Early Literacy Education in Preschool Curriculum Reforms: The Case of Post-Communist Slovakia

Autor/inn/en	Petrová, Zuzana; Zápotocná, Olga
Titel	Early Literacy Education in Preschool Curriculum Reforms: The Case of Post-Communist Slovakia
Quelle	In: Global Education Review, 5 (2018) 2, S.145-159 (15 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2325-663X
Schlagwörter	Literacy Education; Educational Change; Educational Legislation; Cognitive Development; Language Acquisition; Foreign Countries; Social Systems; Educational History; Social Change; Preschool Curriculum; Academic Achievement; Teacher Attitudes; Preschool Teachers; National Curriculum; Grammar; Written Language; Oral Language; Slovakia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Bildungsreform; Bildungsrecht; Schulgesetz; Kognitive Entwicklung; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Ausland; Social system; Soziales System; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Sozialer Wandel; Schulleistung; Lehrerverhalten; Pre-school education; Preschool education; Erzieher; Erzieherin; Kindergärtnerin; Vorschulerziehung; Vorschule; Grammatik; Geschriebene Sprache; Oral interpretation; Mündlicher Sprachgebrauch; Slowakei
Abstract	This paper describes the development of preschool literacy education in Slovakia, beginning with the communist era, when the country was isolated from broader international academic discourse and early literacy research, then the period after the fall of the totalitarian regime up to the present day. It describes how the traditional approach to teaching literacy, relying on an obsolete model of reading and writing instruction taught at primary school, has resulted in preschools having limited capacity to develop children's literacy. It also explains attempts to reform the preschool literacy curriculum after the fall of the totalitarian regime. The first of these followed Slovakia's most comprehensive education reform act in 2008, but it underestimated the specific role of written language in children's language and cognitive development and in subsequent academic performance. Consequently, the reforms merely reproduced the traditional approach to literacy development within the new format of a decentralized curriculum. The consequences of the 2008 education reform act, and the pressure exerted by the results of international student assessments, resulted in a strong initiative from the academic field to reform the preschool curriculum on an evidentiary basis. The authors of this paper describe how they developed the thinking behind the new preschool literacy curriculum. The paper looks at how this became part of Slovakia's national preschool curriculum which was implemented in 2016, including the process in which the curriculum was reviewed by the institutions of the Ministry of Education and by professional organizations involved in early childhood education in Slovakia. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Mercy College New York. 555 Broadway, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522. Tel: 914-674-7350; Fax: 914-674-7351; Web site: http://ger.mercy.edu
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01