Ślōnskŏ godka – unleavened folklore or regional language?

In two national censuses, made in the years 2002 and 2011, Silesians emerged as the largest minority occurring in the territory of the Polish Republic. Those researches show also that Silesians are the largest group that use its own ethnolect in domestic relations. In 2002, belonging to that minority declared 173 153 persons, and the use of Silesian ethnolect in domestic relations: 56 643 people. In 2011, the membership of this group declared more than 800 000 people, and the use of regional language more than 500 000. The problem lies in the fact that the Polish state does not recognize the existence of this minority in legal terms. This in turn results in increase of tensions between the center and periphery.Therefore the main purpose of this paper is to show efforts of the Silesian minority for a legal empowerment of the group, in particular, shows most advanced activities for the statutory recognition of the Silesian ethnolect as a regional language.

Celem tego opracowania jest próba przedstawienia zmian w zakresie edukacji regionalnej na Górnym Śląsku w kontekście edukacji międzykulturowej z uwzględnieniem aspektu doskonalenia kadry pedagogicznej w tym zakresie. Artykuł przedstawia prawne uwarunkowania edukacji regionalnej w Polsce po okresie transformacji ustrojowej ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem prawa oświatowego. Głównym obszarem rozważań staje się edukacja regionalna i jej rola w środowiskach zróżnicowanych kulturowo. Kluczową rolę w edukacji regionalnej odgrywają nauczyciele - regionaliści. Autorka zwraca uwagę na potrzebę doskonalenia nauczycieli w tym zakresie.

Upper Silesia as a research problem in political science: in search of a synthesis

The growing body of scholarly literature on Silesians and Upper Silesia requires researchers to make first attempts to systematize the issue. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that in Upper Silesia we can observe unique, distinct political phenomena. The study was carried out as a structured review of scholarly literature which covers research in the field of political science, related to Silesians and Upper Silesia, treated as a specific object of analysis. The study included 25 scientific articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection database. The analysis has shown that many political phenomena occurring in Upper Silesia are of a unique character, not encountered in other regions of Poland. It also indicated a number of research problems that still need to be investigated and the problem of lack of data triangulation present in the literature.

Appreciated by the Sejm. Wojciech Korfanty – Patron of the Year 2023 and his place in contemporary public space

Round anniversaries of important historical events are often a stimulus for an indepth analysis of their historical significance for the fate of individual countries and nations. The above statement also applies to historical figures. One such figure is Wojciech Korfanty, who in many respects played a special role in the recent history of Upper Silesia and Poland. With this in mind, in 2023, when the Year of Wojciech Korfanty is celebrated in Poland, established on the 150th anniversary of his birth, the authors of the article decided to first analyze the path that the motion for adopting a resolution establishing the Year of Korfanty traveled in the Sejm. In the second part, the authors focused on the multidimensional presence of Wojciech Korfanty in public space. By this term we understand such forms of commemoration as monuments, commemorative plaques, patronage of schools and institutions, street names, publications or murals. The analysis carried out for the purposes of the article showed that Wojciech Korfanty, as one of the so-called „Fathers of Polish Independence”, he was fully deservedly appreciated by MPs, and with each year of Independent Poland (after 1989), he also gains in importance as a figure more and more visible in the public space. And although the article did not discuss the implemented initiatives commemorating his figure in 2023, undoubtedly the researcher who will undertake this task at the beginning of 2024 will have rich and diverse source material to analyze.