Grammars of schooling in the post-authoritarian context : comparative study of changing teaching practices in elementary education in Czech, Polish and Portuguese schools

As a teacher in early childhood education, I was delighted that within the EDiTE program. I could choose my dissertation topic from my field – elementary education – and even do interviews with elementary teachers in Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic, where I conducted my research. All three countries have had recent experience with authoritarian regimes. After the fall of these regimes, the three could seize the opportunity to adapt to new conditions in society and bring new democratic principles into education. After three years of research, reading and studying on these issues while also monitoring current education issues in various European countries, I know that this is not an easy task and that calls for transformative education do not always sound clearly. Society and political conditions are constantly changing, and schools and teachers have to respond. Education and schooling are a picture of the society we live in. They are part of politics. But teachers cannot be solely responsible for the state of education. That is why it was interesting for me to describe and find out, with critical pedagogy as the background, how teachers respond to change: whether they are passive or active, what they consider important, whether they are solving problems and reflecting changes, whether they have a need to teach in other ways. My research problem is generally about teachers’ consciousness (at the elementary level in education) of change: to what extent they carry the post-communist burden with themselves; their relation to tradition and innovation; how and why they are willing to accept and create new ways in teaching in daily practice, and whether they are willing to do so at all. Elementary teachers are crucial creators of school culture, with great influence on pupils and other participants in the children’s learning process. In my interviews, I wanted to point out problems, things teachers are missing in their practice, issues they try to solve. I addressed my main research question: What kind of “Grammar of Schooling” is internalized and practiced by teachers in the Polish, Portuguese and Czech schools? The “Grammar of Schooling” metaphor, originated by David Tyack and William Tobin, is a conceptual framework for my project. They defined “Grammar of Schooling” as “the regular structure and rules that organize the work of instruction,” including standardized organizational practices such as “dividing time and space, classifying students and allocating them to classrooms (grading) and splintering knowledge into ‘subjects’” (Tyack and Tobin, 1993, p. 454). All these features are common and natural for children, teachers and parents. But are they right for today’s world nowadays, or can they be replaced? Tyack and Tobin tried to illuminate why some educational reforms take strong hold while other efforts at changing the “Grammars of Schooling” – the way the schooling process is organized and proceeds – remain unsuccessful. The challenges for teachers seem enormous. Many teachers can feel comfortable in the everyday school practices they are used to, even though the social and political context has changed. This dilemma – between the comfort of the customary and the challenge of innovation – is one of the sources of “Grammar of Schooling.” To describe these aims, I chose Paolo Freire’s theoretical approach to teachers’ consciousness – their ability to think about established, traditional, conservative paradigms of schooling and education. Teachers believe in myths and stereotypes about school education. They have their own experience, but they probably have mental and emotional obstacles to changes in their teaching, within the democratization of education. According to Freire’s theory, they don’t even know they are at a certain stage of oppression and serving the existing system (Freire, 2005). Freire tried to explain how school is important to awakening pupils’ perception of their own uniqueness. Similarly, I see the problems in teachers and their thinking; hence my work refers to all three of Freire’s types of consciousness: naïve, magical and critical. Critical thinking engages the essence of human consciousness. I have linked Freire’s critical theory with phenomenography as research approach because phenomenography investigates the content of consciousness – subjects’ thinking about particular phenomena. I have tried to describe how teachers’ consciousness strengthens and how it limits their attitudes toward change. Phenomenography as the method of qualitative research uses interviews and observation as its main research methods. I conducted a total of 28 semi-structured interviews: 10 in Poland, 4 in Portugal and 14 in the Czech Republic. In addition, I relied on teachers' narratives, asking them to describe important changes during their practice – how they had to adapt to the changes from above (system, Ministry, administration) and what changes they made in their own practice, in their approach to work and their teaching. Based on these research methods, I expected to discover the prevailing opinions of teachers in early education, how teachers reflect changes and how they are involved in them. I have described, interpreted and explained the role of “Grammar of Schooling” and the content of teachers’ consciousness as a basis for keeping tradition or making changes. As my main finding, the answer to my main research question, I can plainly say that “Grammar of Schooling” – the kinds of traditions that are internalized and then practiced in the consciousness of Polish, Portuguese and Czech teachers – are influenced most by educational policy, teachers’ personal experience and role, and their relationships with parents, who are very often obstacles to change. Teachers are willing to make many changes, and I have introduced them in my categories of description (space, time, evaluation, parenting, relationships in the schools, authority, self-criticism, curriculum, hidden curriculum, inclusion). Nonetheless, teachers often follow traditional approaches or make changes temporarily. They have no clear signal; they do not have a free hand, and thus more autonomy or the conditions from educational policy to work in an innovative way. The reasons teachers’ attitudes toward change seem obsolete and passive are often similar in all three countries. Unfortunately, the frequent explanation for why teachers are passive is that they are tired. In Poland, for example, teachers are tired of frequent changes in fundamental rules. In the Czech Republic, teachers are tired because of their low incomes, constant criticism and the underestimation of the teaching profession. In Portugal, teachers are tired from increasing paperwork and the competitiveness among them engendered by the system, which exacerbates relationships in the workplace. Teachers’ conditions are not improving in comparison to those in other professions, nor is the prestige of the profession. Their work is often questioned and criticized; they are expected to perform miracles. It is not their fault, but the system’s. Over the last 30 years, new laws found both opponents and adherents; they have brought advantages and disadvantages for individuals in society. Just as there is no ideal society or regime, there can be no ideal education system that suits everyone. I believe my thesis points to the shortcomings in educational systems of these three countries, contributes to thinking about important issues in schools and can help in initiating relevant stakeholders. Or, at least, my work serves as a reminder, according to Freire's critical theories, that schools cannot support the culture of silence and oppression. It is important to say the teachers’ opinions in a loud voice and to support these views from their practice, thus improving teaching, bringing satisfaction to pupils, and helping to create a democratic community of social actors in education