Analysis of IX. century Croatian rulers' representations in Secondary school History textbooks from Mažuranić's educational reform to the present

Predmet povijesti često je imao važnu funkciju prilikom odgojno-obrazovnog usmjeravanja mladih prema željenim društvenim vrijednostima, a posebice kada je riječ o konstrukciji kolektivnog, odnosno nacionalnog identiteta. Posebna uloga prilikom izgradnje nacionalnog identiteta kroz predmet povijesti pripadat će razdoblju srednjega vijeka. Cilj ovog rada jest utvrditi na koji su način različiti politički režimi utjecali svojim ideologijama i vrijednostima na udžbeničke prikaze hrvatskih vladara iz 9. stoljeća. To se provjerava analizom, usporedbom i interpretacijom udžbeničkih sadržaja od Mažuranićeve reforme školstva do danas, odnosno od 1878. do 2020. godine ako se usporede godine izdanja najstarijeg i najnovijeg korištenog udžbenika. Također, istovremeno se provjerava povezanost sadržaja sa suvremenim historiografskim istraživanjima.The goal of this Master’s thesis is to discover the influence of different political regimes on Croatian secondary school textbooks, based on the textbook interpretations of 9th century Croatian rulers. The timespan of history textbooks used in this research ranges from the year of 1878. to 2020. This implies the use of textbooks dating back to five different regimes: Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Independent State of Croatia, socialist Yugoslavia and Republic of Croatia. Simultaneously, the influence of historiography in this matter is also taken into consideration. The first part of the thesis is theoretical and it gives an overview on the development of Croatian historiography with a focus on medieval studies. In addition, it discusses the political influence of different regimes on education in Croatia, as well as their respective educational reforms and laws. Finally, it provides a summary on the textbook authors and methodologies of their textbooks. The second part of the thesis is analytical. With the use of necessary methods, an analysis was conducted on the interpretation of the following Croatian 9th century dukes in secondary school textbooks: Ljudevit, Borna, Trpimir, Domagoj, Zdeslav and Branimir. The conclusion of the thesis is that all political regimes directly affected different parts of textbook interpretations of Croatian dukes based on their own political ideologies and values. Furthermore, contemporary historiography also influenced the content of textbooks. However, it was pointed out that the historiography itself was in some cases under the pressure of certain political regimes