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Czechia: Beyond the communist-democratic dichotomy

Publication at Faculty of Education |
2024

Abstract

Czechia is an illustrative case of curriculum development in a former Soviet bloc country. We sketch the ideological, epistemological, and pragmatic reasons that led to an emphasis on disciplinary scientific knowledge in the curriculum in the later phases of communist rule. The positive and negative effects of discipline-based and strictly centralised curricular documents are discussed. In the second part of the chapter, we describe the adverse reactions to the curricula of the previous era after the fall of communism and some of their consequences. In the case of the current Czech curricula, the high level of autonomy of schools and focus on key competences have not yet met the expectations of the reformers. Following our account of the two earlier reform types we briefly describe the latest curriculum revision launched in 2021.