REFORM OF SECONDARY EDUCATION BETWEEN IDEALS AND PRIORITIES: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NASTAVNIK JOURNAL

This paper aims to outline the internal dynamics and manifestations of the reform process of the secondary school system in Serbia during the last decade of the 19th century. For this purpose, the analysis focuses on contributions published in Nastavnik, the journal of the Professors’ Society, which reflect the views of pedagogists and grammar school professors on the desired conceptual changes in secondary education. Particular attention is devoted to the debate on the concept of a uniform/unique secondary school, through which the development of a legal framework is traced as it gradually acquires its final form and content. In the introductory part, the general course of modernization in the second half of the 19th century and the understanding of the notion of school reform are briefly considered. In contrast, the central part of the paper illustrates the content and arguments of the initial discussions on gymnasium reform in the journal Nastavnik, which testify that political objectives could not be legitimately translated into pedagogical guidelines.