Social Studies in Primary Education: Comparing the Slovak and Czech Republics

Th is article focuses on Slovak primary school (ISCED1) subjects that represent social and human knowledge and contrasts the Slovak situation with the Czech one. First, it looks briefl y at the historical context that gave rise to and continues to shape these subjects. It then considers their content and attempts to explain why these subjects have ceased to evolve. It also shows that, despite the continual re-discovery of teaching methods and the acute need for them when teaching pupils of this age, there has been little research in this area. It concludes by stating that the lack of education research and discussion makes it diffi cult to infl uence public policymaking and curricular reform.


INTRODUCTION
Exploring social realities is just as much part of school education as science and art. Although this type of learning content may seem diffi cult for primary pupils, and therefore inappropriate, the very basics of social science are covered at the primary level. History, geography, economics, and law are less commonly taught as separate subjects at the primary level; however, it is much more usual to fi nd one or two subjects that incorporate some of the basics of social science and the humanities. Many of the concepts and terms used in these fi elds are, of course, highly abstract and unfamiliar to pupils at this level, but that does not mean it is not worth making the effort. Th ere are, after all, various ways of introducing this type of content. Th ey do, however, require the teacher to be familiar with them and to know how to use them in the classroom.
In this paper, the focus is on People and Society, one of the primary-level education areas currently taught as two separate subjects in Slovakia. Th ose two subjects are local studies and knowledge and understanding of the world. Both are taught in the fi rst and second years of the four-year lower primary level (ISCED 1) in the Slovak Republic. Th ey were established in a specifi c era and cultural tradition, and one can question the desirability and, indeed, sustainability of this traditional format. Th e current era is one of great social and economic change and these changes have prompted didactic innovations. Hence People and Society should refl ect these contextual changes -to some degree at least. Inspiration as to how some of these trends can be incorporated into classroom teaching is to be found in Czechia. Drawing on the Czech example is a legitimate approach: the two countries have many decades of shared historical experience, including in education, and the language barrier is minimal.
So how should and could one change the content and methods used in People and Society to make this a more up-todate and relevant area of human knowledge? Th is paper addresses this question by comparing the Slovak curriculum with its historically and geographically similar counterpart, the Czech curriculum, which diff ers in covering both richer content and a wider spectrum of social and human knowledge.
Th e second area in which change is both possible and desirable is didactics, including teaching methods. Repeated analyses of Czech settings have revealed numerous eff ective and productive methods for teaching the key concepts of social studies to primary pupils, and these may provide inspiration. Th e approaches this paper draws upon are based on experiments described in scientifi c and specialist articles, and which have been incorporated into school textbooks in a highly practical format.

CONTEXT
It all began with the trivium. At different times, in diff erent cultures and in diff erent countries and empires, the introduction of compulsory basic education focused on reading, writing, and arithmetic. Over time, and to varying degrees and for diff erent reasons, other school subjects began jostling for a place, including ones aimed at teaching pupils about the real world around them. Th is applied to social science and the humanities, although frequently they were not considered subjects within their own right, and that was doubly true in primary education.
Th is was the case in Slovakia as well. For almost a thousand years, what is now the Slovak Republic was part of an empire -fi rst the Hungarian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Which is why, when we are retrospectively interpreting our educational heritage, both the economic and political context are important. Th e Czech Republic was largely infl uenced by Austrian thinking, which meant that in Czech primary schools, social studies and humanities were taught as a single separate subject from 1915 onwards (Dvořák & Dvořáková, 2005). In Slovak schools, that did not happen until 1930-1933(Kancír & Madziková, 2003, after the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. It took several years for the two traditions (Austrian and Hungarian) to merge together in a single one. Th e new subject was given the name vlastiveda, an etymological derivation from the translation of the German word Heimatkunde, and referred to in English as local studies. Th e aim of the subject was not just to teach pupils about scientifi c advances and knowledge (the facts), but, as its name clearly indicates, it was also about reinforcing pupils' emotional relationship with their country, inculcating a healthy pride. Th is was of course related to the mood at the time: in the centre of Europe (especially Prussia) the idea of the nation -predominantly as an ethical construct -was being established.
Th e First Czechoslovak Republic was founded in 1918 and lasted until 1939. During the Second World War, Slovakia was an independent republica satellite state of Nazi Germany -while Czechia was a protectorate under direct Nazi German control. After the Second World War, the Czechoslovak Republic was refounded with adjustments to its borders, having lost Ruthenia to the Soviet Union. In February 1948, there was a coup and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took power, installing a totalitarian regime. Th at remained in place until the Velvet Revolution of 1989, which reinstated democracy in the country. On 1 January 1993, following unsuccessful negotiations over the nature of the common state, two suc-cessor states were formed -the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.
Over this period and in both better and worse times, local studies underwent a series of changes, including changes to content, goals (sometimes of an ideological and indoctrinal nature), and the number of lessons per year. Th e aim here is not to recount all the changes to the subject but to stress an important point: irrespective of whether criticism of local studies is aimed at its content, the way it is taught, or how it is conceived, we can trace the names of the experts or teachers involved in the debates, who discussed it at meetings of teachers or in the journals of the time, especially during the periods of freedom. 1 Within the technical possibilities of the time (or lack thereof), they were able to maintain a notional dialogue, or dispute, in which they attempted to improve and shape the subject through reform. 2 Th is point is worth stressing because subject content has changed a number of times since 1993. Th e largest education reform, both in terms of organisation and content, did not, however, take place until 2008, when the two-level curriculum was introduced. It was then further revised in 2015, in eff ect 2016, to make improvements. Th ese changes also aff ected local studies as taught in primary schools -and if the revisions were intended to improve on the original ideas, or goals, then one would expect them to be the result of expert debate, not to mention empirical evidence from education research. Th e contributions from teachers and experts in the Czechoslovak era would probably not stand up to today's standards regarding research fi ndings/evidence, but let us at least entertain the idea that they were more fruitful and productive than current education research on local studies. Th ere are no articles in Slovak journals and periodicals in which academics address the way in which local studies is taught, regarding the content, the aims, or the teaching methods.
We cannot pretend there are no problems with local studies. From the very beginning, experts have argued over whether it should be more general or country-specifi c, factual, linguistic, or simply off er guidance. Th ey have argued over whether the content should be incidental or situated, which it should most resemble social or human science, and which system should be used to structure the content, and they have even argued about pupils going on trips and doing activities instead of just sitting there passively learning. And that is before we get to the status of local studies as viewed by the teachers and pupils, and noted by Klusák (2010). All these questions remain unresolved today. Moreover, the lack of theoreti-cal and empirical research in this area means we can hardly expect matters to improve. 3 Stará (1999) is right to state that curricular content that draws on social science knowledge is always the result of the country's historical, cultural, and educational traditions. But she also stresses that the curriculum should refl ect the societal needs of the country and respond to the "need to educate people in the spirit of global understanding and a responsible attitude to life in the 21st century" (p. 77). Th erefore, this article focuses on two specifi c areas in an attempt to show the potential harm caused by the neglect of local studies. In the fi rst half we will consider the content, then in the second half we turn our attention to teaching methods.

EXPANDING THE CONTENT
It is only with great diffi culty that we can talk of a universal social studies and humanities curriculum applicable in primary education across the world. Th e content naturally refl ects the local context within which the subject(s) emerged (social and human knowledge need not be restricted to a single subject at the primary level). To illustrate this, we need only look at the last comparative study by Dvořák and Dvořáková (2018), in which they attempt to compare the form, scope, and methods of developing the primary school history curriculum in three English-speaking countries: one might assume a certain level of resemblance, given the cultural similarity of the United States, England, and Australia, but it is hard to fi nd any strong correspondence. Th e content is framed by the fact that the history curriculum deals with social and human knowledge and so obviously does not cover natural science. 4 Numerous disciplines are represented, but those that feature most frequently are elements of geography, history, economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, ecology, and civic education (Doliopoulou, 1995;Sunal, 1980). Th e Slovak tradition of teaching social and human knowledge at the primary level is quite diff erent to the one found in English-speaking countries; nevertheless, it is not uniform either. Our historical experiences have led to social studies being concentrated around two main disciplines -geography and history, with a focus on an emotional and patriotic accent. Th e emphasis on civic education and fostering civic participation is not found in Slovakia. Th ese days, two subjects are taught at the primary level in Slovakia (history and geography) that prepare pupils for the lower secondary level: in the fi rst two years of primary school, pupils study knowledge and understanding of the world, which is a combined subject (natural science with elements of social and human knowledge); in the third and fourth years they are taught local studies.
Amid the changes that began in 2008, no one thought to expand local studies to include other types of social and human knowledge. Th e way the content is currently structured could do with updating so as to better refl ect People and Society, the area of education under which the two subjects are taught. If pupils are supposed to learn about social phenomena and processes in this area of education, presumably it should not be centred around the familiar concepts of space and time, or the subjects to which they belong (history/geography). Working with a map and using a timeline are, of course, key concepts but are not part of the preparatory function of local studies (or knowledge and understanding of the world). It is not just that the name People and Society suggests a wider topic area, but that pupils should also be learning about the things around them and that interest them. Th is is not to suggest that the subject needs a truly radical overhaul but merely to question whether some topics are being neglected because they are considered too advanced for this age group. Stage 1 primary pupils do not live in a vacuum but are confronted with these topics in daily life and may even be negatively aff ected by them. Back in 1930, when the fi rst social science subjects were beginning to take shape at the primary level (in the independent Czechoslovak Republic), Černý (1930/1931) argued that the content should be up to date. Not all traditions are bad, but alone "they are insuffi cient. We have to take account of what contemporary life brings, and that should be refl ected in schools as well" (Černý, 1930/1931, p. 327).
Th e Czech curriculum for local studies and knowledge and understanding of the world was originally based on history and geography, but it has evolved considerably. Th e original foundations are still there, but the curriculum also covers topics that are not the exclusive terrain of history and geography. 5 When teaching local studies and understanding and knowledge of the world, the teacher and children can discuss issues such as the republic, democracy, parliament, diversity in children and families around the world, bullying, advertising, media, and private and public property. Th is is because the area of education relating to social science in the curriculum (People and the World) refers to content and standards -which we include under political science, economics, and law -that are covered in culture and global issues. Th is highly diverse content is made possible by the framework programme document (Rámcový vzdělávací program pro základní vzdělávaní, 2017), which is used when designing textbooks. 6 By contrast, the Slovak curricular framework does not allow this.
Turning to an example of one of these areas -economics -we see that the education ministry has included fi nancial literacy among the cross-cutting topics (Národný štandard fi nančnej gramotnosti, 2014). Economic content is therefore mainly reduced to fi nance and the ability to make responsible decisions (for more, see Danišková, 2018), but it is possible to expose pupils 5 One series of primary school textbooks that are available to teachers in Czechia is called Society, not Local Studies. 6 Th e Czech and Slovak primary levels diff er in length: the Czech one is fi ve years and the Slovak one four. Th e possible objection that topics not covered during the fi rst four years could appear in the fi fth does not hold because there is no separate civic education subject in Year 5 (geography and history are separate subjects). systematically to a wider range of economic concepts, and not just through incidental teaching. Th e Czech education studies group around František Jiránek showed how this can be done. Th e infl uence of this group can still be seen in Czech textbooks today.

DIDACTICS
Contemporary education studies, like many other disciplines, feels the need to respond to requests for pragmatism emanating from society. A wide range of areas is under pressure from pragmatic rationality: the preference may be for applied research as it leads to useful and life-enhancing fi ndings (Štech, 2020) or for employmentfocused subjects or studies that emphasise experience and practicability. Th is last applies to the university education required by all teachers wishing to teach in the compulsory education sector. In this case, the response is to increase the practical component and quality of practice for future teachers, but the emphasis is also on didactics. It is this latter that distinguishes historians from history teachers and physicists from physics teachers, helping them understand the way pupils learn. 7 Th e focus on teaching skills -the part of education studies that has the potential to distinguish, specialise, save, and, above all, professionalise teachers (see, for example, Duschinská & High, 2019;Slavík et al., 2017aSlavík et al., , 2017b -has recently become a crucial component, and this gives hope that we live in an era of skills -of both general and specialist skills.
Th e previous part attempted to describe the excessive rigidity of the content of human and social science subjects at primary school. Th is rigidity could be defended if the partial didactics were suffi ciently developed and the subject of serious research. However, this idea should be treated with a hefty dose of scepticism.
Despite the increasing popularity of didactics, they receive little attention in education debates in Slovakia (social studies). And, even worse, the limited but interesting research that is available is ignored. Education studies students will encounter textbooks on didactics for local studies (e.g. Navrátilová, 2002;Kancír & Madziková, 2003;Korim et al., 1995) from which they can learn something of the history of the subject and the methods and resources (general teaching methods) and gain the feeling that trips and experiential learning are considered important, or that there are gaps in their knowledge of geography and history (limited knowledge of cultural background studies, history), but they will learn nothing about pedagogical content knowledge, which is of much greater importance (Janík, 2009).
Th e human and social science components of knowledge and understanding of the world and, in later years, local studies are preparatory subjects for the subsequent study of geography and history -orientation in time and space underpin the content and the emphasis is on grasping two basic key concepts, maps and timelines. Th ese two concepts are taught to children at an age when they do not yet think like adults, and the concepts are hard to grasp -not because they are diffi cult but because the children have yet to develop the necessary cognitive processes. Many of the terms used in local studies lessons are not part of a primary school child's active verbal vocabulary (such as the scale of a map). But that does not matter since they are merely used in relation to the activities associated with them and consequently there is no need to provide explicit defi nitions (Machalová, 2004(Machalová, /2005. One can identify a constructivist approach behind this argument, but while such approaches need not always be the preferred choice, they can prove useful and produce good results when used in relation to key elements of local studies content. Similar didactic experiments have been used in Czechoslovak settings, including some that are much older (Jiránek, 1974;Vyskočilová, 1973Vyskočilová, , 1976Pupala, 1994) than the textbook didactics mentioned above. It is there-fore surprising to fi nd that these approaches, which work and make sense, are not used and that we are unable to develop them and include them in our textbooks.
Moreover, research reports and the professional literature by the Czech "school" of Jiránek and Vyskočilová both explain and justify the need for pupils to have personal experience and take their time, and they also provide a step-by-step model for guiding pupils through the fi rst to last years of primary education -this can be fi nd in the textbooks of which Eva Vyskočilová is the main author (Vyskočilová et al., 2000a(Vyskočilová et al., , 2000b(Vyskočilová et al., , 2001. Th e textbooks take the pupils through a set of exercises and problems covering topics of interest to them at that age and before they come across terms such as timelines, centuries, and maps. 8 For example, back in 1976, in relation to developing the foundations of historical thinking, Eva Vyskočilová showed how the traditional learning content relating to the calendar can serve as a means of decentring pupil thinking, which is crucial to basic pupil development. Nowadays, teachers can choose from a number of social studies textbooks, but only two are state-funded (two on local studies and two on knowledge and understanding of the world). Th ese textbooks (or workbooks) have done well in public competitions, but when we come to look at the way the calendar is taught, it is clear that none of these textbooks exploits it fully. While Vyskočilová calls for relationships and operational tasks that prompt pupils to go back in time, the calendar itself is produced by the children. By contrast, Slovak textbooks present traditional models of the calendar in which the various parts are learnt orally along with the order they come in and their interrelations, but the provided calendar represents the starting point, not the end point, of the lesson (Adame & Kováčiková, 2015, pp. 24-25;Adame & Kováčiková, 2016, pp. 22-23;Kožuchová & Rochovská, 2018a, pp. 12-13, Kožuchová & Rochovská, 2018b. Th e supplementary teaching materials that are available on the market do not contain activities presented in the way Vyskočilová presents them. For example, tests for Year 2 and Year 3 pupils (Timčíková, 2011) contain exercises in which the pupils have to say which part is incorrect -in the weekday version, pupils have to name six days, with one of the days being spelt incorrectly (sreda vs streda, or Wensday instead of Wednesday); in the weekend version three items are given, with the incorrect one being nedeľník [weekly] (instead of nedeľa [Sunday]), while in a workbook called Hravá vlastiveda (Adamová et al., 2017) the calendar is not covered at all.
But we need not rely on Czech experience alone. A Slovak academic, Pupala, conducted key research into children's cartography. Pupala does not consider maps to be mere examples or teaching aids; instead they "resemble texts with a special symbolic language" (Pupala & Mašková, 1997, p. 327). Consequently, he argues that they should be used for the "early activation of cartographical cognitive methods" or for the "cognitive stimulation of children using cartographic materials prior to the acquisition of the conventional principles of cartographic illustrations" (ibid). Drawing on his research fi ndings, Pupala recommends using such teaching approaches with younger children before they come to learn about proper maps. Here it is crucial to use materials containing plans or maps accompanied by a series of tasks that motivate the children to come to understand how the space is graphically illustrated. Th e Czech experience of experiments and the subsequent textbooks and Pupala's experiment from 1994 are disregarded in contemporary Slovak textbooks aimed at the fi rst two years of primary education, which still present the materials using verbal instructions that take little account of the individual's constructivist genesis of conceptual notions (Adame & Kováčiková, 2015, 2016, and in same case do not even do that (Kožuchová & Rochovská, 2018a, 2018b. Th e textbooks lack exercises dealing with spatial relations (reversibility, hypothetical changes in the viewing angle, the I-object/object-I relation), which form part of the basic skill set required for map work, as Šebková and Vyskočilová (1997) in the Czech Republic have shown.
Th e teams of textbook designers focus on making textbooks appealing and inventive. Th ey provide a wealth of activation tasks such as puzzles, word searches and riddles, project ideas, and web or online support, but the innovative and novelty aspects should be based on the latest teaching approaches, and the foundations of these lie elsewhere. Textbook writers would do better to seek author exclusivity in the adept instructional transformation of the subject matter, but that requires expertise and in-depth knowledge.

CONCLUSION
Th is article has attempted to outline the future direction of primary social studies in Slovakia. Th e Czech Republic was selected as the referential framework for this exercise. It would, after all, be insensitive to adopt a primary social studies model from a country with a very diff erent historical and social backdrop. Neighbouring Czechia has been used in an attempt to show that the subjects relating to social science may have different historical backgrounds, but that does not mean that the subject content must be fi xed and immutable. Nor does it mean that teaching approaches should continue to reproduce clumsy and unproductive classifi cations and defi nitions.
Changes and innovations in education should be introduced in a cautious and carefully-thought-out manner. Academics and school teachers can be too quick to trust the latest fashionable trends in content and methodology that they fi nd appealing and seem easy. Nonetheless, that is not the case described here: the social studies suggestions are a natural step in curricular and didactic development.
Th e type of content change that could enhance primary education is not ideologically oriented, but consists of topics that are naturally represented in social studies and humanities education (the economic concepts of the division of labour or limited resources do not represent an ideological conception of fi nancial literacy). Nor is this type of content artifi cial, or imported from a diff erent educational "culture". Inspiration can be found closer to home, in a country with which we have a close relationship and a shared history.