Abstract
Slovakia is a relatively new country that was formerly part of Czechoslovakia and the “Eastern Bloc”. After the demise of the “Iron Curtain” in November 1989, Slovakia became a member of the European Union (in 2004). The country went through important political changes with consequences for the field of education; first the reform of higher education in 2005, followed by school reform in 2008. The authors, who are teacher trainers, discuss the history of the education of early childhood education teachers in Slovakia and the process of transforming the system of undergraduate and continued (lifelong) education of teachers during the last decade. The chapter also describes how preschool and primary school teacher training and early childhood education have been transformed within European Union school policy.
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Notes
- 1.
In Slovakia, compulsory education refers to 10 years, usually from age 6 to 16.
- 2.
The Bologna Process is named after the Bologna Declaration, which was signed in the Italian city of Bologna on 19 June 1999 by ministers in charge of higher education from 29 European countries. Today, the process unites 47 countries. The overarching goal was to create a three-cycle structure (e.g., bachelor–master–doctorate), and to facilitate mobility of students, graduates and higher education staff.
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Pupala, B., Petrová, Z., Mbugua, T. (2013). Early Childhood Teachers in Slovakia. In: Clark Wortham, S. (eds) Common Characteristics and Unique Qualities in Preschool Programs. Educating the Young Child, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4972-6_12
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