TABLE OF CONTENTS

SPIS TREŚCI

Relationship – education – understanding: building virtual learning communities not only in the times of pandemic

The aim of the article is to analyze the process of education carried out in the conditions of online teaching. The author pays special attention to organizing the learning community. Learning is understood as the process of creating knowledge, where interaction and cooperation of students play an important role. The narrative is an extension of the thesis that in the case of distance learning there is a need to build a community of learners, where equally high importance is given to both cognitive and emotional effects. An important role of the teacher is to care for the mutual relations of students in virtual educational networks. The learning process carried out in a properly organized virtual network of students’ cooperation leads from mutual communication to understanding the content and creating knowledge, and learning becomes a very active mental process. The article discusses selected concepts of learning based on the cooperation of learners, the characteristics of which are translated into the model of collaborative learning in a virtual space, using the tools of modern digital technologies. The article indicates the importance of social relations in students’ virtual communities and the advantages of students’ educational activities in the digital space.

The image of the modern school in the artistic view of selected fields of art. Selected aspects

The school institution has always been subject to social criticism. The negative image of the school was not always fully justified and true. It happened that the words of criticism contributed to the improvement of school’s image. The school is one of the most important social institutions, it is therefore essential that its assessment be objective and the difficulties encountered / shortcomings have become an impulse for discussion, dialogue, and then for correction and supplementation. This text is an attempt to indicate the role of the art that presents selected areas of the functioning of the school. In the text, I refer to historical examples of art involvement in the educational and upbringing process at school, thus trying to signal that art was already an important element of education in the past. It was creating the image of the school. Today we can notice a similar practice. On the one hand, the presence of art in school creates its image, and on the other hand, art that works outside also creates its image. In the text, I present a number of examples of how school is perceived in an artistic image of fine arts, film and theater.

The figure of a witch as a symbolic harm in the patriarchal world. Anthropological and educational contexts

The aim of the article is to present the image of a woman – marked with the figure of a witch – oriented at changing stereotypical thinking about her. A look from a perspective not contaminated by the common view of the world will indicate its subjectivity, self-realization, and the right to self-determination, which is the basic pedagogical category. The figure of the witch is ambiguous – it reflects the rebelliousness that gives strength to deal with the pressures of society not to succumb to ways of controlling women that have undermined patriarchal standards. At that time she was called a demonic, wicked, magical woman, but on the other hand, a divine, innocent victim, a real healer. For they were „wise herbalists, soothsayers and sexually enlightened beings who had not been crippled by Christian piety and prohibitions” (K.J. Sollée, 2021, p. 89). Thus, they have become an icon of an independent woman, subordinate only to herself, with a strong personality desired in today’s world.

Human rights aspects of transgender people functioning in the contemporary world

The gender that is officially assigned at birth (male or female) is based on physical characteristics. However, it may not be compatible with gender identity – this is the way we feel and think about our gender. A transgender person is someone who has or manifests a different gender identity from the gender identity assigned to him at birth. A transgender person may choose to manifest their gender identity in a variety of ways. To make more permanent physical activity it is essential to use surgery and hormone therapy. This is a time-consuming and costly process that does not always involve complete gender reassignment. Transgender people experience transphobia and discrimination because of their gender identity, which is mistakenly associated with sexual orientation. The misunderstood concept of transgender causes that transgender people encounter intolerance, a lack of empathy, and the non-existence of safe social and legal spaces. This is mainly due to a lack of knowledge on the fundamental issues of transgenderism. Complex judicial procedures for sex reassignment, lack of funding for hormonal treatment and surgical genital correction, and the inability to marry are the cause of depression and a still high percentage of suicide attempts and suicides in this social group. Hence, it is important to draw social attention to the problems faced by transgender people and to disseminate knowledge about transgenderism.

Psychological determinants of homeschooling

The aim of the study was to analyze the psychological determinants of starting homeschooling by parents towards their school-age children. We analyzed the dependence of this decision on personality traits according to the Big Five, anxiety as a trait, hope trait and factors such as political and religious views or parents’ own school experiences. A comparative analysis has been made with parents whose children attend public primary schools. We used Hope for Success Questionnaire (Łaguna, Trzebiński & Zięba, 2005), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Wrześniewski, Sosnowski, Jaworowska & Fecenec, 2011), IPIP-BFM-20 Questionnaire (Topolewska, Skimina, Strus, Cieciuch & Rowiński, 2014), questions about homeschooling and demographics. Stronger hope for success, ability to find solutions, willpower, emotional stability and intellect, lower anxiety and conscientiousness were observed in parents undertaking homeschooling compared to parents of school children. A qualitative analysis was also conducted on the declaration of reasons for undertaking homeschooling. The article ends with recommendations for further empirical research.

Social activity of railway workers’ associations in Poland in interwar period

The aim of the article is to present the activities of railwaymen’s associations and social activity in the period of the Second Polish Republic. Railwaymen belonged to numerous and very diverse social organizations, engaged in charity, cooperative, and sports work as well as local and national initiatives. Railway workers’ associations were one of the forms of supporting the Polish state in solving important social and living problems. Their activity is an excellent example of social commitment – the implementation of educational and cultural, social and living as well as health and recreational goals, not only of the railway community but also other social associations of the interwar period. The article presents the social activity of railwaymen undertaken within the associations, with an indication of their theoretical and legal foundations and practical ways of achieving their goals. The article is based on printed sources, including statutes and reports, normative documents, articles from magazines published in the interwar years referring to the issue under study, and contemporary studies. The presented examples of associations indicate that they played an important role in the socio-political, economic, educational and cultural life of the interwar period. The activities of railwaymen undertaken within the associations initiated many useful actions, which became a creative factor that had a positive impact on the life of this professional group.

Questions about social pedagogy in the light of the Stanisław Kawula (1939–2014) idea

In the sketch, the author undertakes a preliminary analysis of the scientific work of professor Stanisław Kawula. The caesura of death, as well as scientific achievements, place the hero of this sketch among the scientists we call classics of social pedagogy. The professor’s scientific achievements are enormous, so it would be difficult to carry out a full analysis of the works left behind by him. As usual, in such a case, I have limited myself to indicating the main, in my opinion, currents of thoughts, guided by an arbitrary choice.

Dealing with the divorce of parents in the narratives of young adults women and men from divorced families

Parents’ divorce is an extremely difficult event for a child and how they deal with it depends to a large extent on the behavior of parents in a divorce situation. This event forces children to find themselves in a new reality, which they may not understand and do not accept, and which irreversibly marks their lives. The strategies described in this article were drawn from the biographies of young adults from divorced families. Data analysis was performed using grounded theory procedures. The article attempts to describe some methods / strategies that were undertaken by young people in the event of their parents’ divorce. This situation requires dealing with new emotions, requires adaptation to many different changes in life, and even meeting situations related to conflicts and quarrels between parents. Therefore, appropriate support is very important, not only for divorcing parents, but also for children who may be neglected during this period because of problems that their parents are trying to deal with.

The role of father in early education

The present text deals with the role of contemporary father evolves in connection with cultural changes, globalisation, medialization and technological progress. Such a role involves participation and acceptance of the new model of activity. The family life is more threatened with family members lack of integration, conflict spouses, freedom in marriage and weakening emotional bond between family members. The article deals with an analysis of father s roles in early primary scool education. It elaborates consists of two parts-theoretical one and research results. An importatnt element of of the analysis is cooperation between fathers and teachers. Father /family as a smallest social unit and the basic educational environment can help and support children success. Many factors such as age, education, environment influence fathers s activity. The variety of the research conducted among 669 fathers of early school-age children. It was carried out in the years 2018–2020 in 2020 in Poland.

Education and mobility. The role of education in the migration process as exemplified by the study of Poles living in Scotland

The paper is an attempt to answer the question about relation between education and mobility in condition of changing society. For this purpose was used survey research conducted amid post-accession migrants form Poland actually living in Scotland. The research was conducted in two stages, and participated in this 627 respondents living in varied part of Scotland. The first step was to conduct face-to-face interviews (258 respondents), while in the second stage was used CAWI method (Computer Assisted Web Interviews) (369 respondents). Collected empirical data has permitted to establish relation between degree level of education and migration motive of respondents. We can assume that factor explaining of that relation is cultural capital of man, which is collected during education process, in an institutionalized and embodied form. A ready-to-mobility attitude is a resource transmitted in socialization process. The longer individual attends to institutionalized form of education, the more often they manifested migration motivation focused on post-material values – willingness to meet a new challenge in live or assembling a new live experience connected to personal development.

Liberal or illiberal? Perception of Israeli democracy in the European Union

Liberal democracy perspective dominates the perception of actors and partners in the foreign relations of European Union. This stems from the declared fundamental values of the Union: respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law. This also influences the judgment of Israel, who connected to the EU with cooperation but also criticised for its attitude towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Liberal democracies not only allow their citizens to exercise their right to vote but also guarantee a degree of protection from the state to all political life participants, maintain plurality, respect religious, ethnic and other minorities. Israel presents itself as a liberal democracy, therefore it seems important to verify if this view is shared by the European Union. The Union, member states and politicians in their documents or during the debates judge such aspects of Israeli politics as the occupation of West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, settlements in the occupied territories, policies towards minorities, non-government organizations, oftentimes taking a critical stance towards Israeli actions. This may indicate that, despite Israel being a close political and economical partner, it still does not comply with the fundamental values and leaves something to be desired.