Abstract
The quality of early childhood education practice is closely linked to the quality of the national curriculum (Bennet, 2011; Pianta et al, 2009; Bertrand, 2007). The creation of the Czech pre-school curriculum in the times of socialism (1948–1989) was based on a cultural-transmissive and adult-centred pedagogical approach.
The 1990s were marked by the search for a new concept of the national curriculum and planning of educational content in pedagogical practice. In 2004, the national Framework Educational Program for Pre-School Education (FEP PE, 2018) was approved.
The FEP PE sets out general criteria for pre-schools and teachers to plan their own educational provision with respect to the current needs and interests of children. The paper presents research finding collected among pre-primary teachers undergoing further professional development within bachelors and masters level programs at nine universities across the Czech Republic between 2020-2021.
The aim of the research was to investigate the methods teachers use when designing their educational programs. The research sought to establish whether a centralised adult-centred concept to planning persists, or whether there has been a shift to more flexible approach characteristic for child-centred pedagogy and practice.
The research highlighted three different approaches to curriculum planning used by the respondents (Koželuhová et al., 2020): chronological approach following in many aspects the past planning methods; elective and transversal approach, both more flexible and rather orientated on current children´s needs and interests. The results indicated that the majority of the teachers preferred a flexible approach to designing educational programs.
However, many teachers still design educational content even a year in advance. Curriculum design is therefore in a process of transformation and the paper discuss reasons for this and suggest ways to secure further qualitative development in the future.