The Cultural Needs and Habits of Educators in Serbia

The main idea of the project is to assess the correlation between the educational system and cultural participation. The studies of the Center for Study in Cultural Development from 2010 and 2011 which focused on the cultural needs of the students, i.e. high-school pupils, showed a low level of participation of young people in the cultural life of Serbia. On the other hand, there has not been much research thus far on the level of participation in public cultural consumption of educators and their cultural needs. The question of cultural participation of educators that are in daily contact with young people is very important, because their personal example, apart from their professional activities, affect the cultural needs and tastes of the pupils.

Empirical research on the cultural needs and habits of educators and how they view the cooperation between education and culture of Serbia is a pioneer one in this domain and was conducted on a sample of 1070 teachers from 338 elementary schools in Serbian cities that are administrative centers.

The research found the following:

• Educators usually spend their free time with their family and friends, followed by reading books or browsing the internet.
• Educators use leisure time for cultural activities more than people in other occupations.
• The cultural habits of educators are connected with their activities of organizing trips to cultural institutions for pupils.

Apart from that, the research results show the following:

• Children in lower elementary school grades visit cultural events more frequently, while visits for pupils in higher elementary school grades occur more rarely.
• The program of cultural institutions is not sufficiently aligned with school curriculums.
• The cooperation between educational systems and culture at the local level is based solely on the enthusiasm of individual teachers.
• For better communication between schools and cultural institutions, cooperation needs to be defined at a national level, by creating strategic documents and/or special policies.

These results correspond to the findings of the research within the project We Are Family! Family Days in Museums of Serbia as a Tourist Offer and Culture and Laws (in the segment about regulation on museum activities).