Representation of Movement in Alternative Curricula of Early and Preschool Education: The Case of the Republic of Croatia

The aim of the work was to analyse the representation of movement in alternative curricula of early and preschool education and to compare it with the level of representation of movement in the Croatian curriculum. The research used the method of content analysis and compared the curricula of kindergartens where Montessori, Waldorf, Agazzi programmes were implemented to those applying regular programmes. The Chi-squared test was used to determine the significance of the differences between the researched curricula. A statistically significant difference in the overall representation of movement was found between alternative programmes and the Croatian curriculum, while no statistically significant difference was found when comparing alternative curricula. Movement is significantly more represented in alternative curricula compared to the Croatian curriculum for early and preschool education. For alternative pedagogies, movement is one of the key segments of a child's development, and as such, it is strongly represented in educational work.