V prispevku je predstavljen razvoj socialne geografije v devetdesetih letih njenega obstoja na ljubljanski univerzi. Ta razvoj je mogoče razdeliti v tri obdobja: (1) dobo tradicionalne geografije; ...(2) dobo hitre industrializacije in z njo povezanih procesov urbanizacije ter deagrarizacije, ki so se odražali v spremembah podobe ter funkcije slovenske pokrajine; in (3) obdobje po osamosvojitvi Slovenije, katerega zlasti po vstopu v EU zaznamujejo poskusi uveljavljanja sonaravnega in trajnostnega razvoja.
The paper discusses minorities and their problems along borders of post-WWII Europe and of nation states formed in the early 1990' s. One focuses on the socio-geographic conditions of the territory ...settled by minorities. These territories are most often peripheral, less developed areas of the state and are, because of the constant ignorance of the local culture and language, conflict regions, where interests of the minority and majority population of the state, as well as of the neighboring countries clash. Finally, an attempt of a cross-cultural comparison is undertaken to distinguish among major elements of the minority (protection) arrangements of the Alpen-Adria region and of the areas along the long-time closed borders of Central Europe.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought immense challenges to global society. The entire social and work life had to be reorganized to accommodate for the restrictions imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19. ...These restrictions affected the eduFIGation worldwide as well. Face-to-face education was disrupted and alternatives had to be found. One of the questions raised with the disruption was the student outcomes in the times when the usual teaching and learning was disrupted by the lockdowns and remote classes took place. There are not many studies on the topic in Slovenia but, more importantly, the existing ones do not use representative data to investigate the depth of the problem. The aim of this article is to fill this gap in research through comprehensive and in-depth analyses of the Slovenian student, school and teacher data from the international Responses to Educational Disruption Survey (REDS), conducted in 2020/2021. The data analysis involves descriptive and multivariate statistical methods appropriate for the mostly categorical data available from REDS. The results show that students’ perception on their learning and academic outcomes during the school disruptions depend on their background characteristics, i.e. the disruptions did not affect all students equally. These results are also supported by the findings from school principals’ and teachers’ data. In addition, the long-lasting issue of “grade inflation” in Slovenia has become even more severe, as shown by both student and teacher data. However, students and teachers are at contrasting opinions about student learning—while most of the students think they learned more at home during the disruptions and have shown more progress, teachers are of the opposite opinion. Furthermore, teachers tended to grade students’ academic outcomes higher during the disruptions which has increased the issue of “grade inflation” in Slovenia.
During the COVID-19 pandemic’s school closures and the distance education that resulted from it, teachers were faced with an increasing workload and significant changes in their working environment. ...Because increased workload can result not only in worsened mental health and lower work motivation, but also in worsened learning outcomes, this article explores how teacher-perceived job demands, job resources, and personal resources are related to teachers’ assessment of teaching quality and student engagement during the pandemic. Using the data of 1,422 8th grade teachers in Slovenia from the IEA Responses to Educational Disruptions Survey (REDS) survey, this study also explores the perceived level of support from different institutional actors and the utility of Job demands-resources model for this specific group of workers in a specific work setting. The results show that the teachers of 8th graders in Slovenia perceived a higher level of support from their closest working environment compared to the national bureaucracy. In terms of job demands, the increased workload in preparing the lessons had negative effect on both teaching quality and student engagement, while the reported increase in time spent on direct work with students and social support received (a job resource) contributed positively to both outcome variables. In line with theoretical expectations, personal resources were positive predictors of teaching quality and student engagement in our model. Compared with the initial expectations this study had based on the underlying theoretical model, the results paint a complex relationship between job characteristics and learning outcomes during distance learning. Thus, some of the challenges both teachers and policy-makers face and will continue to face in possible similar situations are discussed.