Learning and Teaching: The Legacy of the Socialist Era and New Challenges

The chapter maps the teaching and learning in primary schools as well as the level of equipment in schools (including computers) after the fall of the communist regime in broader contexts. Primarily, the text follows the transformations in teaching and in educational contents, the radical changes in foreign language teaching, and the quality of textbooks published before and after 1989 from the viewpoints of teachers and other eyewitnesses. Teachers faced many challenges in these areas. The chapter shows how variedly the teachers perceive the post-1989 period, as they acquired enormous freedom in their teaching practically from 1 day to the next. The range of teaching aids gradually expanded. For many teachers, it was not easy to cope with the challenges brought by the post-socialist transformation. The eyewitnesses evaluated the pre-1989 unified textbooks and unified content positively. The Velvet Revolution represented the end of some established institutions (e.g. in the field of further teacher education), a change that the narrators evaluated negatively. To some extent, the chapter breaks down the often-cited narrative of fundamental and rapid changes in schools and the entirely new opportunities brought about by the post-communist era. Our research has shown that many changes and innovations were introduced slowly and gradually, and that they needed acceptance from teachers themselves and the support of the school head or the school’s founder.