For God and for nation! The ideologisation of schools and education under the changing relationship between church and state in Slovakia

Abstract

The present study analyses education policy in Slovakia and determines the role of the church in education governance and the church–state relationship in education policy. The church–state relationship is also evident in the specific constellations of the national curriculum. The study highlights the de-secularisation trend in education policy and curricula and identifies the links between religious and nationalist education content, which are largely a relic of the historical (and controversial) era of Slovak statehood building. It also analyses Ethical Education, which is a specific (and internationally unique) school subject in Slovakia that has been shaped by a particular church–state ‘ideological governing form’.