Doctoral thesis Intercultural Curriculum for Military Schools..pdf (original) (raw)

2018, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Croatian Armed Forces members encounter interculturalism on a daily basis as soldiers, NCOs and officers in NATO and EU multinational headquarters, either as members of peace support operations, peacekeeping operations or UN organizations. Intercultural education should be dedicated to the entire society and not only to smaller or detached groups in order to be efficient. Intercultural education has a dynamic approach to identity and culture. It is in constant interaction, re-examining its procedures which it develops and adjusts to the newly emerging situation. Intercultural education and training have taken over the role of mutual recognition of, familiarization with and understanding of different cultures. It is directed at developing experience that a person acquires among various nations and different cultures. The paper states that the development of an intercultural curriculum of military schools is imperative for military education which is specific in itself, especially intercultural military education. Its development will ensure a more quality work with members of other military organizations in multinational headquarters and with other partners, such as the police, governmental and non-governmental organizations and the UN. In our opinion intercultural education cannot be studied separately or within certain projects or subjects. It is important to include intercultural perspective in all disciplines, all military school subjects and in all planned activities. This paper examines the attitudes of military school students at the first, second and third level of military education toward Europan democratic values, social distance and their adoption of certain elements of the culture of national and ethnic groups. The paper conducts analysis of all military school curricula at the first, second and third level of military education with elements of interculturalism. It also examines the attitudes of military school teachers toward interculturalism and whether their participation in peace support operations is a predictor of the teachers' responsibility for interculturalism. Based on the given study results, assumptions have been created to develop an intercultural curriculum in military schools that would be compatible with the Generic Officer Professional Military Education Reference Curriculum of the NATO members states.