Retrospective Colonialism

Education Policies of BiH, Croatia and Serbia

Abstract

The research for this paper was motivated by the inadequacy of the EU reforms implemented in the educational systems of B&H, Croatia and Serbia, that is, the problem of the continuous formal and never structural educational reforms in these countries. This paper gives a post-colonial perspective on the educational policies of the Balkan countries, with a special focus on their ways of instrumentalizing education, the relationship and ways of breaking with the socialist education system, and ways of adapting to EU standards. The aim of this paper is to outline the mechanism of latent colonialism, i.e. Europeanization, through the analysis of educational policies in the Balkans, which points to the eternal otherness, almost obscenity of the Balkans, and to point out the responsibility and potential for the engagement of educators in B&H, Serbia and Croatia in the educational process.