Qualitative Content Analysis of German Language Subject Curriculum for Primary Education in the Republic of Croatia in Terms of Intercultural Competence
by Martina Kramar (Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb, Croatia)
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The focus of this research lies on the Qualitative Analysis of the German Language Subject Curriculum (2019) in the Republic of Croatia from the first to the fourth grade of primary schools. The main goal of this research is to present a Qualitative Content Analysis of the current Curriculum (2019) for the school subject German as the First Foreign Language related to the implementation of Intercultural Competence in three categories: (1) Educational goals of learning and teaching, (2) Educational outcomes and (3) Evaluation of educational outcomes. These categories were developed within deductive approach based on Göbel and Hesse (2004). Their research presents development of Intercultural Competence in English Language Subject Curricula for the ninth grade in sixteen federal states of the Federal Republic of Germany. The central model for the Qualitative Content Analysis of the German Language Subject Curriculum (2019) inthe Republic of Croatia is the Model of Intercultural Competence according to Erll and Gymnich (2007), which includes the broad definition of Intercultural Competence and consists of three components (cognitive, affective and pragmatic-communication "subcompetences").
German Language Subject Curriculum in the Republic of Croatia was adopted in 2019 as the act of the Ministry of Science and Education, while its predecessor, the Curriculum for primary schools, dates from the year 2006. The introductory part of this research comprises international models of Intercultural Competence (Bennett, 1993; Byram 1997; Erll & Gymnich, 2007; Allemann-Ghionda, 2014; Göbel & Buchwald, 2017), basic definitions of curricula and a review of European documents related to the development of Curricula for Foreign Languages. The results of the Qualitative Content Analysis on the German Language Subject Curriculum (2019) in the Republic of Croatia show that the development of intercultural knowledge and skills is represented and more closely defined in categories (1) Educational goals of learning and teaching and (2) Educational outcomes. In the category (3) Evaluation of educational outcomes, it is possible to identify the evaluation of educational outcomes related to knowledge about one's own culture and the other cultures, as well as skills of intercultural behaviour.
Key words: qualitative content analysis; foreign languages; intercultural competence; curriculum; educational outcomes
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