Interim Activity Report Lessons from Classrooms: A Study of Educational Policies in
Elementary Schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Structure and timeline of this project was
envisioned in a way so that theoretical and field research combined would
offer a glimpse of what is happening in the BiH primary school classrooms,
not only regarding textbooks, but teaching as well. Educational reform
was underway in 2003, marking September 1—beginning of school year—as a
magic date. New textbooks were going to be released at that time.
Also, a number of “two schools under one roof” was going to start operating
under some kind of integrated administration. Number of returnee
children increased gradually from last school year, considerably changing
the demographics in some schools as well as a cross-cutting section of
human rights analysis.
Due to such changes, textbook and field research had to be postponed until the beginning of school year. Also, due to the immensity of project, I decided to concentrate on school grades 1-4.
First half of my fellowship year was spent in the examination and assessment of BiH national and international legal framework. BiH has signed 15 international conventions and although it has three of its own constitutions and two sets of entity laws, the European Convention is above all BiH laws. Regarding education, each entity (one is centralized while Federation is divided into ten cantons) has its own laws regarding primary education. In addition, each canton has its own laws and regulations on primary education. I am still in the process of obtaining cantonal laws given that even the OSCE (spearheading the reform) does not have a full set. Given that BiH has a complicated legal system and complex education sector, it is extremely important to understand legal duties and obligations of all parties involved: BiH state, entities, cantons, municipalities, parents, schools (director, teachers, school boards), and children.
Due to my involvement in the RMAP (rights-based municipality assessment project), a joint UNDP and UNOHCHR project in BiH, I participated in human rights trainings and benefited greatly from the experience of doing rights-based field work and analysis, report and development goals writing. My IPF project is based on human rights, national and international framework, and rights based analysis, so conducting a preliminary fieldwork-based research allowed me to pretest some of my ideas and notions and it provided valuable experience.
RMAP research and data analysis was conducted in Zvornik municipality, Republika Srpska. UNDP/UNOHCHR report will be available in a few months. Same goes for the remaining 11 BiH municipality reports in both BiH Federation and Republika Srpska, conducted and written by other six RMAP teams. Development goals/recommendations have been drafted for all 12 municipalities.
In order to conduct field research, I have to obtain a permission for classroom observation from each individual Ministry for Education. In order to obtain cantonal permits, I have to have an approval from the Federation ministry. This process has proved to be a bit problematic. Given that my topic deals with national ideology, it is very possible that the delay in receiving any feedback is a direct result of it. I am still waiting for such permits, without which I am unable to legally conduct research in BiH classrooms.
I started researching textbooks. Textbook analysis is based on the three sets of textbooks, grades 1-4. Furthermore, an analysis will be done on textbooks used in BiH before the war. It is problematic to obtain pre-war textbooks given that a lot of them have been destroyed during the war. A trip to Zagreb or Belgrade still might be necessary in order to research their textbooks archives. In any case, textbook analysis is a chapter of the actual paper, and it pinpoints which subjects I will concentrate on during my field research (subjects, such as the first grade “Citanka” textbook, which seem to be semi void of any nationalistic language, will be of the utmost interest in my research given that the actual “teaching” might provide pupils with some unofficial information and data).
I was invited to participate in the SEE Education Coordinators Meeting in Milocer, Montenegro, organized by the Foundation Open Society Institute. I attended that meeting in early June, 2003. The primary focus, however, were UN human rights trainings/workshops I attended in Sarajevo. These trainings were organized by RMAP and the International Human Rights Law Center, Nottingam University, United Kingdom. These workshops provided excellent information regarding the analysis of data as well as development goals setting for policy making. In addition, cross cutting sections with other human rights was addressed, and has become my focus as a result of such workshops.
Arrangements have been made to do in-depth field research in the municipality where preliminary research was made. Other arrangements are being made with individual teachers from both Federation and Republika Srpska. In depth research will be made in a limited number of municipalities/schools enabling me to conduct good quality data and therefore eliminate collection of surface data, which due to time limitations would be the case if I conducted my research in 20 schools across BiH.
In conclusion, based on the work/research conducted
thus far, the policy paper contains theoretical and legal framework/foundation
(based on BiH laws and regulations, OSCE initiatives and programs) analysis
of the preliminary data conducted in 12 BiH municipalities, and preliminary
textbook analysis (latter two will be included after the reports have been
published and textbook analysis completed along side fieldwork).
Some changes in the timeline and project outline are necessary due to the
education reform and its own timing, but none of this should effect the
final outcome of the project.