Partnership and social dialogue are fundamental values for relations between administrative entities, because due to the nature and importance of these, they have been coded by the rational legislator in the principles of law expressed in the Constitution. Due to the relationship between administrative law and its principles and constitutional law, the postulate of including social partners in the decision-making processes of the executive authority can be observed, which is exemplified by the functioning of entities implementing joint actions in the scope of administrative programming acts.

W poszukiwaniu socjologicznych podstaw pedagogiki religii autor artykułu zwraca uwagę tylko na wybrane kwestie, jak teorie socjologii religii (część teoretyczna) i socjalizację religijną oraz nauczanie religii w szkole (część empiryczna). Takie pojęcia jak religia, religijny, religijność stanowią przedmiot rozważań zarówno socjologii, jak i pedagogiki religii. Socjologiczne teorie religii, socjologiczne teorie przemian religijności we współczesnym świecie mogą być przydatne w budowaniu pedagogicznych koncepcji religii i religijności, właściwych dla pedagogiki religii. Empiryczna socjologia religii - poprzez swoje badania - uwrażliwia wszystkie podmioty edukacyjne na nowe zjawiska religijne i kościelne, zmieniające się ustawicznie w nowych uwarunkowaniach społeczno-kulturowych. Współpraca między pedagogiką i socjologią religii jest możliwa i potrzebna, ale powinna być niesłychanie ostrożna. Każda dyscyplina naukowa ma swoją odrębność teoretyczną i metodologiczną. Socjologizacja pedagogiki religii byłaby czymś niewskazanym, a socjologiczna pedagogika religii - czymś absurdalnym.

In the context of globalization and the increasingly frequent intercultural communication, the author illustrated some of the typical cultural differences between China and the US, bearing in mind that cultural knowledge is one of the indispensable element for developing intercultural communicative competence. The major differences include communication rituals, customary symbols and expressions, values, and ways of thinking, etc. The purpose is to inform readers who may be interested in both cultures and are motivated to learn cultural knowledge as the basis for more effective and appropriate intercultural communication. The research goal is to study the cultural differences and reflect on their implications on intercultural communication.

Today, the problem of political governance is one of the most important. There is an urgent need to create standards and institutions that would be effective and adequate to peculiarities of the contemporary society. One of the forms of socio-political governance is political manipulation of public consciousness. Modernization of the political system of society causes corresponding changes in the processes of management and manipulation. The influence on political consciousness and behavior is different at the traditional, modern and so-called postmodern stages of social development. The genesis of political manipulation of worldview values is the subject of this study. In the structure of political consciousness, which is a component of political culture, the value-worldview component is one of the most important. Values forms a motivational basis of political behavior. It is argued that values change in the predicted direction, and political manipulation could affect the value orientations of public consciousness. Analysis of the state of scientific development of the problem of political manipulation shows that the value-worldview component as an important component of political consciousness is poorly studied. The study of the peculiarities of political manipulation of the value component of political consciousness in the framework of this article is important, because the corresponding cultural dynamics affects the functioning of the political system.

Optimizing the human relationship with the environment, which is one of the most important goals of social rehabilitation, depends on a wide group of factors and processes, among which the system of target values (of a higher order) plays a significant role. Referring to the words of the doyen of social rehabilitation in Poland, Czesław Czapów. The highest values in social rehabilitation should be considered not only the social order, but most of all the development of personality and related human freedoms. Paradoxically (taking into account the fact that a large part of social rehabilitation procedures take place in closed institutions) one of the most important values of social rehabilitation is freedom. According to Albert Camus, “freedom is nothing more than a chance to be better”. Social rehabilitation institutions (mainly prisons), fulfilling their utilitarian functions, drastically limit the freedom of choices that can be made by charges. The essence of creative social rehabilitation is an attempt to change the individual in a way that is different from the usual social rehabilitation schemes. It is an attempt to change a person by creating different parameters of his identity, which determine the quality of contacts with other people. These treatments, taking the form of theater, sports, drama, art or music experiences, can create different personal parameters of an individual.

The author addresses cognitively important issues concerning values and activities conducive to their development in the family, which is the basic factor in shaping the personality of a child. We are living in the times of globalization, when the importance of family and values passed on by it are being underestimated in various ways. Globalization has caused an enormous confusion of values. The old, traditional values are often outdated, while the new, incomprehensible ones, interfere with the process of upbringing. Additionally, relativism dominating the society has become the basis for blurring the boundaries between what is moral and what is immoral. The aim of this article is to draw attention to the special role of values in the process of upbringing and to stimulate actions supporting the family through education and prevention. The above considerations lead to the conclusion that the family is an important value in the life of a child. It constitutes their most important environment for development and upbringing. Nevertheless, it requires help and support from the state. But above all, we cannot just be passive witnesses of our children’s development these days.

Many positive behaviours of youth are related to their values. In the field of education value assessment is central. However value expression is often very ambiguous. Therefore in an attempt to measure values with more universal, global, and cross cultural perspectives, Nazam, Husain and Khan (2015) developed a spiritual values scale. The initial validation of the scale was based on item content analysis, item reliability, internal consistency, and exploration of the factorial structure of spiritual values. But values are subjected to change due to many factors. Therefore revalidation of the scale remains an important research consideration. The present study extends the initial validation of the scale by using structure equation modelling to revalidate the dimensionality and reliability of the spiritual values scale. The sample consisted of 300 adolescents. The results suggested that out of 27 items 4 items to measure spiritual values are ineffective. The scale with 23 items still remains a reliable and valid psychological tool to assess the spiritual values of adolescents.

This article presents research on value preferences of eleven-year-old fifth grade pupils. Differences between two groups of gifted pupils were observed - between 71 contemporary pupils and 229 pupils in ELSPAC in the years 2002 - 03. The identical identification criteria were used in the selection of both groups. By selecting questions from the ELSPAC questionnaires we compared the value preferences data of both of the gifted groups. We were dealing with research questions: which values the gifted prefer in friends, which priorities of life values they have, and which one is the most important for them. No statistically significant differences were found in the comparison of the majority of the values of the two groups. In the evaluation of friends, all the respondents most preferred the item “how you get along“ and then “their reliability“. The most significant difference was found in the item “the gain from your friendship with them“ which moved from the 15t to the 5t place in 10 years. No statistically significant differences were found in the question of life values between the two groups of gifted children in our data set except for the item “personal property,“ which was more important for the gifted of 2012. The most important value for both of the groups was “family relations“ ahead of the item “health“ and “having friends“.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the differences that exist in the field of accounting in Mexico between competences training offered by universities and demands concerning the labor market, focused on knowledge, skills and values. The results obtained in this study show a significant degree of separation between competences training received by the accountants newly graduated from the universities and the current demands of the labor market. It is important to note that other education environment variables could be taken into account to be included in future studies following this paper.

The aim of the article is to present some aesthetic and ideological relationships between different cultural texts - the painting of Józef Chełmoński entitled Babie lato (Indian Summer, 1875) and its poetic ekphrasis with the same title written by Michalina Chełmońska-Szczepankowka (1937). The article describes cultural axiology and poetic sense of the perception of the painting which focuses on the visual theme of Indian summer. The presented interpretation demonstrates that the ideological message of the poem comprises the symbols of the Indian summer inspired by the poetics of the painting, namely praise of freedom, imagination and creative artistic thrust, which people derive directly from both the beauty of their native land and the truth about the order of life imposed by the natural law of the motherland, irrespective of its social and economic situation as well as its historical conditions.

Evolution of International Society in the New Dynamics of International Relations

In the classical meaning, the international society consisting of sovereign states plays a role of an international environment in the international system. Taking into consideration the dynamic transformation in the world politics after the Cold War, globalization, the strengthened international interdependence in its vertical, as well as horizontal realms, and the institutionalization of international social and political spheres fuels the discussion about the future of the international society, its inner structural changes, common norms, values, and rules. The thesis of the paper is the claim that the changes in international state-society reflecting the dynamic of world politics and the global trends do change the character of the international society, but do not change its essence. A growing and seemingly lasting process is strengthening the role of culture and identity in shaping the new structure of the international society.

China’s modern power is based on traditional sources: territory size, demographics, economy, and army. An important factor of power is soft power, which is based on culture, foreign policy (including economics), and values. Chinese soft power resources have an old tradition and the possibility of using them is large, and most importantly, in the current international environment, they can use them to gain and maintain an advantage over competitors. The article presents the elements of China’s soft power that determine its advantage over other countries and the weaknesses that may limit its influence. It largely determines the research methods used: statistics and system analysis. The latter method makes it possible to determine the scale of China’s influence and the chances of using them in the 21st century.

Fanaticism as an educational problem

Education is such an introduction into values thanks to which they become a constant point of reference in action, and in this way the habit of referring to the norms indicated by these values and their application is perpetuated. However, unconditional, ruthless and passionate compliance with the norms is a symptom of fanaticism. Referring to two philosophical concepts, the article is an attempt to answer the question of how to educate people to opt for the values while avoiding shaping a fanatical attitude in the educated person. The approach of L. Kołakowski and R. Rorty, emphasizing the principle of inconsistency, and the approach of A. MacIntyre pointing to the virtue ethics are analyzed.

The goal of upbringing is affirmation of the student, self-development within the system of values that is recognized by a group and eventually interiorized. A correctly shaped hierarchy of values, which fulfills a regulatory and motivating role, provides favorable conditions for maturation of a young person, gaining autonomy and at the same time integration with society. In the article the results of the research conducted to identify the system of values of youth with hearing impairments are discussed. The position of responsibility, whose essence consists in regulating one’s free conduct, was identified within the hierarchy of values. Responsibility is an instrumental value that is relatively highly valued by youth (rank 3 for hearing youth and rank 4 for youth with hearing impairment), which is a rewarding fact.

This paper presents an analysis of the personality traits and value preferences of Polish early adolescent students. Participants were 775 adolescents between 12-14 years (53% girls; Mage= 13.01; SD= 0.81), who completed two surveys: Picture-Based Personality Survey for Children and PictureBased Value Survey for Children. Fourteen-year-old adolescents preferred more Power values and less Tradition and Conformity values than 12- and 13-year-olds. They were also less open to experience and conscientious than their younger counterparts. 14-year-old girls had a stronger preference for Power and Achievement values and a weaker preference for Conformity values than 12-year-old girls. 14-year-old boys preferred more Traditional values than 12-year-old boys. Both 14-year-old girls and boys were less conscientious than the younger adolescents. A regression analysis with an interaction effect indicated that each age group had different relationships between gender and personality traits and their interactions with the particular value categories. The results are discussed in the context of possible practical rearing influence aimed at supporting young] preferred values and personality development in the context of education.

Literature is a social fact and as such it can be one of the ways to interpret social reality. Therefore, the literature published after the year 2000, with reference to sociological studies on young generation, is found to be an interesting source of knowledge on behavior, attitudes and values presented by young Poles. The article as a contribution to the discussion on the role of literature as “the mirror” of social life is limited to young people as observers (the youngest generation of Polish writers) and as the observed (experiences and problems of young Poles at the beginning of the 21st century). Its introductory part deals with the problem of perception of social life from the angle of literature, and refers to the concept of the considered generation in sociological literature. Its main part presents the sketch for the portrait of fictional young Poles, their lifestyle and values based on the literary fiction. At the same time, this artistic image is compared to the existing sociological data. The use of the latter is subject to the problem key applied in the analysis of the selected novels.

Values in preschool age. About things that are important to children

Values in everyone’s life are an integral part of their existence. They guide their actions. They influence the decisions made. They help interpret their own behaviors and actions of others. Preschool age is a period when moral development begins, there are things that are more or less important to the child. It is therefore worth discovering what is important to preschool children. In order to learn about the values that are important to preschool children, a study was conducted involving 70 six-year-old children attending selected Bialystok kindergartens and preschool departments. The method used in the study was the analysis of work products and the tool was drawing analysis. The study took place during the children’s stay at the facility. The data obtained allowed to answer the research problem: What values do six-year-old children consider important in their lives? The most important value for the children surveyed is family. Then play, toys and God as the creator of the world. The empirical data obtained can be a valuable source of information, allowing to adjust the education and upbringing process in such a way as to respond to the child’s nearest area of development.

The study works out two basie level of the axiological ethic and morał education. Every society is based on a kind of value model. In order to understand it one should understand its basie value, it is value paradigm. This is the platform for the development of the individual's moral-identity-formation process. I have concentrated on those parts of this process which are significant and relevant in the context of European culture.

Given the reliance of the contemporary IT professional training process on a predetermined scenario for success outlined in educational programs and confined within local needs our research aimed to identify and examine effective ways of integrating spiritual and professional development for future specialists in the field of digital (IT) technologies. Our assumption was that the development of core values as a spiritual component of IT specialists influences the effectiveness of acquiring 21st century skills and shapes their professional competence. A correlational study was conducted to explore the relationship between the level of formation of core values in future IT specialists and the level of 21st century skills in these individuals. The research strategy was based on the application of distinct methods (Schwartz, S. H. (1992), Hixson, 2012, mathematical statistical methods – Kendall’s correlation analysis) to test the effectiveness of the author’s model. Its conceptual idea is to confirm the hypothesis that higher levels of 21st century skills correlate with higher levels of core values in future IT specialists. The results of the tasks revealed correlations between higher levels of 21st century skills and the core values of future IT specialists. This allowed confirming the leading idea of the research: Ukrainian students in IT specialties demonstrate the ability to acquire 21st century skills associated with values that support a “positive” vector in the functioning of an individual (benevolence, conformity, security, traditions, universalism, stimulation, and independence).

Stop and think. Thinking against fanaticism

Piotr Kowzan’s polemic proved that the issue of fanaticism remains an important educational problem, but also more broadly: a social one. Formulating a response to a polemic allows for rethinking and clarifying some themes. It also turns out to be important to return to the very definition of fanaticism as well as to point out that the problem is important because fanaticism threatens primarily people of value: those who perceive values and are actively engaged in their realization. In our response to the polemic, we try to point out three issues that are important in our opinion. Firstly, we emphasize that fanaticism is always harmful, and although this harmfulness is not always significant, even in the best case, fanaticism is harmful at least to the fanatic himself. Secondly, we oppose the claim that countering fanaticism can be as destructive as fanaticism itself. Thirdly, we maintain the claim that the basic symptoms of fanaticism are: an inability to make any compromises and a rejection of the very possibility of making an exception to an accepted rule of action. In conclusion, we recall Hannah Arend’s vitally important call to maintain a balance between activity and reflexivity.