State as the Owner of Education
Involvement of Totalitarian Regimes in the Field of Education in Europe in the Second Half of the 20th Century
Date: October 12–13, 2023
Venue: Trnava, guesthouse Patriot
Organiser: Trnava University in Trnava (Slovakia); journal Historia scholastica (Czech Republic)
Colloquium Aims
The colloquium aims to analyse the involvement of individual totalitarian regimes in Europe in the second half of the 20th century in the field of education. Countries in which totalitarian regimes can be noted in the given period include the former countries of the Eastern bloc, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. In all these countries, the regimes were headed by one leader and one party, ideology of which was implemented in all areas of society. We are interested in the involvement of the regime in the field of education, particularly in the ways of their subordination to the regime, ways of implementing ideology in education, political education of teachers, etc. The colloquium creates a space for a Pan-European scope and bridges existing analyses focused either on the countries of the former Eastern Bloc with left-wing regimes or on the countries of Western Europe with right-wing regimes. The colloquium provides a space for discussions and sharing of current research in the field, aiming at opening a broad European perspective on education in totalitarian regimes in the given period. Presentations will focus on the following questions:
- what was the precondition that the given country found itself under a totalitarian regime (starting points, wider historical-political context, and time frame),
- what specific ideology, doctrine was the starting point in the given regime, how was the regime involved in its dissemination and implementation in the field of education,
- to what extent was the course of education determined by the policy of the regime and to what extent was it a matter of professional autonomous decisions of the representative bodies of education,
- what was the basic legislation in the field of education, what changes took place in it compared to the previous legislation,
- who were the main protagonists of the spread of ideology in the field of education in the given country, how did they get to leadership positions,
- how was the ideology disseminated and implemented in education, implementation of political training for teachers, etc.
- were there any repressions, purges, etc. in the field of education, what means did the regime use to “retrain” teachers,
- final synthesis: specifics in ideologization and politicization of education in the given country.
