Croatian School MemorialsInternational Symposium

SCHOOL MEMORIESNew Trends in Historical Research into Education

(Seville – 22-23 September, 2015)

Dinko Župan, Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb, Croatia

School Memorials („Školske Spomenice”)one of the primary sources for history of schooling in Croatia

School Memorials in Croatian School Museum, archives and schools

The history and contents of School Memorials

First School Memorials were written in 1875. From 1880 every school was ordered to keep Memorial and record „major” school events.

School Memorials are divided in two parts: the history of school and school chronicle for every school year.

School Memorial as school diary

School Memorial describes school life, school rituals and ceremonies, transfer of teachers, illness among students, theatre and musical performances by school children, students work in school gardens, conditions of the classrooms and buildings, etc.

School Memorials and the construction of collective memory

• In the occasion of particular school anniversaries the School Memorial was presented as absolute authentic record of school collective memory.

• The bureaucratic discourse in many Memorials create the illusion of neutral discourse, but teachers were writing Memorials from their values and ideological perspectives. This ideological perspectives in many Memorials correspond with official ideology.

„Regimes of memory” in School Memorials

The dominant ideology create „memory regimes” (Johann Michel) and these „regimes” are present in all Croatian School Memorials in the 19th and the 20th centuries.

The „regime of truth” (Michel Foucault).

School Memorials as a part of matrix of official public memory.