Silvie R. Kučerová, Ph.D.

I consider the mission of my professional life to be breaking down boundaries and clichés. Breaking boundaries in no way means disrespecting others. Therefore, I began my professional career by studying Czech borderland and the inner peripheries around the borders of higher territorial units under the supervision of tutors from the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development at the Faculty of Science of Charles University, Prague (2004 Bc., 2006 Mgr.). My next step was to break down the boundaries between disciplines at the intersection of geographical, pedagogical and economic thinking through the discipline of educational geography, i.e. research on spatial aspects of education and diffusion of information. After the defence of my PhD thesis (2010) and the leadership of a project funded by the Czech Science Foundation (2012-2014) on the development of spatial inequalities in education with an emphasis on rural schools, I crossed the border to international research teams dealing with the links between rural schools, regional communities and education policy actors (since 2011, convenor of Network 14 within the European Educational Research Association (EERA) and co-investigator of internal EERA projects). During my leadership of the multidisciplinary team of the last Czech Science Foundation project (2020-2022) in the field of geography of education, I managed to bridge the experience of my colleagues from different disciplines: quantitative analysis in GIS, work with big administrative datasets in education and qualitative research in educational and political sciences. My secondary professional branch lies in activities related to geography education (participation in projects focusing on visual representations of geographic knowledge or several years as a head of organization committee in Czech Geographic Olympiad).

• 2004 Bc. Demography with Social Geography on Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague
• 2006 Mgr. (passed with merit) Social Geography on Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague
• 2007 Rerum Naturalium Doctoris (RNDr.) Geographical Education and Social Geography on Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague
• 2010 Ph.D. Regional and Political Geography on Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague

• 2007–2017 researcher and assistant professor, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague
• 2008–2009 participation on lectures at Faculty of Business Administration, Prague University of Economics and Business (Bachelor’s study programme Arts Management)
• since 2011 assistant professor, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem
• Member of the Programme Committee of PhD programme (Charles University)
• Membership in editorial boards of the journals Information of the Czech Geographic Society (2009–2014 executive editor) and Geografické rozhledy (2014–2023)
• 2012–2017 head of organization commitee in Czech Geographic Olympiad and further international competitions for gifted students in geography

• DVOŘÁK, D., KUČEROVÁ, S. R., ZILCHER, L., SVOBODA, Z. (2024): Attractive rural schools in Czechia: Different patterns of strategies in the market. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, 34(1), 60–75. DOI: 10.47381/aijre.v34i1.705
• GRISTY, C., HARGREAVES, L., KUČEROVÁ, S. R. (eds.) (2020): Educational Research and Schooling in Rural Europe: An Engagement With Changing Patterns of Education, Space, and Place. Information Age Publishing, Charlotte (USA).
• KUČEROVÁ, S. R., DVOŘÁK, D., MEYER, P., BARTŮNĚK, M. (2020). Dimensions of centralization and decentralization in the rural educational landscape of post-socialist Czechia. Journal of Rural Studies, 74, 280–293. DOI: 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.12.018
• KUČEROVÁ, S. R., HOLLOWAY, S., JAHNKE, H. (2020): The institutionalization of the geography of education: An international perspective. Journal of Pedagogy, 11(1), 13–34. DOI: 10.2478/jped-2020-0002
• KUČEROVÁ, S. R., KUČERA, Z., NOVOTNÁ, K. (2018). Formation of a regional image through geography textbooks: The case of north-west Bohemia. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography, 72 (3), 176–195. DOI: 10.1080/00291951.2018.1468811
• KUČEROVÁ, S. R., MEYER, P., KUČERA, Z., RYBOVÁ, K., ŠMÍD, J. (2022): Venkovská základní škola: Rozmanitost typů v různorodých venkovech. Geografie, 127(1), 67–90. DOI: 10.37040/geografie2022127010075
• KUČEROVÁ, S. R., ŠMÍD, J., NAVAROVÁ, E., DOLEŽAL, M. (2024): School in the rural municipality as an issue of politics: Czech mayors’ attitudes towards the role and support of the local elementary school. European Countryside, 16(2).
• KUČEROVÁ, S. R., TRNKOVÁ, K., MEYER, P. (2019). Changing structures and the role of education in the development of the educational system in Czechia. In Jahnke, H., Kramer, C., Meusburger, P. (eds.): Geographies of Schooling. Knowledge and Space, 14. Springer, Cham, 125–144. https://1url.cz/JziIN
• MEYER, P., KUČEROVÁ, S. R. (2023): Development of the basic school network in Czechia in the last three decades: Changes and current challenges. Geografický časopis, 75(4), 393–408. DOI: 10.31577/geogrcas.2023.75.4.19
• SVOBODA, Z., DVOŘÁK, D., ZILCHER, L., ŠMÍD, J., KUČEROVÁ, S. R. (2022): How rural schools in Czechia respond to parental preferences: Different approaches to students’ well-being. Journal of Pedagogy, 13(2), 105–127. DOI: 10.2478/jped-2022-0010

Academia.edu profile
ResearchGate profile

• GA ČR 20-18545S (2020–2022). Schools in demand: Circumstances of elementary school choice in rural space. Principal investigator
• The project of European Educational Research Association Support for Networks (2017). An international publication Educational research and schooling in rural Europe: An engagement with changing patterns of education, space and place. Project co-manager (together with Cath Gristy and Linda Hargreaves)
• GA ČR P404/12/P374 (2012–2014). Institutional co-operation in regions as a tool for overcoming the territorial inequalities in access to elementary education. Principal investigator
• Support for gifted pupils of primary and secondary schools by Ministry of Education (2012–2017). Recipient as a head of organization commitee in Czech Geographic Olympiad

• Czech Geographic Society (2006–2018 a member of its Head Committee)
• European Educational Research Association (since 2011 convenor of Network 14)
• Czech Educational Research Associaton