TABLE OF CONTENTS

On the pedagogical strategy of Florian Znaniecki eliminating intercultural antagonisms for the civilization of the future

The author presents the pedagogical strategy of F. Znaniecki, discovered by himself, which ramains important for intercultural pedagogy, and which was expressed by the philosophically thinking sociologist only in 1929. It is a controversial pedagogical idea, treated as a condition for overcoming intercultural antagonisms in the mode of a new quality of support for subjective development of children and different than usual in upbringing. This is connected with the simultaneous indication of the importance of educationally critical attitude towards the cultural condition of adults, which requires correction by wise people. The text uses new readings of the writings of the classic sociology, although read differently than shown by its common philosophical, pedagogical and sociological interpretations. This thread is more fully discussed and documented in the author’s book, entitled “Claims and transactuality in the humanities. Florian Znaniecki: the legacy of ideas and its cracks”. Znaniecki’s key pedagogical postulate, important interculturally, is the suggestion of the need to move from raising children in the mode of intra-group socialization to supporting their self-education open to recognizing their own passions, to cultural diversity and stimulating the ability to use the encounter with otherness, in recognition of the naturalness of diversity, in recognition of the naturalness of differentiation, albeit without antagonisms. At the same time, education (bringing-up) in this approach is paradoxically to concern mainly adults, with the correction of their claims, including against the absolutization of their own aggressive prejudices, taken over under the influence of socialization dichotomizations. An attempt is made to evaluate the intercultural pedagogical strategy outlined in this way, which from the very beginning has not met with the sufficient recognition of pedagogy, nor has it been properly evaluated. Znaniecki’s strategy is confronted mainly with the approach of R. Rorty, J. Habermas, as well as M. Buber, H. Gadamer, A. Maslow and M. Kundera. The author points to the traces of the legitimacy of inscribed the attitude of T. Lewowicki in the not sufficiently well recognized aspirations of F. Znaniecki himself, following the reflections in the Jubilee Book dedicated to the former for his 80th anniversary.

Community in the discourse of pedagogy and intercultural education

The article presents the community as a category inscribed in the narrative of intercultural pedagogy, as an interdisciplinary pedagogical subdiscipline and educational practice. The concept of community and sociological approaches to this category were described, highlighting the variety of approaches and possible epistemological interpretations. Common features of various definitions of a community were indicated: goals and norms shared by members of the community, recognized values and accepted means of achieving them. Particular attention was paid to the concept of community in communitarianism, which treats the identity of an individual as a derivative of tradition assimilated by him in the course of socialization and the social functions he performs. The community was shown as a space of interpersonal relations in which the category of the Other was immanently inscribed. The relationship of the Self with the Other was referred to the source responsibility that the Self discovers as the sphere of freedom. The importance of hospitality, justice and creative understanding in the dialogical relationship with the Other was described. Openness to dissimilarity, readiness to recognize it and respect for the Other, as an inalienable element constituting a community and enabling the achievement of non-selfish Good, were also exposed.

Integration of Indigenous knowledge resources with the multicultural system of education in Canada

The article shows the integration of Indigenous knowledge resources with the multicultural system of education in Canada as a challenge to some assumptions about the process of complementarity and possibility of binding to the both culturally different ways of knowing. The article is based on theoretical frameworks which introduce conceptual foundations for reflects on issues related to intercultural education and integration. It shows Indigenous ways of knowing and some keys for how the Indigenous knowledge can be known. It describes the quality of Indigenous pedagogies and how the Indigenous knowledge can be taught. In the second part of the article, it undertakes an issue of the digitalization of Indigenous knowledge resources for the purpose of promoting it, decolonization as a dominant look at the analyses of the relationship between Indigenous knowledge and educational system. In conclusion, there are three possible ways of approach to their integration concerning short descriptions and critical comments.

School for countryside in Poland and worldwide – social and cultural contexts

This text draws some social and cultural problems connected with a primary school for countryside in Poland and USA. This is divided – except introduction – into four main parts. The first one deals with efforts undertaken in the past to improve education to the country. Problems associated with collective municipal schools are presented in the second part. Part three and four reflects on the research results of small schools in USA and Poland in XX and XXI c.

Finnish pre-school education. Sources and evolution

Since 2000, Finnish education has been considered the correct way to teach children who are eager to go to school and achieve one of the best results in the international educational survey PISA. Finns, on the other hand, believe that family and preschool education constitute an important stage in the development of children and determine their biography. That is why we present the development of preschool education in Finland. It was a long process influenced by various social and ideological changes, reflected in the legislation. The main purpose of this text is therefore to discuss the origins and evolution of preschool education.

Situation of Roma in Slovakia during COVID-19 pandemic

The article presented here presents the most important state measures directed at Roma and marginalized communities during the CoOVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, a state of emergency was declared in Slovakia in connection with the spread of the pandemic, which for the residents of the Slovak Republic resulted in an immediate restriction of contacts, manifested in the closure of all types of schools, institutions and many workplaces. The mandatory mass quarantine of entire marginalized communities has raised NGO concerns about the equal treatment of people living in Roma communities in Slovakia. It is estimated that up to 70 percent of Roma children were not receiving distance education during the first wave of the pandemic, and up to 60 percent had no contact with an educator. Technical equipment, access to educational systems, but also Internet coverage in cities and municipalities became obstacles to education.

Students about relations with Different/Stranger

The article presents the results of the research on the definitional view of the Other/Other, the sources of knowledge and personal experiences of the respondents relating to people different from them. In the first part of the article, the definitions of Otherness/Alien according to different authors are cited and the difference of these two conceptual categories is shown. In the next part of the paper, the negative reactions of society to otherness/ foreignness are presented, with particular emphasis on racist and xenophobic attitudes. Research showing the scale of pejorative behavior toward Otherness/ foreignness in Polish society is presented. The third part of the study presents the results of the author’s research on the relations of students of the University of Rzeszow and the State Higher School of Technology and Economics in Jaroslaw with Others/Aliens, who are part of their immediate environment, including students. The analysis of the research results is an attempt to answer the question “Who is the Other/Other in the perception of students?”.

Sexuality in relationships during the first wave of COVID-19

Since the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions, such as lockdown and social distance) have had an impact on people’s lives. In this paper, our aim is to analyze how the lockdown (restrictions) in the early stage of the outbreak had an impact on sexuality in intimate relationships among the people in Poland and Japan. Online surveys were conducted in both countries. For this purpose, measurements were performed using the quantitative method with the use of an online questionnaire by Barbara Rothmüller adapted to the requirements of the study. Then comparisons were made between the Polish and Japanese groups. The results were compared to the existing knowledge in the field of the studied phenomenon. The observations made allowed to note several statistically significant differences between the studied groups and the areas in which the subjects from the Japanese and Polish samples did not differ significantly from each other. The observed differences mostly concerned the dynamic of the declared changes in the area of sexual behavior, which turned out to be higher in the Japanese group. The theoretical depiction refers to the differences between eastern and western cultures and the specificity of Poland and Japan, which, being culturally homogenous, function in the era of globalization.

Jerusalemian and Lippstadtian peregrinations of Matołek the Billy Goat. Research on the Polish picturebooks in the East and West

The authors trace the previously non-examined history of the editions of Kornel Makuszyński and Marian Walentynowicz’s adventures of Matołek the Billy Goat (canonical example of Polish children’s picturebooks) published during the Second World War (in Palestine) and immediately after it (in Lippstadt, Germany) in the context of the life of Poles in exile (in particular in the aspect of culture and education) in the Middle East and West Germany. Research analyses are focused on the circumstances and mechanisms of publication, adaptation and graphic modification, educational functions and the scope of the reading impact of these initiatives in the context of the mass migrations of the time and intercultural exchange. Also, as far as the interpretative aspect is concerned, the peregrinatory nature of the main plot line seems to convene with the socio-historical context of the day, marked with the common mass experience of migration, which additionally co-created space for intercultural educational offers as a part of the educational life of Poles in exile.

From the acquisition of the mother tongue to the multilingual competences of a child at a younger school age

The aim of the article is an attempt to describe the main challenges for the language development and mother tongue education of a child at an early school age in the context of common multilingualism, resulting from the compulsory learning of a foreign language at the stage of preschool education, international mobility of families and migration. At the heart of the research is the relationship between the mother tongue and other languages of the child. The place and role of the first language in acquisition / learning new languages was discussed in the light of the findings of psycholinguistics and comparative glottodidactics. Theoretical reflection only illuminates the more important aspects of this complex issue. It is guided by the thesis that cultural and linguistic diversity gives rise to the need to think about language education in a holistic way, that is, one in which there is an integration of paradigms, approaches and recommendations of mother tongue teaching with methodologies of foreign language teaching. Scientific assumptions and concepts regarding the development of a child’s multilingual competence are supported by examples of specific didactic solutions used in countries with a rich tradition in the field of intercultural education. The conclusion of the considerations is – it is worth using innovative pedagogical strategies, activities and resources that could support students’ multilingual competence whom we work in schools in Poland.

Message from the border and the need for education, or what it teaches young people multicultural reality

From the end of the summer of 2021, we have been receiving media messages showing the migration situation on the Polish-Belarusian border. The incoming images and information reveal the dramatic situation of people-refugees- migrants from the Middle East trying to reach Western European countries through our country. Deprived of humanitarian aid, they camp in the woods. Cold, hungry and sick, they expect help from the relevant services. The situation is very difficult, as it has a humanitarian and social dimension, but also, and perhaps above all, a political one. This image reaches adults, but also young people, who are not always able to understand the situation and the lack of help. Observing the attitudes of adults, young people take part in the lesson of indifference and acceptance of evil. The aim of this text is therefore to draw attention to the message received by the young generation and to identify what educational activities should be undertaken in educational environments in order to maintain responsibility and humanitarian values, which should dominate the educational and upbringing processes. So that in an increasingly multicultural world they become a common social practice.

Sightseeing as a space for intercultural education

The article is an attempt to draw readers’ attention to the potential for broadening the field of interests and activities of theoreticians and practitioners of intercultural education that lies in sightseeing. In particular, it is about this type of activity as undertaken by contemporary Poles with respect to the area of the former Polish Eastern Kresy (i.e. the territory Poland lost in the aftermath of WW2 – fragments of the present Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania). Apart from the reflection on the forms of tourism and the place occupied therein by sightseeing, the article concentrates on its five spheres useful for intercultural education: (1) informal mode of getting acquainted with an ‘Other’, who (2) is not ethnically and culturally too distant, (3) on visiting the given area that (4) may be of an incidental and short term character as well as (5) be concentrated not only on people but also on their cultural products: symbolic and material. The article closes with examples of situations in which ill-conceived sightseeing distorts the idea of intercultural education. After all, even though hypocrisy or biased presentation of a place and its inhabitants, education that reproduces the monocultural face of a given land is possible.

About the need for increased intercultural education in the face of the right-wing populism in Poland

The phenomenon of right-wing populism, which has been spreading in Poland for several years, is deeply permeated with exclusive and anti-pluralist demagogy, which has consequences for public education in our country. In this context, an urgent socio-educational challenge is to counteract students’ fear of what is different and unknown, as well as to develop respect and empathy towards other people, i.e. their different worldview, culture and religion. The aim of this article is not to construct some ad hoc and one-off school and pedagogical initiatives in the face of populist lies and manipulation, but to create the conceptual foundations of an educational, interdisciplinary and, above all, anti-populist preventive system that would be thoroughly filled with the premises of intercultural education and educate young citizens who perceive pluralism as cultural and social value.