The economics and business elective: Teachers’ perspective

The education paradigm oriented towards key competence development has shaped national curricula across the world, including Serbia. In line with this trend, the academic year of 2020/21 saw the introduction of the Economics and Business elective into grammar schools. Considering that every educational change requires monitoring and evaluation to provide decision-makers with information based on research data, this paper presents the findings of a qualitative study conducted as part of a larger mixed-methods evaluative research project. The study aimed to provide a deeper insight into teachers? opinions and experiences regarding certain characteristics of this elective program and its implementation in the third and fourth grades of grammar school in Serbia. It encompassed three semi-structured group interviews involving 19 teachers (55.6%) who taught this elective (six to eight respondents per group). A five-phase inductive-deductive qualitative analysis was conducted. Based on teachers? narratives, three themes were identified pertaining to experience with implementing the Economics and Business elective: 1) Program Content Contributes to the Youth?s Quality of Life and Education; 2) Program Implementation is Dynamic, Comprehensive, and Supportive of Teacher Autonomy; 3) Challenges in Program Preparation and Implementation. Teachers recognized the contents encompassed by the Economics and Business elective as relevant to grammar school students? education. Inquiry- and project-based learning constituted a didactic-methodical solution that afforded teachers greater organizational freedom and autonomy while simultaneously motivating students to be more engaged in class. The observed challenges and difficulties in implementing the program were mostly organizational. The paper features recommendations for further program improvement.