech Republic. Chapter one (pp. 1–20), ‘Places, meaning, community, and inbetweenness ’, locates Czech bluegrass in its geocultural and semantic context, and introduces the shifting and sometimes illusory concept of vono (which might be loosely translated as ‘the real thing’, but which Bidgood defines as ‘what people want to experience’, p. 17). The second chapter (pp. 21–51), ‘Czech bluegrass histories and backgrounds’, considers what makes bluegrass Czech, and includes some thoughtful observations on the traditions and sense of identity of bluegrass musicians pre- and post-1989. Chapter three (pp. 52–68), ‘Making bluegrass at home, abroad, and in between’, is a more descriptive account of performances featuring the author in Europe, as well as of the manufacture of banjos. The next chapter (pp. 69–98), ‘Learning and playing Americanness on the fiddle’, considers some of the more technical aspects of music playing, and the difficulty for Czechs of reproducing ‘Americanness’, or rather the subtleties of articulating and negotiating the differences between Czechness and Americanness. The penultimate chapter (pp. 99–118), ‘Singing truth, fidelity, and play in Czech bluegrass gospel’, addresses, inter alia, the tensions surrounding the performance of sacred material by non-believers, and the question of acculturating gospel music to the Czech context. The final chapter (pp. 119–24), ‘A tag: America/Amerika’, reflects on the constructedness of the Czech bluegrassers’ romanticized notions of America. For practising musicians with a specialism in bluegrass, chapters three, four and five may well be of greatest interest. Bidgood’s narrative, informed by detailed personal knowledge of the art form, extensive on-stage collaboration, and numerous encounters and interviews with musicians and luthiers, sheds light on the subject-matter in a way that only an accomplished bluegrasser can do. The...

Military Violence in towns during the Thirty Years’ War – The Czech and Central European context

Military Violence in towns during the Thirty Years’ War – The Czech and Central European context

Exploring new types of intensive motherhood in the Czech Republic

Abstract Intensive motherhood (IM) has become an established social norm in many countries, especially Western ones. Centred upon the mother providing lengthy full-time, intensive care focused on the child’s needs, these social norms can be seen in the actions of mothers in diverse social locations. However, recent research has demonstrated that women’s ability to engage in IM is affected by factors like education, race, ethnicity, religion or socioeconomic status as well as by cultural and structural conditions. The goal of this paper is to analyse IM in the Czech context by focusing on factors that most affect a mother’s ability to engage in IM. Biographical interviews were held with 17 mothers, and the following three areas were discussed most in their narratives: (a) use of information on childrearing, (b) attitude to paid employment and juggling family and work, and (c) the financial, mental and emotional costs of motherhood.

Utilisation of the natural potential of rural areas for social inclusion

The paper presents selected results of the sociological research focused on social inclusive activities that use and are located in the natural environment of rural areas. The paper is based on the contemporary form of the concept of a fully integrated modern society, and deals with the implementation of this concept within the strategy of social inclusion in both the European and Czech context. The authors have created, based on secondary research, a typology of social inclusive activities within Czech rural areas. Primary research, consisting of a questionnaire survey, was used to study the awareness of these issues among the rural population. Based on the selected results of both the primary and secondary research, the authors conclude that a possible path to social inclusion, is, alongside specific social services, social farming, which harmonizes the potential of the rural natural environment with the attitudes of the rural population (the actors and observers of social inclusive activities within their locality).The ongoing research is focused on monitoring barriers to the development of this business sector, which are crucial for the rural actors.

Czech Open Access for the Humanities and Social Sciences

ABSTRACTThis article examines the current state of Open Access for the humanities and social sciences in the Czech Republic. Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, and following the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January of 1993, the Open Access movement in the Czech context remains understudied. This article focuses on the current state of affairs of Open Access in the Czech Republic within the European Union framework for Open Access.

Tourism and management study programme through blended learning: development and results

This paper introduces and discusses a tourism and management study programme at the Faculty of Informatics and Management (FIM), University of Hradec Králové. It begins with description of the programme, along with a summary of its history and is considered in the light of changes in accreditation requirements. Students′ interest in the programme and foreign language skills gradually waned over a period of time. The number of students taking the state exams in foreign languages and their grades were used as indicators of students′ interest. We adopted blended learning but this did not increase interest in studying foreign languages. The blended learning model and its results in the Czech context are discussed with reference to experiences gained by others from around the world. We aim to verify whether changes to the learning content covering theory and practice enhance the quality and attractiveness of the tourism and management study programme.

Pojem regionu u Emanuela Chalupného

One of the most important aspects of Chalupný’s sociology is his concept of regionality. It is based on a specific intellectual response to the internal experience of reality (i.e. a philosophical impulse. but its content and method are sociological and its final intentions are national-cultural. The core (of the concept) is the notion of the region defined as a unit of type that determines style. The individuality of the whole type that refers to the region as its final substrate. Regions are the basic elements of the whole „economy of the world“. The development of humanity is not „centralised“ but „multilinear“, i.e. a matter of parallel regional development. The moral evaluation of individual „styles“ is alien to Chalupný, although civilisational types can of course be compared from the perspective of their alleged „unity of function“. The optimum state in this context is represented by what is known as „communalism“, and the Czech nation in particular is regarded as enjoying exceptionally promising preconditions for the development of this quality in practical social terms. Chalupný considers that the positive use of these preconditions depends on the production of a regional sociology of „Czech“ identity, based on regional ecology, biology and psychology. The article defines the assumptions behind this „sociology: and contrasts it – in the Czech context with Masaryk’s philosophy of Czech identity – and – in the European context – with Husserl’s phenomenology. From this last point of view, Chalupný’s concept emerges as „phenomenology without transcendentalism“.