The Department of Pedagogy was founded in 1963 and it matriculated its first generation of students in the 1963/64 academic year. Prior to the Department of Pedagogy being established, pedagogical disciplines had been developing for some time at the Faculty of Philosophy within the Department of Philosophy, where the necessary staffing and organisational potential accumulated for founding the Department. Petar Mandić, Nikola Filipović, Branko Rakić and Muhamed Muradbegović were the first full-time faculty for pedagogy courses at the newly established Chair (later the Department of Pedagogy), while Aleksandar Bojkovski and Ismet Dizdarević taught courses in psychology. In addition to full-time faculty, a number of visiting professors—Zlatko Pregrad, Mihajlo Ogrizović and Boris Petz from Zagreb, and Borivoje Samolovčev, Tihomir Prodanović and Radivoj Kvaščev from Belgrade—contributed to the improvement and strengthening of staff at the Department of Pedagogy. Other professors, including Dragutin Franković, Anđelko Krković, Mladen Zvonarević, Nenad Havelka and Muhamed Dervišbegović, selflessly helped in the further development of the Department.
In 1969, the Department of Pedagogy was transformed into the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology in response to the social needs at the time. Actually, during this transformation process, the Department was initially named the Department of Pedagogy with Psychology and was later renamed the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology. Today, the Department of Pedagogy has a good staffing situation and is attractive to prospective students; it educates experts for work in educational and other institutions through a five-year programme. The development of the Department has also created good conditions for the strengthening of scholarly and professional potential within the discipline of psychology. At the time, psychologists Ismet Dizdarević, Nedjeljka Gajanović, Ratko Dunđerović, Ejub Čehić, Petar Stojaković, Renko Đapić and others advanced and were promoted at the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology. Since the 1988/89 academic year, the Department of Pedagogy and Psychology has functioned as two independent departments: the Department of Pedagogy and the Department of Psychology. Today, these are two fully-staffed and strong departments at the Faculty of Philosophy and their professional and academic reputations are constantly improving.
Ever since the inception of the Department of Pedagogy, faculty members and later the first alumni have been actively participating in the public and cultural life of our community. The Department of Pedagogy has been and continues to be invaluable for the education of school pedagogues, essential professional staff that has found its place in almost every school in BiH, as well as for the education of other kinds of professionals. Today, graduated pedagogues work in publishing, journalism, culture, art, as well as in politics, social work, the NGO sector dealing with education and children’s rights, etc. Some of the most significant journals in pedagogy, such as Naša škola, Prosvjetni list, Porodica i dijete, Obrazovanje odraslih, have, as a rule, been edited by faculty members and staff from the Department of Pedagogy or its respected alumni or prestigious associates of the Department. The Department was and remains a meeting place for workers in education, professionals who create educational policies, education administrators, as well as experts and academics.
Faculty from this Department have thoughtfully helped in the development and strengthening of pedagogical staff in other regions and at other universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since the Department’s early days, they have actively participated in teaching the pedagogical group of courses at various teacher training faculties of the University of Sarajevo, as well as at teacher training faculties at some other universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Members of the Department hold many significant functions and participate in important activities, not only in the realms of education, scholarship and culture, but also in public and political life. They have actively participated in the development of pedagogical associations and the growth and affirmation of pedagogical media. They have served as ministers, as president of the Presidency of BiH (Nikola Filipović), as well as vice-rector, dean, and vice-dean. They have also participated at numerous pedagogical meetings and conferences at home and abroad. Two faculty members are members of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Dr. Petar Mandić and Dr. Adila Pašalić Kreso. In addition to teaching and readying experts for academic work, faculty members and associates from the Department have published a series of reputable monographs, studies, textbooks, proceedings and handbooks.
The library holdings in pedagogy are rich in both local and international texts. When the library was established, Sunčica Cerić was the librarian for a long time. Afterwards, Sadžida Bjelak was the librarian for a short period, followed by Vesna Čolović and currently Elvira Poljak.
Today, the Department of Pedagogy programme is organised into three cycles: the undergraduate programme lasts three years and the graduate programme lasts two years. Both study cycles offer the possibility of a single-subject or combined study, which has been a tradition at the Department of Pedagogy. The combined study programme allows for a combination with most other departments and chairs at the Faculty of Philosophy. The curriculum at the Department has regularly been updated and harmonised with the needs of society and of the profession. The Department was among the first at the Faculty to introduce elective courses for all years of the programme and specialisation in the final year. Following the 2005 University reforms in line with the Bologna Process, the Department has offered and continues to offer innovations in its curriculum, constantly considering the adequacy of new concepts for the contemporary needs of scholarship and the marketplace.
Every year, the study of pedagogy attracts a significant number of high school graduates. In addition to regular instruction, as part of activities connected to the idea of lifelong learning and permanent professional development, the Department of Pedagogy regularly organises one-semester or two-semester long programmes for the pedagogical education of high school teachers who haven’t received this kind of training as part of their (under)graduate studies.
To date, 2153 students have graduated from the Department of Pedagogy, receiving the qualification of Pedagogy Professor. 159 students have obtained their master’s degrees and 79 candidates have completed their doctoral studies. Following the introduction of Bologna reforms, the first study cycle has been completed by 417 students and the second cycle has been completed by 219 students. This academic year, ten graduate programmes, master’s programmes and specialised programmes are being offered. The first one of these was established in 1971/72. Generations of graduate students followed in 1974/75, 1978/79, 1979/80, 1982/83, 1986/87, 1988/89, 1997/98, 2001/02, 2005/06 and 2008/09. In 2016, a doctoral programme in “Theories and Scholarship on Creative Upbringing and Education” was established. Students at these programmes have mostly been undergraduate alumni of Pedagogy, Pedagogy and Psychology, or some other programmes usually from one of the teacher training faculties. Graduate students have come from all over Bosnia and Herzegovina and from almost all the republics and regions of the former Yugoslavia. Professors from numerous other faculties and universities have participated in the graduate programmes, including Mladen Zvonarević, Nikola Nikša Šoljan, Vladimir Mužić, Boris Petz, Vlasta Spitek, Vlatko Previšić, Neven Hrvatić, Milan Matijević, Vedrana Spajić Vrkaš from Zagreb; Tihomir Prodanović, Dušan Savičević, Radivoj Kvaščev, Nikola Potkonjak, Ivica Radovanović from Belgrade; France Strmčnik from Ljubljana; Emil Kamenov from Novi Sad; Ljubomir Berberović, Arif Tanović, Hasan Hadžiomerović, Zlata Grebo, Tvrtko Švob, Amir Ljubović, Srebren Dizdar, Marina Katnić-Bakaršić, Jasna Bajraktarević, Kemal Bakaršić, Senada Dizdar from Sarajevo. Twenty-three respected professors from outside the Department have participated in the realisation of the “Humanisation of Gender Relations” graduate programme. One of the most important graduate programmes offered is the international master’s programme “Individualisation and Inclusion in Education” organised in cooperation with the Finnish University of Joensuu (2001-2002), with instruction in both English and the local language. Students go on a one-month study-visit to Finland, where some of the instruction is carried out. Students from this graduate programme have received diplomas that are recognised in both Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Finland and the Finnish diploma is recognised across Europe. The first graduation ceremony for these international masters of pedagogical sciences took place in September 2005, on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the Faculty of Philosophy.
In 2007, the Department organised the 13th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies: “Living Together: Education and Intercultual Dialogue”. In 2013, the Department also marked its 50th anniversary with a conference “Taking New Steps in Education and Upbringing”. The Department will mark its 55th anniversary in 2018 with a second international professional and academic conference.
Faculty members from the Department of Pedagogy often cooperate with national and international institutions for lifelong learning and professional development for teachers, participate in research on national and international projects (TEPD, CES, COI, OSCE, UNDP, CEEPUS, ERASMUS+) and publish their work in national and international journals and publications. Some faculty members have been repeatedly invited to serve as visiting professors at other universities in Europe and the USA, they have conducted research abroad and were awarded Fulbright scholarships. Since the war, the Department has successfully cooperated in the exchange of staff, students and literature, and has participated in joint projects with a number of foreign universities: University of Pittsburgh, University of Dayton, University of Michigan, Teachers College at Columbia University, Kent State University, Florida International University, Yale University (USA); University of Joensuu and University of Jyvaskyla (Finland); the Sergei Yesenin State Pedagogical Institute in Ryazan (Russia); the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb (Croatia); the Faculty of Philosophy in Ljubljana (Slovenia); the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (Serbia). The Department has hosted a number of visiting scholars during their time at the University in Sarajevo.
During the 2017/18 academic year, the Department established a separate programme in Special Pedagogy in response to social trends and the needs of current pedagogical practice.
Since its founding, the following individuals have served at the Department of Pedagogy as faculty members, associates and assistants: Nikola Filipović, Petar Mandić, Branko Rakić, Muhamed Muradbegović, Darinka Mitrović, Marko Palekčić, Maja Bakić-Đurić, Veljko Banđur, Ismet Dizdarević, Ratko Dunđerović, Renko Đapić, Petar Stojaković, Vladimir Erceg, Nedjeljka Gajanović, Hašim Muminović, Milenko Brkić, Mujo Slatina, Mladen Bevanda, Adila Pašalić-Kreso, Lidija Pehar-Zvačko, Dževdeta Ajanović, Mirjana Mavrak, Azra Jajatović, Fuad Hegić, Amir Pušina, Lejla Kafedžić, Lejla Hodžić, Emina Dedić, Snježana Šušnjara, Sandra Bjelan, Dženeta Camović, Amina Isanović, Anida Sadiković and Meliha Suljagić.
The Department continued to operate during the war thanks to faculty members Nikola Filipović, Hašim Muminović (head of the Department during the war years), Mujo Slatina, and Mladen Bevanda and teaching assistant Mirjana Mavrak. These individuals also contributed to the work of the Department of Psychology which was left with a single faculty member, Ranko Đapić.
Currently the Department consists of two full professors (Hašim Muminović and Lidija Pehar-Zvačko), four associate professors (Mirjana Mavrak, Snježana Šušnjara, currently head of the Department, Lejla Kafedžić and Amir Pušina), four assistant professors (Lejla Hodžić, Emina Dedić Bukvić, Dženeta Camović and Sandra Bjelan-Guska), three teaching associates (Amina Isanović Hadžiomerović, Merima Zukić and Edina Nikšić Rehibić) and two teaching assistants (Anida Sadiković and Meliha Suljagić).