Tasks of intercultural education in the context of the war in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine initiated by the Russians makes one aware every day of the destruction of ideas and principles of peaceful problem solving developed over the years, and of the paradigm of cultural coexistence created in intercultural education. The aim of the article is to point out the need to undertake new tasks through intercultural education in the face of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Shaping a culture of peace, “making peace” has now become the leading task of intercultural education. The text points to the task of building on “good memory” as an opportunity and possibility of dealing with “bad memory”, the emancipation of national memories, the revitalization of heterology – the science of the Other, intercultural competences, the elimination of stereotypes and prejudices, one-sided negative and aggressive propaganda, etc. The article emphasizes the responsibility of intercultural education for creating the principles of democracy, revitalizing values symbolizing the common history with Ukraine, cooperation and collaboration in the process of functioning in European culture.

Cultural changes with war in the background – eliminating Russian culture from the space of Western culture as a form of solidarity with the nation and culture of Ukraine

The main axis of the article is the socio-cultural phenomena occurring since the outbreak of the Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2022, which has caused important changes not only in Europe, but also in other regions of the world. These changes have obvious political, economic, demographic, social and less obvious cultural dimensions. The latter take various forms, among which one is particularly controversial – it is the elimination of Russian culture from the cultural space of Western and other countries, among them Poland. This stems from solidarity with the Ukrainian people and an attempt to influence the attitudes of the Russian society, who, as research indicates, endorse the Russian invasion. The boycott mainly concerns artistic culture, symbolic in terms of the works of both living and deceased artists, contemporary and classical creations, both proand anti-war artists. Against this background, a public discussion unfolds on the legitimacy of all forms of boycott and the issue of collective responsibility. The theoretical context for the consideration of these phenomena is the concept of cancel culture. Empirical illustrations, on the other hand, are the studies on the discussed phenomena based on the opinion of students of social sciences.

Prejudice-based bullying against minorities. On the role of immigrant background and intergroup processes in explaining and limiting the phenomenon

Societies are becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse. This growing diversity offers new opportunities for both individuals and societies. At the same time, it also creates challenges such as a polarized political climate and an increase in hostile behaviour based on prejudice, such as ethnic discrimination and peer violence against immigrants. Recent research on the forms of bullying of minority groups by peers suggests that prejudice has some influence on specific patterns of bullying, but not enough attention has yet been given to this either in the conceptualization of bullying itself or in the design of intervention and prevention programs. It is therefore suggested that further research and the design of prevention programs could be targeted to give more attention to prejudice as one of the factors underlying this form of peer violence. The article is of a review nature and has been organized in a conceptual way, i.e. the focus is on prejudice-based bullying, which is the subject of research, but at the same time, arguments for the presented point of view will be presented to justify further empirical research in this problem area.

Developing professional competencies of teaching staff in the context of work in a culturally diverse environment on the example of the 2nd School of Intercultural Education

The aim of the article is to present the 2nd School of Intercultural Education (IISEM) “Strengthening the potential of children and youth with a migrant background” as an example of a cyclical training activity addressed to people involved in educational practice. The paper is a voice in the discussion on the professional competences of teachers, educationalists, psychologists, intercultural assistants, etc. who work in dynamically changing conditions of cultural diversity. Therefore, their competences should be systematically developed in the dialogical relationship between pedagogical theory and practice, in the process of lifelong education, taking into account the specificity of the environment in which the school operates and the challenges and needs existing in it. The article consists of three complementary parts. The first outlines the socio-cultural contexts of contemporary education. Against this background, the goals and specificity of IISEM are shown. The third part presents the methodological package “Towards the integration of Polish and Ukrainian students”, which contains scenarios of educational activities being the result of the work of IISEM participants in culturally diverse environments. The content presented in the text is the result of my own experience and observations resulting from five months of cooperation with the School participants as a mentor and the work of the editor of the substantive methodological package. These activities were accompanied by systematic consultations with IISEM participants, observation of classes conducted during the School (including the implementation of some of them), the evaluation of IISEM (using surveys and interviews with its participants) and analysis of the collected data. The content comprised in the text can be useful both to people interested in intercultural education, both in its theoretical aspects and in educational practice.

The Other in the space of cultural institutions. „Struggle” for accessibility – the case of the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Cieszyn

In the increasingly diversified world, openness to difference becomes a priority. This difference can be understood broadly. It may refer to people with foreign cultural experiences, with other cultural resources or with their shortage. It may also concern individuals or entire groups with special needs. Opening to the needs of such people and educating the society in this regard is one of the many tasks of cultural institutions. The need to make an institution more accessible is becoming a constantly growing challenge for its employees. The text addresses the problem of adapting cultural institutions to the legislative requirements introduced by the Act of 19th July 2019 on ensuring accessibility to people with special needs and the Act of 4th April 2019 on the digital accessibility of websites and mobile applications of public entities. This issue was discussed in reference to the research results obtained with the use of the case study method in the research conducted in the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Cieszyn. What was taken into account in those studies was architectural, communication-information and digital accessibility. The interviews conducted with museum employees were analysed.

Mobility of young adults from Central and Eastern European countries – a Polish-Czech-Slovak-Ukrainian comparative study

The young generation is treated as the future of society. This generation’s size, skills and knowledge, as well as economic activity, socio-cultural involvement, marital intentions and family (procreation) plans determine the quality of society. Thus, an important issue is the outflow of young people who decide to migrate abroad. It is therefore important to recognize both the current experiences and the life plans of the young generation in this field. In post-communist countries, the fall of the communist system had a major impact on the increase in mobility. Political, sociocultural and economic changes have contributed to the emergence of new migration-related phenomena and the so-called fluid migration, characterized by free movement of labour, massiveness, diversity and plasticity. The surveyed youth from Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have experiences related to functioning within open borders, unlike the youth from Ukraine, where the borders are closed. Wioletta Danilewicz notices the existence of the so-called migration culture, i.e. the acceptance (by the participants of migration processes) that these are phenomena constituting an inherent element of their lives, despite their awareness of the unfavourable co-occurring elements. The research results presented in the text indicate that the surveyed young adults do not fully follow this trend.

Core value and related principles, qualities, attitudes as reflected in the University of Vienna Code of Ethics

This paper is an attempt to address the following research questions: What core value and its associated principles, qualities, and attitudes are reflected in the University of Vienna’s Code of Ethics? What perception of the university does this document reveal? The first part of this paper is a description of the essential historical facts pertaining to this university, its organizational structure and the formation of world elites. The second part explains the importance of the code of ethics as a means of helping to direct human conduct toward social, educational, and economic goals. The third part was focused on the main axiological quality (value), as well as the aretological (virtues/characteristics), normative (principles/norms) and behavioral qualities comprised in the content of the Code. The value marked most clearly in the Code of Ethics of the University of Vienna was responsibility. It is also a desirable attitude of university members that predisposes them to exhibit qualities such as honesty and loyalty. The principles of conduct specified in the Code included: legality, expediency, economy, openness, risk minimization, sustainable development, “face to face” communication in situations requiring confidentiality.

The Global South beyond cultural diversity. The discourse of exclusion in language textbooks

The aim of the article is to present the results of the analysis of the contents related to the Global South in language textbooks, which, due to the cultural aspects of teaching a foreign language, are of particular importance in intercultural education. The method of content analysis was used in the study, with inductive and deductive data coding in the Atlas.ti 7 program. The results show the ways of discursive exclusion of the Global South, characterized by one-sidedness and Eurocentrism noticeable in textbooks images of this world region. The collected data made it possible to distinguish such elements of the discourse of exclusion as victimization (linking the image of the Global South with various problems), exoticization (descriptions of the Global South in the context of traditional rituals or the richness of nature) and incapacitation (absence of representatives of the Global South in the texts or presenting them as passive beneficiaries of external aid). Despite the potential of shaping intercultural competences that language education brings, in the aspect of the Global South, it seems necessary to modify the content of textbooks in the direction of diversity, equal treatment of cultures, getting rid of the sense of superiority and ethnocentric attitudes.0

Messages directed to potential volunteers via Polish-language websites. An example of voluntary work in African countries

Internet communication is widely used by Polish NGOs in communicating with the public. It is also used by foundations and associations that organize volunteering in Africa. The purpose of this article is to characterize the communications concerning participation in volunteering in the African area, which have been posted on the Polish-language Internet by the aforementioned NGOs. This article presents theoretical issues relating to the Internet as a tool of communication in NGOs, the image of the Other in Polish society (in relation to Africa and the inhabitants of the continent) and volunteering in Polish NGOs. It presents the results of the author’s own qualitative research conducted using an analytical technique, the content analysis method. Messages posted on the websites of NGOs focus on the person of the volunteer experiencing exotic adventures and gathering attractive experiences, at the expense of presenting the beneficiaries of the volunteer’s activities. The described communications present reality in a way that perpetuates stereotypes, while conveying information about the professional, ethical and intelligent nature of the activities of foundations and associations.

„CAS is the hardest and easiest subject in school” – teachers’ experiences in the IB DP program. An interactive perspective

In the article, the focus is on the International Baccalaureate Program (IB DP), which places great emphasis on the comprehensive development of students by providing the necessary knowledge and practical skills while taking into account the student’s interests. Special attention is paid to the subject of CAS (i.e. creativity, activity, service) because when analysing the selected literature on the subject, we noticed that the topic of CAS, implemented as part of the international IB curriculum, is overlooked and not explored in pedagogical research. The issues discussed in the article are part of broader considerations devoted to the reconstruction of the social world of schools implementing the international baccalaureate program. The empirical material comes from 19 unstructured interviews with teachers of international schools in Poland and participant observations carried out in these institutions. Reaching for a qualitative research strategy and grounded methodology procedures, we reconstructed the methods of defining CAS by the surveyed teachers, as well as strategies for managing this subject. It turns out that CAS is perceived by the respondents as a distinguishing feature (showcase) of the international program, and the strategies (mentor and administrative) for managing this subject implemented by the coordinators are not permanent and absolute.

Social activities and the process of profiling the social world. The case of the right-wing and liberal interpretation of the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border

When in the second half of 2021 the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border rapidly inflamed, it became a subject of numerous articles published in major opinion weeklies of different ideological orientations. Their analysis using the profiling concept developed by Jerzy Bartmiński allowed to reveal two alternative profiles of people trying to cross Polish border from Belarus (illegal immigrant versus refugee) and different images of the social world hidden behind them, manifested in ideological (right-wing and liberal) language codes. According to J. Bartmiński’s concept, profiling is reconstructable practically in every text of culture, and the reconstruction of profiling makes it possible to obtain a cognitive definition, i.e. one that allows to present the way the speakers understand the events of the social world, the ways of ordering, categorizing and evaluating them. The reconstructed profiles were used in the analysed texts to generate different action patterns (defense of sovereignty versus helping people in a humanitarian crisis), which, however, have a common area, which is identifying the figure of external enemy and inner traitor.

Polarization: the polemic with the article “Fanaticism as an educational problem”

The criticism of the article “Fanaticism as an Educational Problem” focuses on the selective treatment of fanaticism symptoms, ignoring the role of political polarization and age in analysing this phenomenon. Gałkowski and Gałkowski’s article (2023) presents a valuable proposal for a minimal educational program, but it requires considering a broader social, cultural, and individual context in diagnosing fanaticism and applying effective tools to counteract this phenomenon. The starting point of the debate is the observation that fanaticism remains a negatively perceived label that excludes individuals or social groups, hence the need for clarification on how cultural diversity and intercultural communication can contribute to it. Fanaticism is associated with an existential crisis, but there are also specific developmental phenomena in children that can be mistaken for fanaticism. Literary works can help in understanding this phenomenon. The proposed examples indicate that fanaticism is primarily a group phenomenon characterized by action rather than solely an attitude to the truth. In preventing and dismantling fanaticism, it is important to consider emotions related to uncertainty and develop skills to cope with it. Finding effective alternatives to psychoactive substances in emotional regulation and violence prevention poses a challenge. Fanaticism can be present in the inertia of customs and can be recognized by sensitive young people in society’s reactions to demands for social change. The situation of individuals expelled at the Polish-Belarusian border highlights the difference between uncompromising commitment and fanaticism. Human rights should be respected without exceptions, and the willingness to accept external judgment distinguishes activists from fanatics. Building relationships free from fanaticism in communities, especially in the case of refugees, requires considering the atmosphere and pedagogy of the place, which play a crucial role in combating fanaticism.

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.