What Are Schools For? Citizen Views on Educational Purpose in Serbia

Buturović, Željka and Ignjatović, Suzana (2026) What Are Schools For? Citizen Views on Educational Purpose in Serbia. In: Fifth International Conference: Why Still Education? “Education-Community-Resistance“. University of Belgrade, Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade, p. 20. ISBN 978-86-6190-057-0

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Abstract

We know little about what citizens think the schools are for. Occasional public opinion research typically focuses on spending, school choice, or hot policy issues. To address this gap we conducted an online survey of Serbian adults (N = 2,131) on schooling and education. The survey was administered during a period of unusual politicization of Serbian education, with students and teachers actively involved in nationwide protests against the government and ongoing political interference in school management. Here we report on the Serbian adults’ views of 21 items related to developmental, civic, economic, and identity-related aims of schooling, and designed to reflect ideological tensions specific to the Serbian context, such socialist-era egalitarianism, market orientation, nationalist-religious concerns, and competitive visions of schooling. Exploratory factor analysis produced four dimensions: civic- humanist, nationalist-religious, instrumental/vocational, and competitive-elitist.

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