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Teacher Education in the Republic of Serbia: Challenges, Possibilities, and Directions for Development

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The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

In recent decades, Serbia has mainly tried to adapt Soviet teacher education models to their contemporary political, economic, and social realities, as well as to European and international standards. Changes to Serbia’s teacher education system began with signing the Bologna Declaration in 2003, setting out to synchronise their national objectives with the declaration’s principles; defining standards of teacher competences; and rendering participation in professional development compulsory. However, the majority of these reforms were introduced in a top-down manner, without consultation with teachers, who are now, as a result, the executors of reforms rather than their co-creators. The authors conclude that further development of teacher education in the Republic of Serbia requires the introduction of a coherent information system and a framework for monitoring reform closely.

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Acknowledgements

This paper has been created within the scientific research project, Quality of the Education System in Serbia from the European Perspective (No. 179010), funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development of Serbia (Grant No. 451-03-2842/2019-14/179010 and Grant No. 451-03-68/2020-14/200125), where all co-authors of this chapter have been or are engaged.

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  1. University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia

    Olivera Gajić, Svetlana Španović, Biljana Lungulov & Branka Radulović

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  1. Olivera Gajić
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  2. Svetlana Španović
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  3. Biljana Lungulov
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  4. Branka Radulović
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Correspondence to Olivera Gajić .

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  1. University of Białystok, Białystok, Poland

    Marta Kowalczuk-Walędziak

  2. Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia

    Roza A. Valeeva

  3. Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

    Marija Sablić

  4. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Ian Menter

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Gajić, O., Španović, S., Lungulov, B., Radulović, B. (2023). Teacher Education in the Republic of Serbia: Challenges, Possibilities, and Directions for Development. In: Kowalczuk-Walędziak, M., Valeeva, R.A., Sablić, M., Menter, I. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education in Central and Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09515-3_9

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