Abstract:

In Latvia’s policy documents, culture of Latvia is understood as culture of the state of Latvia, which includes culture of Latvians, the country’s indigenous people, and culture of all diasporas living in Latvia. Latvia has long been a multinational and multilingual country, and this peculiarity is highlighted at the level of today’s official policy as an important value for Latvia at both national and international levels.

The cultural heritage of Latvia preserved to this day consists of a set of spiritual and material values of the entire population of Latvia regardless of ethnicity. Modern curricula support and introduce the mentioned understanding of culture in the education system. In order to consistently adhere to the strategic cultural guidelines of policy documents, the education reform is underway and will contribute to modern acquisition of culture at schools.

The aim of the research is to analyse how “cultural heritage”, “cultural literacy” and “participation” are reflected in Latvia's national policy documents and in curricula that manage the educational process. The research also draws attention to how the European cultural heritage is understood in Latvian policy documents and curricula.

The curricula are subject to different interpretations in regards to priorities of the cultural policy. Creativity plays a major role in policy documents, both with regard to development of personality as well as the nation. A creative individual is considered to facilitate the development of national culture and economy. In the context of preserving the Latvian cultural heritage and strengthening the sense of belonging to the Latvian cultural space, education puts emphasis on the Latvian identity whose shaping and strengthening is also a priority of the national cultural policy. The aspect of cultural diversity is also highlighted in curricula. Pupils have an opportunity to acquire relatively broad knowledge of development stages and features of the European culture and compare development of other European cultures with that of the Latvian culture. Thus, the curricula consider the Latvian identity part of the European identity as is the case with policy documents.

Keywords:

Policy documents, curricula, cultural heritage, participation, creativity, identity.