Fading memories of the Second World War in a socio-educational and cultural perspective. A research report from Poland

Memories of World War II (WW2) have a deeply cultural dimension and therefore are interesting for intercultural studies. This paper is based on an interpretative analysis of some field and desk research data, carried out in Poland by an interdisciplinary team of social scientists, educators and historians in 2018–2020. It is focused on socio-educational factors in the transfer of knowledge and memory of WW2. The researchers try to distinguish socio-educational factors responsible for the preservation of this memory across a range of age cohorts. Sources of knowledge, school curricula and socio-demographic aspects are set against the measured levels of historic facts concerning WW2. The data sets derive from questionnaires, telephone interviews and in-depth interviews with diverse groups of respondents along with a review of teaching history curricula in 1946–2020. On the basis of the findings, it is argued that a successful transfer of memory and knowledge of WW2 goes beyond teaching history at schools and beyond the contemporary political agenda. This article is meant to serve as a barometer of social changes in respect to fading memories of WW2.

REFERENCES:

• Ashton, P. and Kean, H. 2009. People and Their Past: Public History Today. New York: Palgrave.
• Assmann, A. 2013. Między historią a pamięcią. Antologia [Between history and memory]. Warszawa: UW.
• Assmann, J. 2008. Communicative and Cultural Memory in Cultural Memory Studies. In: Erll, A., Nünning, A. and Young, S. eds. An International and In­terdisciplinary Handbook. Berlin – New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 109–118.
• Assmann, J. 2011. Cultural Memory and Early Civilization: Writing, Remem­brance and Political Imagination. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
• Assmann, J. 2015. Pamięć kulturowa. Pismo, zapamiętanie i polityczna tożsamość w cywilizacjach starożytnych [Cultural memory. Writing, re­membering and political identity in ancient civilisations]. Warszawa: UW.
• Bogacki, M. 2006. Historical reenactment jako nowy sposób prezentacji przeszłości [Historical reenactment as a new way of presenting the past]. Do Broni! Magazyn Rekonstrukcji Historycznych. 4, pp. 34–37.
• Bogdańska-Zarembina, A. 1980. Raport z badań nad programami klasy IV dziesięcioletniej szkoły średniej [Research report on school curricula], vol 2. Warszawa: IPS, MoiW.
• 2000. Dzieje rodziny w naszej pamięci. Komunikat z Badań BS/1/2000. [Family history in our memory. Research report BS/1/2000]. Last updated: January 1, 2000, https://cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2000/K_001_00.PDF (last access: 10.09.2020).
• 2016. Świadomość historyczna Polaków. Komunikat z Badań 68/2016. [Historical awareness of Polish people. Research report 68/2016]. Last up­dated: January 14, 2016, https://cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2016/K_068_16.PDF (last access: 10.09.2020).
• De Groot, J. 2016. Consuming history: Historians and heritage in contempo­rary popular culture. London: Routledge.
• Dean, D. 2018. A Companion to Public History. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Demantowsky, M. 2019. Public history and school: International Perspectives. De Gruyter.
• Faye, S. 2019. Public History: A Practical Guide. Lonodn: Bloomsbury Pub­lishing.
• Fivush, R. and Zaman, W. 2011. Intergenerational Narratives: How Collec­tive Family Stories Relate to Adolescents’ Emotional Well-being. Aurora. 10, pp. 51–63.
• Freund, A. 2009. A Canadian Family Talks About Oma’s Life in Nazi Ger­many: Three-Generational Interviews and Communicative Memory. Oral History Forum d’histoire orale, Special Issue, Remembering Family, Analyz­ing Home: Oral History and the Family. 29, pp. 1–26.
• Gorloff, E., Grzybowski, R. and Kołakowski, A. 2010. Edukacja w warunkach zniewolenia i autonomii (1945–2009) [Education in conditions of enslave­ment and authonomy]. Gdańsk: UG.
• Halbwachs, M. 2008. Społeczne ramy pamięci [Social frames of memory]. Warszawa: PWN.
• Illeris, K. 2004. Adult Education and Adult Learning. Roskilde: Roskilde Uni­versity Press.
• Institute of National Rememberence. Wolyn Massacre, https://volhyniamas­sacre.eu/ (last access: 10.09.2020).
• Jędrysiak, T. and Rohrscheidt von A. 2011. Militarna turystyka kulturowa [Military-cultural turism)]. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Eko­nomiczne.
• Kean, H. and Martin, P. 2013. The public history reader. Oxford: Routledge
• Kryńska, E.J. and Mauersberg, S. 2003. Indoktrynacja młodzieży szkolnej w Polsce w latach 1945–1956 [Indoctrination of Polish youths in Poland 1945–1956]. Białystok: Uniwersytet w Białymstoku.
• Kupisiewicz, Cz. 1989. Edukacja w warunkach zagrożenia. Raport o stanie i kierunkach rozwoju edukacji w Polsce [Education in dangerous condi­tions. Report about condition of Polish education development]. Warsza­wa – Kraków: PWN.
• Kupisiewicz, Cz. 1996. Koncepcje reform szkolnych w latach 80 [Concepts of school reform in 1980s]. Warszawa: PWN.
• Kwieciński, Z. ed. 1991–97. Nieobecne dyskursy [Absent discourses], vol. 1–5. Toruń: UMK.
• Laclau, E. 2005. On populist reason. London, New York: Verso.
• Luckmann, T. 1983. Remarks on Personal Identity: Inner, Social and His torical Time. In: Widding, J.A ed. Identity: Personal and Socio-Cultural. Adantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities, pp. 67–91.
• Markowski, S. 2009. Rekonstrukcje historyczne w wychowaniu młodzieży” [Historic reconstruction in youth’s upbringing]. Zeszyty Naukowe WSLOW. 1, pp. 68–89.
• Mauersberg, S. and Walczak, M. 2005. Szkolnictwo polskie po II wojnie świa­towej (1944–1956) [Polish schools after WW2]. Warszawa: Instytut Tech­nologii Eksplatacji.
• National Library Reports. 2012–2019. https://www.bn.org.pl/raporty-bn/stan-czytelnictwa-w-polsce (10.09.2020).
• Odrowąż-Coates, A. 2016. Fatamorgana saudyjskiej przestrzeni kulturowej kobiet [A mirage of socio-cultural space for women in Saudi Arabia]. Kra­kow: Oficyna Wydawnicza Impuls.
• Odrowąż-Coates, A. 2019. Intergenerational Transgressions in Re-living War and the Uncertainty of Displacement: A Privilege or a Curse for the Third Generation. Kultura i Edukacja. 2, pp. 55–70.
• Osiński, Z. 2010. Nauczanie historii w szkołach powszechnych w Polsce w latach 1944–1989. Uwarunkowania organizacyjne oraz ideologiczno-polityczne [Teaching history in public schools in Poland 1944–1989. Or­ganizational, ideological and political circumstances]. Lublin: UMSC.
• Reykowski, J. 1988. Młodzież z perspektywy psychologicznej. Konferencja nau­kowa: Sens polskiej historii o współtworzenie przyszłości Polski [Youth in a psychological perspective]. Warszawa: UW.
• Seixas, P. 1993. Popular Film and Young People’s Understanding of the His­tory of Native-White Relations’. The History Teacher. 26, pp. 351–370.
• Seixas, P., Stearns, P. and Wineburg, S. 2000. Teaching, Learning and Know­ing History: National and International Perspectives. New York: Academic Press.
• Skotnicka-Palka, M. 2014. Powtarzam powtórzone. Rekonstrukcje historyc­zne [I repeat the repeated. Historic reconstructions]. Pamięć i Przyszłość. 4, pp. 62–69.
• Styk, J. and Dziekanowska, M. eds. 2012. Tradycje dla współczesności. Ciągłość i zmiana, t. V. Pamięć jako kategoria rzeczywistości społecznej [Traditions of Modernity. Continuity and Change]. Lublin: UMCS.
• Suchodolski, B. 1957. U podstaw materialistycznej teorii wychowania [At the baseline for materialistic theory of education]. Warszawa: PWN.
• Szacka, B. 2006. Czas przeszły, pamięć, mit [Past time, memory, myth]. Warszawa: Scholar.
• Sztompka, P. 2002. Analiza społeczeństwa [Sociology, Analysis of Society]. Kraków: Znak.
• Tappan, M.B. 1998. Narrative, Authorship, and the Development of Moral Authority. New Directions for Child Development. 54, pp. 5–25.
• Tappan, M. 2006. Moral Education in the Zone of Proximal Development. Journal of Moral Education. 27, pp. 141–160.
• Thomas, C. 2016. Public History. A Textbook of Practice. London: Routledge.
• Topolski, J. 1981. Świadomość historyczna Polaków: problemy i metody badawcze [Historical awareness of Polish people: problems and research methods]. Łódź: UŁ.
• Walewander, E. 2002. Oblicze ideologiczne szkoły polskiej 1944–1956 [Ideo­logical reflection of the Polish school]. Lublin: Bamka.
• Wineburg, S. 2018. Why learn history. When it’s already on your phone. Chi­cago: University of Chicago Press.
• Zepke, N. 2013. Threshold concepts and student engagement: Revisiting pedagogical content knowledge. Active Learning in Higher Education. 14, pp. 97–107.
• Žuromskaite, B. 2009. Przestrzeń historyczna w rozwoju turystyki kulturowej na Litwie (turystyka historyczna) [Historic space in the development of cultural tourism in Lithuania (historical turism)]. Turystyka Kulturowa. 7, pp. 4–14.