The development of primary school teacher education in Serbia in the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century

Abstract

In this paper, we have dealt with the institutional development of teacher education in Serbia in the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century. In this historical period, Serbia gained international recognition which has opened the way for the gradual development of a national school system. Since their establishment, the male teachers' schools in Serbia had the status of senior high schools. In a very short span of time, they produced a sufficient number of teachers who organised themselves into a strong professional community and contributed greatly both to the modernisation of Serbian education and to the development of pedagogy as a scientific discipline. Education of female teachers, on the other hand, took place in the so-called advanced schools for women, which, only at the turn of the centuries, evolved into female teachers' schools - their development was slow and difficult, partly due to the dominant patriarchal culture of the time. The development of teacher education went hand in hand with the development of pedagogy as scientific and academic discipline in Serbia. Hiring doctors of pedagogy, trained at European universities, as lecturers at teachers' schools, marked a qualitative leap in teacher education: educational thought developed in European countries, particularly in Germany, found its supporters in Serbia, who afterwards continued to develop authentic Serbian pedagogy and simultaneously educate generations of teachers in the spirit of educational concepts dominant at the time.