Intercultural curriculum Croatian Intercultural curriculum Croatian Military SchoolsMilitary Schools

Croatian soldiers (soldiers, NCOs and officers) are daily faced with interculturalism as non-commissioned officers and officers in multinational headquarters or as members of peace support operations, peacekeeping operations and UN organizations.

Due to the above-mentioned, the goal of the Croatian Defence Academy is to prepare NCO's and officers through intercultural education for the high quality execution of the requested tasks.

RESEARCH GOALS

This research aims to identify attitudes and opinions about interculturalism that exist in the Croatian Defence Academy being the only high educational institution of the Croatian Armed Forces.

We would like to clearly determine the phenomenon of interculturalism. In order to explore intercultural curriculum of the Croatian military schools, we will use inter-specific and qualitative research methods such as qualitative analysis of documents (curriculum, documents dealing with military training), methodical observation, biographical studies and ethnographic methods.

"Interculturalism in Education is not just a pedagogical problem, but this is an area where a number of disciplines permeate each other. Narrowly speaking, this is pedagogical, psychological and sociological phenomenon, and it requires educational, psychological and sociological scientific elaboration. "(Sekulic-Majurec, 1996.: 884).

We would like to explore the views and opinions of Officer School students and teachers about interculturalism and if there is a need for cross-cultural curriculum in the Croatian military schools. The school officer will investigate the qualitative analysis of documents (curriculum, documents dealing with military training.) Systematic observation, biographical studies and ethnographic methods will be conducted.

THE CASE STUDYTHE CASE STUDY

In the first part, the exploratory research would be conducted on about 60 Officer School attendees during an advanced officer's training, and on about 120 students during the officer's basic training. In order to implement exploratory research, the questionnaire (adapted from Hofstedet analysis model of national culture) would be used. Thus we would try to define the opinions and attitudes of students and teachers themselves on: socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, political - demographic culture, their interest in the features of other cultures, attitudes toward national - ethnic, religious, and deviant groups.

The second part of the study would be specific procedures of qualitative research methods such as qualitative analysis of documents (curriculum, documents dealing with military training). Systematic observation, biographical studies and ethnographic methods would explore the intercultural aspect of military education.

METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURESMETHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES

It we wish to improve the process of education and training in military schools, we must define all aspects of interculturalism in military education. We have to analyze the results of quality research and interculturalism and use them in everyday work of Croatian military schools by developing a high quality curriculum of military schools in which the results of research would be taken into account.

Expected scientific and practical contribution