The main purpose of this article is to describe the process of development and validation of a research instrument for measuring the presence of democratic school leadership characteristics. The instrument has been developed and validated in the city of Zagreb and Zagreb County in Croatia in four phases: theoretical construction; expert validation (N = 6 experts); pilot research (N = 77 teachers); and instrument structure validation through the main research (N = 651 teachers). The expert validation and pilot research took place in 2018. The main research was conducted in January and February 2019. According to Carmines and Zeller (1979), the results of the factor analysis, which show that the instrument is measuring a single phenomenon, indicate that all four hypotheses have been fulfilled. More specifically, several aspects of the extracted (i.e. unrotated) factor matrix support the following four hypotheses: the (unrotated) factor matrix of all 32 items explains a total of 66.793% of the variance; subsequent components demonstrate the fairly equal proportions of the remaining variance except for a gradual decrease; all items have high factor loadings on the first component (from .603 to .861); and all items have higher loadings on the first than on the second component.

This article investigates the frequency of what we define as supportive and unsupportive parental behaviors and whether there is a statistically significant difference in the frequency of parental behaviors in reference to different parental characteristics (level of education, employment status, socio-economic status). This research involved a sample of 3500 parents of children aged 5 and 6. The results show that such supportive parental behaviors are used more frequently than unsupportive ones. Still, approximately 25% of parents implement modes of behavior that the literature suggests hinders children’s optimal development, whereas for 10% the frequency of such behaviors is very high. The results confirm that the level of education, employment status, and socio-economic family status represent significant factors in the quality of parental care. Moreover, these can enhance the risk factors in given familial contexts. In the process of creating support programs and finding ways of strengthening family resilience, and other public policies and strategies to prevent risks of social exclusion caused by familial factors, it is important to bear in mind the heterogeneity of the risks of social exclusion within the family and to respond to the specific needs and challenges of different parents and children. When it comes to developing policy, a one-size-fits all approach should, be avoided.

This paper shows results of an empirical study on characteristics of instructional school leadership conducted on the sample of 30 Croatian elementary school principals. Two research questions were asked: 1. How elementary school principals describe and comment instructional school leadership activities that they conduct in their schools, observing them from their own role’s perspective and instructional goals that they want to achieve and 2. How elementary school principals describe and experience circumstances that have an impact on initiation and implementation of previously described instructional school leadership activities. In regards to set questions, elementary qualitative interpretative research approach was used. Data was gathered using written interview, whereas the results of thematic content analysis revealed two key thematic categories: the list of most conducted instructional school leadership activities and key interactions of principals during the implementation of instructional school leadership. Variabilities in the implementation of instructional school leadership in several aspects were observed, out of which key instructional school leadership’s contents and outcomes focused on the strengthening of students’ and teachers’ capacities are singled out as well as roles and principals’ relationship in interaction with various subjects.

Razvoj suvremenog demokratskog društva temelji se na integriranju temeljnih demokratskih vrijednosti u sve njegove sfere i dimenzije, pa tako i u područje odgoja i obrazovanja. Ovakvi se zahtjevi stavljaju i pred škole, a pritom se ključna uloga daje ravnatelju, koji je nositelj i voditelj svake inovacije u svojoj školi (Fullan, 2005; 2007; Bush i Middlewood, 2013; Pont, Nusch i Moorman, 2008; Stein, 2015). Jedan od tipova školskog vođenja koji odgovara ovim zahtjevima naziva se demokratsko školsko vođenje, čiji razvoj s jedne strane utječe na razvoj školske kulture koja se temelji na demokratskim vrijednostima i demokratskim normama, dok s druge strane, ono omogućuje svim uključenima, učenicima i odraslima, stjecanje znanja i razvoj vještina koje će ih učiniti aktivnim građanima. Cilj ovoga rada je analizirati dosadašnje spoznaje u području specifičnog tipa školskog vođenja pod nazivom demokratsko školsko vođenje. Posebna pozornost usmjerit će se na teorijsko-praktičnu operacionalizaciju konstrukta demokratskog školskog vođenja u dosadašnjim istraživanjima. Predstavit će se i analizirati istraživanja koja nude odgovore na pitanja zašto razvijati demokratsko školsko vođenje, kako se ono može razvijati te koja je njegova uloga u razvoju demokratske školske zajednice.

In the spring of 2020, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic caused by the coronavirus, education systems around the world introduced a new form of education called Emergency Remote Education - ERE. Given that parents are important stakeholders in the educational process, their perspective of the new situation can contribute to a better understanding of the educational process that takes place in incident situations. The main aim of the research was to determine how parents of students attending the first four grades of primary school perceive ERE. The research was conducted online in the time of the national lockdown in the spring of 2020. The results indicate that parents have a positive perception of the teacher’s work. Furthermore, parents point out that ERE brings new requirements related to the level of parental involvement in their children's learning process, which creates additional stress and disrupts the daily business performance and family responsibilities and assigns them with a new role of parents as teachers. One third of the parents think that the child gets too many tasks and that ERE is too demanding. Parental overload with ERE, and their perception of child overload with ERE is significantly related to the educational level of the parent, to the parental work status and to the degree of children's independence. The findings of the research lead to a better understanding of the parental role in ERE during the pandemic and can serve as a starting point for the development of a parental support system during new emergency situations.Key words: children; COVID-19 pandemic; Emergency Remote Education; parents' perspective; primary school --- U proljeće 2020. godine, zbog globalne pandemije uzrokovane koronavirusom, obrazovni sustavi u cijelome svijetu uveli su novi oblik obrazovanja nazvan „izvanredno obrazovanje na daljinu – IOD” (eng. Emergency Remote Education). S obzirom na to da su roditelji važni dionici obrazovnoga procesa, njihova perspektiva novonastale situacije važna je za bolje razumijevanje obrazovnoga procesa koji se odvija u incidentnim situacijama. Stoga je temeljni cilj ovoga istraživanja bio utvrditi percepciju IOD roditelja učenika od prvog do četvrtog razreda osnovne škole. Istraživanje je provedeno online tijekom nacionalnoga lockdowna u proljeće 2020. Rezultati ukazuju da roditelji najpozitivnije procjenjuju angažman učiteljice. Nadalje, roditelji ističu da IOD donosi nove zahtjeve vezane za razinu roditeljskoga uključivanja u proces učenja njihove djece što kod njih stvara dodatan stres i remeti svakodnevno izvršavanje poslovnih i obiteljskih obaveza te ih stavlja u novu ulogu roditelja kao učitelja. Trećina roditelja smatra kako dijete dobiva previše zadataka i da je IOD prezahtjevno. Opterećenost roditelja IOD kao i način na koji roditelji percipiraju opterećenost djece IOD značajno je povezano sa stupnjem obrazovanja roditelja, s roditeljskim radnim statusom i sa stupnjem dječje samostalnosti. Nalazi ovoga istraživanja vode boljem razumijevanju roditeljske uloge u IOD tijekom pandemije te mogu poslužiti kao podloga za razvoj sustava podrške roditeljima u mogućim novim incidentnim situacijama.Ključne riječi: djeca; izvanredno obrazovanje na daljinu; pandemija COVID-19; primarno obrazovanje; roditeljska perspektiva

The purpose of this chapter is to elaborate on how different patterns of governance contribute to the contextualisation of lifelong learning policies in a specific social context. Taking opportunity structures as frames, different specific governance patterns in three different social contexts are analysed and explained. Three case studies of policies implemented in three European functional regions are described: Istria (Croatia), Malaga (Spain) and Vale do Ave (Portugal). Attention is given to lifelong learning policies that are oriented towards raising the levels of employability of young adults. The notion of employability has been put forward at the EU policy level through different strategies (e.g., Education and Training 2010 and 2020 programmes) and it informs the construction of policies on problems and the solutions to be provided. Conceptually, this chapter is based on Bartlett and Vavrus’ (Rethinking case studies research: A comparative approach. Routledge, 2017) proposal to use three axes (transversal, vertical and horizontal) to explore and compare cases. Thus, the authors explore different ways in which the “employability” and other relevant approaches are materialised in and adapted to historically situated contexts (transversal axis), by different actors involved at different levels of local/regional designs and implementation scales (vertical axis) of diverse LLL programmes implemented in three EU regions (horizontal axis).