Nušić's autobiography: An image of pedagogic procedures in old times or modern didactic-methodological practice?

Abstract

In our research we used the technique of the analysis of pedagogic fiction. We analysed the Autobiography by Branislav Nušić, i.e. the part dealing with education. The assumption is that the students aged 10 to 12 were its best recipients. Yet, however, reading Nušić's schooling epizodes one may deduce that teachers were also serious recipients of this humorous account of the ex-student. According to his experiences, some elements, which Nušić describes, are practically on the level of farcial mockery of everything connected with teaching. Almost every sentence reveals the writer's incompatibility with the educational system. Still, the humorous critique is not on the level of traumatic confession but is so rich with erroneous teaching procedures that it deserves the analysis of the ideational layer from the angle of pedagogic disciplines, especially didactics and methodology. We heartily laugh at pupils in that school and simultaneously pose numerous pedagogic questions. Some of these questions are present in modern school, too. We tried to highlight some of the questions which Nušić poses in the virtual world of the Autobiography and for which we can find certain existing correlatives.

Keywords

• (non)applicability of knowledge
• pedagogic fiction
• the principle of obviousness and abstractness
• pupil
• learning by heart