Abstract:

In Lithuania, the differences in tolerance, citizenship, and respectful communication are becoming more and more acute (radical statements towards other people, other ethnic groups, other religions, persons of different sexual orientation, etc. are becoming more and more active). This makes it necessary to rethink and raise questions about the development of cultural literacy in the country's society.

Lithuanian education documents such as the Law on Education (1991, new version 2021), the State Education Strategy 2013-2022 (2013), the Lithuanian Strategy for Progress 2030 (2019), the Good School Concept (2015), as well as the draft general curricula being updated (2021), all highlight the importance of cultural literacy education, but international and national research shows that good intentions cannot be overcome. In Lithuania, cultural literacy is still referred to as cultural competence. For a long time, the new concepts of cultural literacy (according to F. Meine et al. (2020), Flavell, H. et al. (2013)), and nowadays the updated general education curricula distinguish this competence separately, but it is formulated basically according to the concept of cultural literacy defined by E. D. Hirsch in 1988.

The question naturally arises: what is dialogic education for us, and what does its success depend on? How do we understand cultural literacy? Are we following the latest global trends in defining cultural literacy, or are we still stuck in our own knowledge, even though the change in the educational paradigm implies a shift from a focus on subject matter and knowledge to a focus on the child.

It is becoming important not only to develop cultural literacy, but to develop it not in any way, not by indoctrinating pupils, but by creating and sustaining dialogic education. It is impossible to expect child-centred education without dialogicity.

In addition to highlighting the importance of cultural literacy and dialogic education in pre-school, the article analyses data collected during observations in Lithuanian pre-school groups in 2019-2021 and provides insights into how dialogic education is being implemented in Lithuania's pre-school education in order to strengthen students' cultural literacy. The results of the study suggest that Lithuanian children in pre-school age do not tend to communicate a lot and openly, they try to predict the response expected by the teacher. Children need inspiration (e.g. wordless texts), a teacher who asks targeted questions and encourages dialogue between children is very important. However, it is clear that teachers' formulation of questions and facilitation of dialogue often fails to move away from their own prejudices and preconceived notions of what the right answer is.

Keywords:

Dialogic education, cultural literacy, pre-school age.