Yugoslav Non-alignment and the Global South in Primary School Curricula and Textbooks in Socialist Slovenia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51663/pnz.66.2.11Keywords:
non-alignment, the Global South, school textbooks, Slovenia, socialist YugoslaviaAbstract
This article examines representations of Yugoslav non-alignment and the Global South in socialist Slovenian primary education. Drawing on a systematic analysis of Slovenian curricula and textbooks for History and Social and Moral Education throughout the entire period of socialist Yugoslavia, it explores how the ideas of non-alignment and images of the Global South were incorporated into compulsory education and conveyed to younger generations. Although these topics occupied relatively limited space in the curriculum, textbook narratives displayed a striking degree of normative coherence. Interpretations of the post-war world were framed around the principles of the United Nations, the rejection of bloc politics, the condemnation of imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism, and the promotion of peaceful coexistence, international solidarity, and the rights of peoples to self-determination, independence, and equality. Yugoslavia was portrayed as a leading advocate of these values and as one of the principal architects of the Non-Aligned Movement. This discourse legitimised the country’s foreign policy orientation while fostering among younger generations a sense of belonging to a global project that transcended Cold War divisions. The Global South was presented primarily through the lens of anticolonial emancipation and Yugoslav solidarity with newly independent states and liberation movements. The article argues that school textbooks did not merely transmit knowledge about non-alignment and the Global South but actively contributed to institutionalising and reproducing a particular vision of global order, international solidarity, and Yugoslavia’s place in the world.
References
Viri in literatura
Arhivski viri
SI AS – Arhiv Republike Slovenije:
SI AS 1589, Centralni komite Zveze komunistov Slovenije.
Učni načrti in učbeniki
»Predmetnik in učni načrt za osnovno šolo.« Objave Republiškega sekretariata za prosveto in kulturo SRS XVII (15. junij 1966).
Artač, Marija. Gradivo za pouk temeljev socialistične morale. Ljubljana: Zavod za šolstvo SRS, 1969.
Božič, Branko in Tomaž Weber. Zgodovina za osmi razred. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 1976.
Gestrin, Ferdo, Jože Hainz in Metod Mikuž. Zgodovina za VIII. razred osnovne šole. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1958.
Izbrana poglavja za družbenomoralno vzgojo. Ljubljana: Zavod za šolstvo SR Slovenije, 1973.
Osnovna šola: vsebina vzgojno-izobraževalnega dela. Ljubljana: Zavod SRS za šolstvo, 1975.
Osolnik, Bogdan. Jugoslavija v gibanju neuvrščenih. Ljubljana: Zavod SR Slovenije za šolstvo, 1981.
Predmetnik in učni načrt osnovne šole. Ljubljana: Zavod SR Slovenije za šolstvo, 1983.
Predmetnik in učni načrt za osnovne šole. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 1962.
Rus, Vojan in Jože Šter. Družba in socialistična morala: učbenik družbenomoralne vzgoje za 8. razred. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1977.
Škerl, France. Zgodovina za 8. razred osnovnih šol. Ljubljana: Zavod za napredek šolstva SRS, 1966.
Šter, Jože in Savin Jogan. Družba in socialistična morala: učbenik za 8. razred osnovne šole. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 1988.
Učni načrt za nižje razrede gimnazij in višje razrede osnovnih šol. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, 1954.
Literatura
Apple, Michael W. Ideology and Curriculum. New York: Routledge, 2004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203487563
De Castell, Suzanne, Allan Luke in Carmen Luke. »Beyond Criticism: The Authority of the School Textbook.« V: Language, Authority and Criticism: Readings on the School Textbook. Uredili Suzanne De Castell, Allan Luke in Carmen Luke, 245–60. London, New York: Falmer Press, 1989.
Foster, Stuart J. in Keith A. Crawford, ur. What Shall We Tell the Children?: International Perspectives on School History Textbooks. Greenwich, CT: IAP, 2006. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-60752-534-9
Gabrič, Aleš. Sledi šolskega razvoja na Slovenskem. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut, 2009. https://www.pei.si/ISBN/978-961-270-016-4.pdf. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32320/978-961-270-016-4
Höpken, Wolfgang. »History Education and Yugoslav (Dis-)Integration.« V: Öl ins Feuer? – Oil on Fire?: Schulbücher, ethnische Stereotypen und Gewalt in Südosteuropa – Textbooks, Ethnic Stereotypes and Violence in Southeastern Europe, ur. Wolfgang Höpken, 99–124. Hannover: Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1996.
Jeismann, Karl-Ernst. »Internationale Schulbuchforschung: Aufgaben und Probleme.« Internationale Schulbuchforschung 1, št. 1 (1979): 7–22.
Koren, Snježana. Politika povijesti u Jugoslaviji (1945–1960): Komunistička partija Jugoslavije, nastava povijesti, historiografija. Zagreb: Srednja Europa, 2012.
Kovačević, Nataša. Nonaligned Imagination: Yugoslavia, the Global South, and Literary Solidarities Beyond the Cold War Blocs. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.31913373
Lässig, Simone. »Textbooks and Beyond: Educational Media in Context(s).« Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society 1, št. 1 (2009): 1–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/jemms.2009.010101
Mithans, Gašper in Mateja Režek. »Shifting Paradigms: Religiosity and Atheization in Socialist Slovenia.« V: Communist Perspectives on Atheism in the Twentieth Century. Uredila Eva Guigo-Patzelt, 105–21. Abingdon, New York: Routledge, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003603184-9
Najbar Agičić, Magdalena. U skladu s marksizmom ili činjenicama?: hrvatska historiografija 1945–1960. Zagreb: Ibis, 2013.
Petrungaro, Stefano. Pisati povijest iznova: hrvatski udžbenici povijesti 1918.–2004. godine. Zagreb: Srednja Europa, 2009.
Radonjić, Nemanja. »A Non-Aligned Continent: Africa in the Global Imaginary of the Socialist Yugoslavia.« V: Socialist Yugoslavia and the Non-Aligned Movement: Social, Cultural, Political, and Economic Imaginaries. Uredil Paul Stubbs, 302–28. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780228015802-016
Radonjić, Nemanja. Slika Afrike u Jugoslaviji. Beograd: Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije, 2023.
Režek, Mateja. »Nevidna cenzura zgodovinopisja v socializmu.« V: Cenzurirano: zgodovina cenzure na Slovenskem od 19. stoletja do danes. Uredila Mateja Režek, 217–34. Ljubljana: Nova revija, 2010.
Režek, Mateja. »The Ideologization of History Education and Textbooks in Slovenia (Yugoslavia) during Socialism, 1945–1990.« V: Nationhood and Politicization of History in School Textbooks: Identity, the Curriculum and Educational Media. Uredila Gorana Ognjenović in Jasna Jozelić, 17–42. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38121-9_3
Režek, Mateja. »Usmerjena preteklost: mehanizmi ideološke in politične 'kontaminacije' zgodovinopisja v socialistični Sloveniji in Jugoslaviji (1945–1966).« Acta Histriae 22, št. 4 (2014): 971–92.
Stojanović, Dubravka. Prošlost dolazi: promene u tumačenjima prošlosti u srpskim udžbenicima istorije 1913–2021. Beograd: Čigoja štampa, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.62215/2744-2365.2024.5.5.191
Stubbs, Paul. »Ausnahme oder Modell? Das sozialistische Jugoslawien, die Sozialpolitik und die Bewegung der Blockfreien Staaten während des Kalten Krieges.« Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung (2024): 229–48. https://www.kommunismusgeschichte.de/jhk/article/detail/ausnahme-oder-modell. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748947035-229
Stubbs, Paul. »Yugocentrism and the Study of the Non-Aligned Movement: Towards a Decolonial Historiography.« History in Flux 3, št. 3 (2021): 133–55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32728/flux.2021.3.6
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Mateja Režek
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
