TABLE OF CONTENTS

The identity development takes place during the process of integrating the past to the presence with anticipated future. Additionally, it occurs in ecological context which concerns relations and interactions at the individual, group and institutional levels, as well as changes related to the revitalization of regional cultures, the integration of states into transnational structures or the progressive processes of globalization. In the paper, the Authors mostly pay attention to ecological determinants that influence the process of identity development, which takes place in multicultural environment. The purpose of the paper is to present a new theoretical approach – Theory of Multidimensional Identity (TMI) by Jerzy Nikitorowicz. It is based on the fact that a child is located in a diverse cultural environment under the influence of traditional multiculturalism, having existed for several generations, for example, on the borderland. During different stages of identity development (from the past to the future), three groups of dimensions have been distinguished: dimensions in the context of inherited (given, taken over) identity; dimensions in the context of individually shaped and realised identity and dimensions which are socially determined. This theoretical approach allows for the analysis of dependence and relations between the different stages and dimensions of identity development. It highlights with which stages those three dimensions form the identity system, how it changes, what are the reasons for those changes and modifications.

In the article, the question is raised whether human knowledge, abilities, emotions and socialization are capable of shaping social structures according to the idea of multiculturalism (which faces a critical situation), introducing the humanistic quality to the principles of coherence and integration. With my own research results in the background (diagnostic polling and individual interviews), integration and identity are presented as strategies determined by aims, subjects (players) and profits (rewards). What has been indicated is the idea worth promoting in the field of pedagogy, in educational institutions and in whole societies, i.e., shaping the culture which re-builds the real power of group life. The postulate to shape such culture in multicultural communities is very hard to implement, but not impossible. The presented results of the studies conducted on a specific group of young Europeans – the participants of a short-term international voluntary workcamp – indicate and illustrate the development of cognitive functions, motivation and interactive activity of kindness- based character.
The interpretative tracks and motifs for the obtained results are sought in K. Illeris’s holistic concept of learning and in other theories of various origin, not much known in the field of pedagogy: H. Simon’s concept of bounded rationality and R. Aumann’s theory of repeated games (otherwise called the theory of “conflict and cooperation” or “interactive decisions”). Applying two different approaches into the discussed issues – the theoretical and empirical, detailed and partially generalized approach – is cognitively interesting and useful in the practical dimension. This might help both to specify the stimuli which cause the evolution of human attitudes and strategies of acting and to design and organize education.

This paper is a theoretical investigation of body identity. It is an attempt to deepen the analysis of body identity in its subjective aspect, which is framed as a constellation of complex identity senses: the sense of being, continuity of body self in time and space, inner consistency, separateness and bodily limits, as well as the senses of body ownership and agency. All the identified motives of body identity are regarded as pertaining to a special scope in the relationship with the body which produces the sense of body self, i.e., the sense of being an embodied subject. Ultimately, body identity is defined as a holistic and a higher order manner of experiencing one’s body self which anchors a human being in his/her subjectivity and uniqueness, thus complementing the individual and social aspect of identity.

Human identity is one of the key issues of a successful existence. It is not possible to avoid answering such questions as: Who am I? How do I understand myself? What do I identify myself with? Those questions demand answers, which are being continuously verified because of the changing individual, social and cultural conditions. Nowadays, one of the main features of reality is a very strong concentration on human body, its appearance, physical attractiveness, and compatibility with socially promoted ideals. The socially popularized model is a young, beautiful, charming and fit body. This is especially true for the body of a woman – a representative of the fair sex. Meeting those social expectations is not an easy task. It requires a lot of effort and sacrifice. While it is not a problem for younger women, it is very difficult and problematic for elderly women.
In this article, the selected identity dilemmas experienced by nowadays elderly women will be discussed based on the available research described in Polish and foreign literature. As a result of the aging process of the body, the elderly woman’s body is far from the socially promoted ideal of the female body. This situation affects the self-esteem of elderly women and forces them to redefine themselves and their identity. The studies conducted so far have shown that the elderly women adopt various strategies in order to deal with these dilemmas. This article, inter alia, will discuss those strategies.

This paper is a report of some studies conducted by the author in the Roma community in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. After a brief introduction and characteristics of the surveyed group, the theoretical basis of the research and the methodological approach was presented. The project was supposed to be an attempt to show the difference between the education of Roma and of the dominant community in their country of residence. The research objective of the project was to identify the Roma perception of education and school duty, to identify and understand the relationship between the Roma identity and their relation to education and participation. Three areas were analysed: identities, culture, and education. The identification of their identities, their participation in culture and the education of the culturally dominant group are indicated. The conclusions concern the current situation of the Roma in these areas and possible recommendations or solutions for the future.

In the presented work, an attempt is made to specify the theory-cognitive significance of J. Reykowski’s concept of multidimensional moral development for intercultural studies. This proposal seems to be particularly useful in pedagogical analyses dealing with moral reasoning of children. The presented research results and their interpretation confirm the presence of intercultural differentiation in the development of evaluation standards of learners in late childhood. Therefore, this concept may have broader application in intercultural studies in education.

For centuries there has been Polish-language education in Lithuania which results from the centuries-long presence and tradition of the Polish national minority in this country. Polish education in Lithuania has its successes, but also problems that arise from the political and cultural specificity of the issue. On the one hand, it should be noted that in no other country (except Poland) there are as many state-run schools with Polish language of instruction as in Lithuania, on the other – it must be said that currently Polish-language education in Lithuania has become the source of many tensions in Poland and Lithuania inter-state relations. Polish education in Lithuania was a problem for the communist authorities of Soviet Lithuania, and now – for the authorities of independent Lithuania, which undertake both assimilation and integration activities concerning several thousand students and teachers of these schools. The first part of the article presents the situation of Polish-language education in the period of Soviet Lithuania between 1945 and 1990, marking the desperate struggle of parents and teachers to maintain the Polish language of teaching in these schools. The second chapter analyses the issue during the years of independent Lithuania – between 1990 and 2017, emphasizing the revival of Polish education in 1990–2000 and the persistent pursuit of the Polish minority society in Lithuania of ensuring education in Polish and maintain the existing state. The third chapter examines the indicator of higher education of the Polish minority in Lithuania against a national background, signifying that it was twice lower than the national average throughout the whole period. Moreover, it presents the funding of universities by ‘student basket’ model and proportion of school graduates with Polish language of instruction in this model and assesses the prospect of solving the problem.

The article is dedicated to the Muslims in Poland, with a special focus on their institutional representation. This religious minority encircles a diverse populace in terms of the path in Islam they adhere to, ethnicity, country of origin, but also the legal status they have in Poland. It includes Muslim Tatars, former students from Arab countries who have been living in this country for decades, as well as transient groups war refugees from Chechnya, Afghanistan or the Balkans, esp. Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author argues that institutionalized entities of religious character which associate Muslims in the country, organize their presence in religious terms and represent them, reflect major divisions within the Muslim populace in the country. A key factor is the duration of their settlement – it is concomitant to, if not more important than, tensions between the Sunnis and Shiites.

The submitted article is based on a fragment of a thesis entitled “The Image of the Roma and Artistic Bohemia in the Literature of the Young Poland”. The subject matter of the research is the description of two communities living in the period of the Young Poland: the Roma people, and Bohemians. The adopted research method embraces the range of broadly defined anthropological research, including analysis and interpretation of texts in a cultural context, and, above all, various aspects of life referring to Bohemians and the Roma community in Poland at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The research objective of this article is to show the similarities and differences between Bohemians of the Young Poland and the Roma living in this period, concerning originality of their lifestyle, customs, outfit and other phenomena. The in-depth analysis of the life aspects of the Roma and Bohemians from the Young Poland has demonstrated the similarities and differences between the two groups. They both functioned as “others” who had no relationship with the society. They were accompanied by a sense of loneliness, outsiderness, consciousness of rejection, tragedy of their situation and a sense of incomprehension and injustice.

The aim of this article is to present the selected findings of the research carried out over the last decade on the situation of foreign pupils undergoing their education in Polish schools. The thesis being verified is that due to the lack of intercultural competencies of teachers, the educational institutions are not able to deal with the rising problems. Final conclusions point the necessity of changes in teacher training programs.

The aim of the article is to present vital issues related to the school situation of foreign children in Poland. The first part concerns the processes of education and integration of this group of students and legal possibilities to support them. The second one is devoted to the presentation of two (co-written by the author of the article) pedagogical innovations (intercultural portfolio and intercultural tales), which allow us to work with foreigners (kindergarten or first grade) and culturally diverse groups. They serve teaching Polish as a foreign language and forming sensitivity towards otherness.
Poland is a country with a relatively low degree of cultural diversity. Working with foreign students is still a big challenge for the teaching staff. Properly chosen educational methods are an important part of the success of the education and integration of foreign students.
Evaluation studies show that the methods presented in the text, because of their specificity (possibility of an active and creative learning), gained approval of students and teachers, and are effective. They motivate students to learn and share knowledge about their own culture. They can be used in the course of various activities in the area of education. This article is for everyone interested in intercultural education of children.

International collaboration in education has resulted in an increasing number of participants in educational exchanges at various stages of education. Taking part in a foreign intercultural exchange is an important experience, associated with a half a year or a year-long immersion in another culture and with the return home. Changing the residence country for a certain period, learners consciously undertake the tasks aimed at familiarization with the new culture, language, customs or behaviours. Few of them think about the difficulties associated with the comeback. The presented research results show that, during the exchange, learners were able to build their strategy of functioning in the host family and country. As a result, this helped them to handle the difficulties of the reverse culture shock, which is manifested by the optimistic-active strategy applied by most of the learners after returning home.

The present article tackles the topic of the status of young people in the multicultural environment. The status of the young people from the indigenous minority determined by them is compared with the evaluation of the minority status by the young people from the majority living in the same environment. This topic is considered relevant for the quality of “intercultural milieu” and the identity of the society living in the particular environment.
The objective of the article is to show the changes of the minority status by comparing the opinions in that matter recorded in the years before joining the EU and those expressed in 2010. We consider consequences of the changes in “intercultural approaches” in the particular environment within the integration processes in the EU.
The way of presenting the topic is based on the theory of „groups of mutual reference”. The results of the study presented in the article refer to the dimensions of valued resources and opportunities, and in particular opinions of young people considering their availability for the minority, which illustrates the position of group members and their status and prestige.
Further, there is a comparison of opinions of young people from minority and majority groups concerning access to resources and opportunities for the indigenous minority group. This shows positioning of the minority, and at the same time establishes the position of majority in the particular environment. The opinions comprise a lot of information about relationships and ways of communication in the society, that is “interculturalism”: “«Status» is a relative position of an individual and thus it depends on the fact who the others are” (Sowa, 1962, p. 59).

The paper presents the results of quantitative research using the diagnostic poll method, carried out as part of an international project which involved 440 teacher students from the Polish-Belarusian borderland. The research focused on self-assessed level of information management, team work skills, and recognition of one’s own time perspective. The text only refers to one aspect of the competence, i.e., attitude to time. The findings show that the participants function in three temporal dimensions. The majority of the respondents are future-oriented. More than half of them sometimes waste time doing something meaningless. The vast majority of the students act upon the belief that what will happen to them in the future only depends on their effort, but many also declare a fatalistic attitude to life and the belief they have made wrong decisions in the past. In the article, we suggest the need to equip young people with instruments allowing them to create themselves, their lives and the world around them in the context of the foresight concept.

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NOTES ABOUT AUTHORS

The authors are discussing the shaping of the national identity of Polish-Lithuanian frontier denizens, regarding the historical events of the 20th century. In the first part of the article, they present a brief historical sketch of Polish-Lithuanian relations, putting significant emphasis on the moment of the Sejny uprising beginning, that is August 22nd, 1919. Reclamation of independence after World War I put both countries in a challenging position of building own nationality image. Defining own territorial affiliation of the Sejny region spawned an exceptionally harsh conflict between Poles and Lithuanians, leading to the uprising. The results of these events echo in Polish-Lithuanian relations in the Sejny region to this day. The second part of the article is devoted to the presentation of the multidimensional and constantly created identity concept by Jerzy Nikitorowicz, as an introduction to considering the shaping process of identity among youth of the cultural borderland. The authors point to the fact how important it is to find a platform of dialogue for both parties. They explain selected activities regarding intercultural education, accomplished in local environments by the “Borderland of arts, cultures and nations” center animators in Sejny.

This article attempts to reflect on three crucial issues concerning migration research. First of all, we seek the answer to the question: what is a specific problem of migration in sociology and in theoretical and methodological approach? For this purpose we reach to the roots of Polish researches of migrants, by Florian Znaniecki and Józef Chałasiński. Secondly, we try to reconstruct the map of current migration problems as is the effect of reviewing the literature of the subject. We pay particular attention to research on migration issues in the UK. Thirdly, we attempt to present our own research approach to Polish emigrants’ problems by using two basical categories: adaptation and integration. The subject of further empirical investigations will be the factors which facilitate or block these processes.

The purpose of the article was the analysis of two topics: the freedom and new society in Steiner’s philosophy. Steiner in The Philosophy of Freedom postulates that the world is essentially an indivisible unity. He suggests, that freedom can only be approached gradually with the aid of the creative activity of thinking. The ability to think and act independently is a possibility for modern consciousness. The process of free action also includes the liberation from given (unreflected) natural driver, instincts and the commands of reason or authorities. The free action, are those for which we are fully conscious of the motive. He concludes, that freedom is the spiritual activity of penetrating with consciousness our own nature. The most striking feature of Anthroposophy will be deemed, at first sight, to be the cultivation of the soul’s inward life and the opening of the eyes to a spiritual world. But these doctrines are the foes of real life. The best situation would result if one would give people free way. He has the trust that they would find their direction themselves.

The article discusses the process of shaping the media image of Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski (1930 – 2004). The author argues that the feature film Jack Strong (directed by W. Pasikowski, Poland 2014) had importance in the public debate concerning this tragic figure in post-war Polish history. The article presents a series of journalistic materials from the press, in which the memory of R. Kuklinski is presented in dichotomous extremes between heroism and betrayal. A mixed media image of a soldier of Polish People’s Army cooperating with a hostile intelligence, fosters the myth of the new incarnation of Konrad Wallenrod.

This article aims at reconstruction of crucial for pedagogy of emancipation notions associated with colonisation and decolonisation. This objective includes both literally and metaphor meanings of colonisation and decolonisation used by P. Freire in his philosophy of education. Thus I will present modified by P. Freire conception of closed society as a relic of colonial society and I will also present his notion of colonisation and decolonisation of minds as an objective action for basic literacy during decolonisation processes in Africa in the seventies. The main reason of such purpose of this text is that colonisation is the crucial point and the main cause of emancipation in Freire’s conception of social movements in general and popular education in particular. On the other hand decolonisation is an archetypal form of emancipation, thus taking into account present social inequalities theory of P. Freire is still totally valid.

One of the symbols of the Great French Revolution was the Declarations of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen-a document adopted by the National Constituent Assembly on August 26, 1789, collecting fundamental rights and the constitutional principles of a democratic state. It later became a lofty introduction to the 1791 constitution. The French had yet to receive two declarations, attached to the following basic acts-from 1793 and 1795. Their content was different, and even when some of their rights were repeated, they often differed in their approach, which indicated the changing ruling teams, their political programs, and their social background. In addition to indicating the differences between the three declarations, the article shows in particular the inspirations of the first (most important) of them-basically the influence of the Enlightenment thought and the declaration of the laws of the states of North America. The author draws attention to the differences between the American and French approaches to human rights. Despite the fact that after 1795 no further declaration of rights was ever made in France, the achievements of the Great French Revolution, and especially the 1789 document, remain today a point of reference for democrats in France and all over the world.

The research examines the attitudes to national culture and traditions, and a system of values. Analyses were conducted in 2003 (a sample of 325 students), and in 2008 (a sample of 379 students), and in 2013 (a sample of 368 students). It was assumed that (1) there are differences between three groups in acceptance of attitudes and (2) that attitudes to national culture and tradition depend on the value system. The Rokeach’s concept provides the theoretical background. The results of research allow stating that most students underline the significance of national heritages. The lowest acceptance of national heritage was observed in 2008. Moreover, attitudes depend on the value system: a positive attitude to culture and traditions of the own nation is connected with the higher preference of collective values, whereas the acceptance of cultural integration with the western countries is linked with individual values.

Asynchronous development of societies generates many social issues. One of them is the juvenileisation of poverty in the whole EU and Poland. This is a dangerous social phenomenon mainly due to the so-called distant effects of poverty. Most often they involve inbalance of socialization in the future social roles, especially the parent and employee. Trauma and suffering experienced by individuals and entire societies are also significant.

Towards the end of the seventies of the twentieth century American philosopher Matthew Lipman and his colleagues developed a method of philosophical inquiry with children and the youth, which, according to the author, allowed to supply inefficient system of education in the areas of supporting intellectual and social development of children. The Philosophy for Children scheme was aimed to develop critical thinking skills, reasoning, argumentation and dialogue. The idea of philosophizing with children in school has become an inspiration for many educational experiments carried out in various parts of the world. An important part of these experiments is the scheme’s evaluation, the aim of which is to investigate the effectiveness of the method and its impact on intellectual, emotional and social development of children. The article analyzes the 4 selected European researches, concerning the measurement of the impact of philosophical investigations on the development of children cognitive competence. It presents the basic methodological assumptions, the course of study and the results and conclusions of experiments. All of these experiments demonstrate the positive impact of methods to support the intellectual development of children. Despite this, the method is still seen only as an educational experiment and there is not wider application in education. From the analysis of research reports one can conclude that there is a need for in-depth and systematic study of the method of philosophical inquiry in education, inclusion in the study area, not only the effect of the impact of the program on children’s competence but also on the competence of teachers and broadly understood culture of the school.

This paper is an attempt to show the changes in education in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Article indicates the main directions of change in the philosophy of education and their structural implications for the education system, in response to the changing socio-political and dominant global trends while imitating structural solutions and attitudes present in Western societies. The primary source base constitute a public database (eng. The reports of the World Bank, and Education at Glance published by the OECD) as well as statistical analyzes prepared on their basis. The main aim of this article is to attempt to identify significant similarities and differences which the participation of countries undergoing a similar path of development.

The aim of the article is to overview the methods and procedures of the higher education’s quality evaluation system applied at English universities, as well as drawing conclusions referring to the applicability of these experiences in Polish circumstances. The exemplary universities, i.e. the University of Bolton, near Manchester and the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, not far from London conduct an internal evaluation, employing their own methods, and, additionally, participate in an external evaluation, both national and international. The latter is carried out by special institutions, such as: The Higher Education Academy, Ipsos MORI-a company using the National Student Questionnaire (NSS), The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and The International Graduate Insight Group (i-graduate) that belonging to The Tribal Group PLC. The topics covered involve: the importance of the quality of teaching evaluation in the process of university management, procedures and methods for the assessment of the didactics’ quality applied in England (using the examples of two above-mentioned universities) as well as some conclusions concerning the applicability of British experiences in Polish educational environment including potential benefits and difficulties.

The paper presents the essence of the education for safety. There were analyzed both theoretical issues and curriculum of the education aimed at matters related to widely understood safety in the system of public education as well as system of education in the Ministry of the Interior and Administration.

This paper presents preliminary evaluation of the programme of, so called, ordered specializations. This programme in recent years has made a significant impact on the higher education system in Poland. The evaluation was made from an economic perspective considering the effectiveness of the programme. Due to lack of appropriate data it is too early for the comprehensive evaluation of the programme. Its effects will become visible in long-run perspective. In the article we use quantitative data from the surveys conducted for the purpose of the project evaluation (surveys with students, graduates, employers and representatives of Higher Education Institutions). The analysis shows that, although the programme has brought the effect of increasing the enrolment in selected fields of study, it did not necessarily lead to the achievement of labour market goals. In the context of the huge expenditure for the implementation of the programme (more than 1.2 billion PLN), the assessment of the economic efficiency of the programme is ambiguous. Conclusions of the evaluation of the programme are crucial in the context of the planned construction of similar actions in the future.

Children’s literature plays a key role in the process of socialization. It is one of the crucial factors which help the young reader to understand the surrounding world, also in terms of what is one’s own and what is other, different. On the one hand, its task is reflecting the existing reality, on the other-shaping specific attitudes towards it, for example through strengthening existing stereotypes or calling them in question. In English-language literature on the subject one can find numerous analyses of both broadly understood intercultural literature and depictions of individual nationalities, cultures, and races. So far, Polish children’s literature has not attracted much scholarly attention in this respect. It might result from the fact that the Polish population is to a large extent a homogenous group as regards race and nationality. However, this state of affairs is gradually changing, as Poland starts to attract migrants from all over the world and national and ethnic minorities already inhabiting the country are being discovered. In this context, it seems particularly interesting to ask if and how these social changes have influenced Polish children’s literature of today. The goal of this paper is to outline the issue of cultural diversity, in particular the presence of the national and ethnic “other” in the newest Polish children’s literature, according to criteria developed on the basis of Short, Lynch-Brown and Tomlinson’s guidelines (2014). The paper is also an attempt at determining to what extent Polish children’s literature corresponds with the model of intercultural education. As the analysis shows, Polish literature on cultural diversity is scarce, involves non-representative depictions of minorities, and lacks the “insider” perspective, and thus fulfills the postulates of intercultural education only in a limited way.

The aim of the article is to point out how in contemporary Russian school history textbooks the collapse of the Soviet Union and its consequences for Russia, Europe and the whole world are shown. By combining this information with public opinion polls, aimed at analyzing Russian attitude to this controversial period in history, an attempt was made to find an answer to the question of how in the cultural memory of Russians, transmitting the experience of the older generations to the younger, this groundbreaking change in the political system operates nowadays. The conducted analysis has shown that many Russian history textbooks present a balanced, unemotional picture of the process the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, there are also such textbooks, which include emotional negative opinions about the collapse of the Soviet superpower, considering this event as one of the most tragic moments in the history of the 20th century. The article cites excerpts from history textbooks for history, juxtaposing them with public opinion surveys (regarding the evaluation of the last CPSU Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev; an opinion about the possibility of avoiding the collapse of the USSR, the factors that cause the greatest sorrow for the state union). This juxtaposition has revealed that despite the passage of time, there is lack of one, acceptable to the general public version of events that took place a quarter of a century ago. Just as Russians evaluate events focused around the collapse of the USSR and its consequences differently, so authors of textbooks offer students interpretations of groundbreaking events very diverging from each other. Therefore, the article shows that the historical education of young Russians in relation to this specific period will be the sum of the family stories, reading textbook recommended by the teacher and teacher comments. This leads to the conclusion that the collapse of the USSR is an event affecting the cultural memory of Russians, though the evaluation of this period are still evolving.

It can be striking for us today that when so little divides us there is still so much that separates us from each other. We observe the fragility of social cohesion and witness the degradation of social capital even though some say that our religious belief as well as material conditions or differences in political rights no longer divide us. In the light of critical observations, one can say that there is a need to reconcile people with each other, to establish bonds between us, that we need to establish civil society. When trying to establish a well-functioning civil society we have to ask ourselves a few crucial questions. These questions include: How can Western individualism be combined with the values of community and social solidarity? What are the necessary conditions for freedom and solidarity among people? To answer these questions it is worth reaching the philosophical thought of John Dewey and Roberto Unger. In his text Roberto Unger points out that today’s social and political order is not something solid and stable. Even our democratic order that I was referring to in this paper faces challenges that may undermine its base. Without the right preparation to face these challenges-through responsible and critical public participation and deliberation-it is possible that instead of us having some sort of possibility of steering the growth of our societies and having an impact on political and economic evolution, the evolving situations will steer us. If this happens, we will be left behind, being unable to grasp and handle the different new situations.

The text is focused on two relatively young yet rapidly developing disciplines: psychology of music and music therapy. The goal of the article was to outline the territories of both disciplines and consider relationships between them. The text includes characteristics, presented through clarification of the subjects of both areas, attempt to place them in the general classification of sciences and considerations regarding the methodology. It also indicates important aspect of artistic component, present especially in practical music therapy, and reaching beyond scientific inquiry. The author notices difficulties of integrating activities utilizing arts with systematic, research-oriented perspective. She shows relationships between disciplines, paying attention to the significant differences, but also complementary values. She concludes that despite of being separate, psychology of music and music therapy have common grounds.

The paper analyses categories of every-day reality and of a life-world, reaching also for a related notion of intersubjectivity. Whereas all of them have phenomenological background, only the category of every-day reality has made a career in sociology, breaking offthe connection with its philosophical roots. Its phenomenological interpretations are recurred to in the article, together with showing its relation to Lebenswelt. The main concern is the extent to which it is possible to find religious meanings in every-day life in contemporary societies of the broadly-understood West. A degree to which it is allowed to bring meanings deriving from other spheres into the scope of every-day reality, as well as a concrete symbolic domain to be privileged, are historically and culturally changeable. Secularization that affects a society in an institutional dimension and its common sense, makes religious interpretations being less and less intersubjectively supported and loosing their status of being taken for granted. This situation encourages further secularization of individual life-worlds, and at persons who still identify themselves as religious strengthens the separation of religious province from the other domains of meanings and ways of experiencing the world. There is also a number of people who, despite the decline of

This article aims to note the importance of non-formal education in the context of lifelong learning, especially in last phase. A secondary analysis of empirical research, conducted in Germany as part of a unique project “Competencies in Later Life” (CiLL), is the starting point for a reflection on the necessity of support of educational processes, enabling the development of qualifications after leaving formal education system. This study allowed to determine the level of competence of literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments of the population aged 66-80 years.The conclusions of the study are clear: in connection with a deficit of the core competencies of older people is needed educational offer. Participation in education can prevent exclusion from social life.

Looking at the marketing strategies applied by institutions selling culture and education, the main problem is not to forget the nature of the selling product. We are obliged to protect the shape and essence of what we sell much more than selling any other kind of product even if the product is totally uncommercial. That’s why numerous, cultural and educational institutions often aren’t able to find their own place on the still changing market. Some of them offer products intended only for a small group of customers, others support new directions and new forms of products that haven’t got their own type of clients definite yet. So there’s appearing new need to reconciltae what’s irreconcilable, extremly different opinions and need of working out the balance between spectators preferences and organizations ambitions. It looks like the developing product strategies of Polish Cultural and Educational Union in the Czech Republic presented in the paper prove that the balance is possible to reach.

The purpose of this article is to characterize gamification as an increasingly popular contemporary method of teaching, which is part of the StudentCentered Learning trend. The SCL philosophy, which promotes studentcentered approach as the central issue of the learning process, indicates gamification as one of the most effective and the most interesting method of motivating students to be put in the effort in gaining knowledge and derive satisfaction from their achievements in the scientific field. As indicated by the authors, finding the motivation and maintaining it at an adequate level in the process of teaching, is not an easy task, and the problem posed by its absence is becoming more common in Polish and European higher education system. This evaluation is confirmed by the studies of the authors within domestic and foreign literature. The most common causes of amotivation, presented in the article, could be gradually solved just through gamification — teaching methodology, which uses the game mechanics. Gamification, based on the teaching through activating students, encouraging them to a self-activity, a creative rivalry and a cooperation, is nowadays increasingly used in an academic field, where the authors have found numerous interesting examples. The authors of the text are outlining the principles and advantages of using gamification, the potential areas of application as well as interesting projects with its use. They also postulate to change the current paradigm of teaching by replacing the often inefficient ‘feeding’ teaching methods of transmitting knowledge with more active form, wherein gamification is fully applicable.

The objective of this article is to present the theoretical assumptions and psychometric properties of the Model of Inversed Death Questionnaire. The existential and educational consequences of the new cultural model of death which spreads in modern western civilization justify the need to create the tool to measure the extent to which the model of inversed death is present. Based on studies, involving 341 students from universities in Warsaw, reliability, construct and criterial validity of the tool were tested. It has been shown, that this tool has the correct psychometric properties and can be used in subsequent studies. The multidimensional internal structure of the Model of Inversed Death Questionnaire corresponds to the theoretical model of the studies whereby there is four typical phenomena of the model of inversed death: demetaphysication of death, trivialization of death, taboo of death, separation of death experiences.

The article is devoted to the content analysis of 19 broadcasts for children and teens in six leading television channels dedicated to minors recipients in Poland. The study has been conducted on the basis of 16 criteria reflecting the positive and negative attributes of the programmes. It has aimed to answer the question of how the world is depicted in these broadcasts, and furthermore what socio-cultural patterns are transmitted to children and adolescents watching their favourite fairy tales and film heroes. The research conducted has proved that it is possible to identify both the best, most valuable from the point of view of the child’s development and socialization channel (it is MiniMini+) and the most harmful, presenting negative values and negative patterns channel (which is Cartoon Network). The text presents the first in Polish media and sociological studies comparative analysis of such a large number of broadcasts for children and youth, and the analysis so widely verifying the content and formal elements of these broadcasts.

Television is now recognized as a key source of knowledge about the social and cultural reality. TV series is one of the genre with special role on this field. It’s norm-creating properties have been spotted already in the 70’s and used to construct the first, based on narrative, edutainment programs. The article is focused on the series about social workers “Into deep water”. This TV show was creating by Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and it’s first example of education series in Poland. The author analyzes pop culture text based on education-entertainment strategy and educational potential of series. The empirical basis for article are written expression and qualitative research interviews. The aim of the research was verification the educational extent of the “Into deep water” and what it is. The main conclusion that results from the analysis is that the show is more PR tool than educational.

The description and explanation of human behavior in behavioral psychology is conducted according to nonhuman animal model. This field of science is based on primary learning processes such as classical and operant conditioning, which were discovered due to research on animals. Therefore, many U.S. colleges and universities use animal laboratory experiments in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses of psychology. Decreasing public support for research on live animals, more strict regulations in animal laws and high laboratory maintaining costs caused that alternative ways to demonstrate students the rights of learning and shaping behavior were looked for. Due to the expand of personal computers, programs and virtual models simulating live animals behavior were developed. The most popular one and currently most accessible is „Sniffy, the virtual rat”. The paper discusses the possibility of using the program in teaching. Moreover, the results of two surveys on using live versus virtual animals in didactics of behavioral psychology, carried out among students, are presented and discussed.

Innovation of products is one of the most important factor of competition therefore supporting of creative actions of employers is one of the intentionally introduced changes in the organization. Historical analysis of development of management theories from one hand and projects of organization of work spaces form the other hand show co-evolution of them. That is main changes of management theories join with changes in design. In this paper we try to identify (using projects from web sites and specialist publication) a few trends relating to create work space supporting creativity. One of the important trends is imitation of the solutions implemented by companies that are considered innovative. Therefor you wonder if spatial solutions support changes in management practices or rather replace them. In other words, if in some cases the management is not replaced by the design.

The main object of the article is an attempt to answer the question about the limits of freedom and independence of professional designers. It seems to be important, especially now, when we can observe how creative industries provide to innovative development of society and to competitive advantage. Is it possible to have autonomy being a designer? Referring to B. Bourdieu’s field theory and idea of socially responsible design (Papanek, 2012) it will be shown the context of this profession as a balance of power between the individual actors (designers, client, users, society) in the field of design. Object of the present text is description of the designer’s profession in relation to the subjectively perceived degree of professional independence. The example used to analyze this issue are interviews conducted among British designers from Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design.

Global aging is one of the challenges for the concept of sustainable development. The particular importance have here the needs of designing the physical environment, especially urban green areas. They have the potential positive impact on the activity and activation of seniors. The tool, which is gaining on popularity is sustainable design, which helps to better meet user needs while taking care of the social and natural environment. The combination of these issues allows to try to specify the main features that should have urban green areas to be called age-friendly.

Nowadays we observe numerous changes in the field of employment. Possibility of flexible working hours, alternative job as being aligned to particular project, remote working and technology development results in a completely new perception of working time and space. More and more people adapt public spaces (third places) and private spaces (residences) to mobile professional activity, manifesting their freedom and ability to connect their responsibilities with leisure time. Interpretation of visual representations of mobile offices revealed by social media was the mode to find symptoms of consumption related to social status, people’ relationship with objects and ways of arranging space to transform it into offices. Analysis of photographs revealed outdating category of non-place by Marc Ague. Work is closely related to mobile devices (laptops, tablets, phones) what enhances adapting to it also spaces that in the past were considered as non-individual (public transport, airports, train stations, waiting rooms). Also the function of third places (cafes, pubs, restaurants) is changing nowadays what effects in new forms of arranging space dedicated to individual work.

The article aims to portray changes in provision and reception of contemporary counselling, which finds itself under a strong impact of popular culture. The pop culture is described as a phenomenon intimately related and saturating social life, scientific research and daily life of modern people. In postmodern mediatized reality, deeply immersed in popular culture, the guidance is sought by a Homo consultans-a reflexive individual that experiences uncertainty/helplessness and establishes an interpersonal relationship (dialogue) with another human being-a counsellor-with a view to solving his/her problems. Seeking guidance and attempting to use the counsellor’s help to understand oneself, others and the world, the counselee actually strives after sustainable personal development and decent life. Homo consultans-is simultaneously the active seeker of a guidance and the passive object of the attack of guidance practices.

The first days, months and years in a child’s life are crucial for his development. At first, the sensory processes are being developed, and the infant learns to examine his hands, to look at people who are moving in front of him and to squeeze another hand. This process is accompanied by the development of the thought processes and the emotions. Children who are abandoned after birth spend a period of time being hospitalized, until Child Protection Services finds the best solution to protect the babies, which in most of the cases is the placement at a foster parent. This period of time has a major impact on the infant because of the absence of the mother and the child is not being properly stimulated. These children suffer an abandonment trauma, which causes negative psychological effects that influence the development: difficulty in forming a secure attachment, delay in cognitive development and in other areas of functioning, increased possibility of developing cognitive distortions. The role of a foster parent in the infant stage is of a high importance because he or she is the person to whom the child forms attachment, gives the child the opportunity of being raised in a family, to have models and become more resilient. Nevertheless, in the upbringing of children the effects of the abandonment trauma are still being seen in most of them: the child has low self-esteem, he forms an insecure attachment, develops signs of mental illness and difficulties in autonomy. This paper is an immersion in the literature on the development of children who were abandoned after birth. The novelty of the theme is represented by the observations made on the upbringing of these children at foster parents in Romania since the implementation of foster care in this country until the present day. There is a need to improve the training of the foster parents and the methods used by specialists in working with the children, so that they can become more resilient and have adequate coping mechanisms in the adult stage.

Isaiah Berlin said that it is part of the human condition to make choices between absolute values. Obviously, this choice cannot be easy. To be well informed, it has to be made in full awareness of the contingency of our criteria. This ability to make choices between absolute values in the light of contingencies is what distinguishes a civilized man from a barbarian, says Berlin, following Joseph Schumpeter. Similar ideas can be found in the philosophy of Richard Rorty, who believes that our liberal societies create more people who understand the contingencies of their vocabularies, but at the same time are still faithful to them. He calls this “freedom as acknowledgement of contingency.” This freedom is bound by the existence of a plurality of voices, which does not mean that it is bound by the existence of chaos. In such a spirit, Jürgen Habermas emphasizes the fact that in spite of the plurality of contingent views, we can find a unity of reason. In spite of plurality of views, we can still come to an agreement thanks to dialogue. The close analysis of Rorty’s and Habermas’s philosophy allows us to see that they share a common stance: thanks to disenchantment of the world, as Rorty says, or thanks to decentralization of the world, as Habermas says. Both are seeing such stance as a precondition to use our freedom in a way to be more tolerant, more open to dialogue and responsible for it. Further analysis allows us to see that there is a possibility to present a new understanding of the notion of freedom-freedom conceived as responsibility.

In his work A Natural History of Human Thinking, Michael Tomasello depicts thinking as a form of cooperation. Presenting at the same time a conceptual schema enriched with empirical data, he outlines a natural history of thinking in particular, indicating how the process of socialization and new, unique manifestations of human interaction alter the forms of thinking, from the ones we share with primates, through increasingly complex forms characteristic of the primitive man, to these of the contemporary man. In A Natural History of Human Morality Tomasello presents a similar structure, showing morality as a form of human cooperation in which, according to Tomasello, Homo sapiens, seen as “ultra-social primates”, developed new and uniquely human forms of social interaction and organization which, as a result, required new and also very specific for Homo sapiens psychological mechanisms in cognitive processes, social interaction and self-control. While in A Natural History of Human Thinking Tomasello’s main hypothesis is the Shared Intentionality Hypothesis, in A Natural History of Human Morality it is the Interdependence Hypothesis. Thus, this unique structure of abilities and motivation is the feature which distinguishes us from other primates. This essay aims to extract and outline this structure, focusing more on A Natural History of Human Morality.

The aim of the presented paper is to depict the approach of the European Union and its member states towards security in the countries belonging to the Visegrad Group. For V4 countries it is vital to implement such a policy that would make Western Europe aware of the threat and exert political pressure on the countries of the so-called old Union (in particular on France and Germany) to assume a greater responsibility for security and peace in the world as an international organisation and support all actions designed to establish real and effective common defence policy of the EU. Indeed, state security is presently ensured not only by the armed forces of a given country but also through the assurance of obtaining effective assistance (of different kind) from other states and international organisations guaranteed by international agreements.

Both conversational analysis and examination of interactive rituals concentrate on distinguishing the structure of everyday conversations and language definition of social situations of the social interaction participants. It seems though that the researchers devote too little attention to the development of methods and techniques of research, detailed analysis of the transcription of keeping quiet by the participants of the social interaction. The aim of the article is to focus attention on the problems of treating meaningful silence by researchers as a speech, the tool and means of social actor expression, as important as other parts of speech. Some social contexts and conditions of silence were shown within different situations and worlds. The causes, results and myths of employees silence were presented. Silence was analysed in the context of existing in social worlds orders as a sign of crystallization and formation of statuses and micro social processes with special attention on the role of silence of social actors. The text uses some experience of language researchers, sociologists of language and emotion.

What appears to be a key question in recent studies on language evolution is the notion of natural word order-a hypothesis propounding word order to be innate in a phylogenetic and cognitive sense (Dryer, 2005; Pagel, 2009; Gell-Mann & Ruhlen, 2011). Gesture and sign studies provide a sound base for the topic. The primary idea for the study comes from Goldin-Meadow et al. (2008) research, which proposed the silent gesture paradigm, in which participants communicate simple events with the aid of their hands. The result of their research suggests that when participants communicate via gestures, notwithstanding their native language, they apply the SOV (subject-object-verb) word order-a finding which has been largely substantiated, but also discussed by following studies (e.g., Gibson et al., 2013; Hall et al., 2013). The purpose of our study was to verify whether the SOV order is prevalent in the experimental environment when participants are instructed to use whole-bodily pantomime rather than hand-and-arm gesture only. The actors in the study were instructed to perform reversible events from the pictures. Reversible events means that both the actor and the patient can perform an action. There exists an exciting opportunity for our study to shed a new light on research into natural word order.

The article presents the results of research that pertained to the manner of smartphone use in child upbringing during early childhood. The qualitative research was participated in by: a mother of a two-year-old girl and a mother of a threeyear-old boy. On the basis of the tests I concluded that this device is mainly used by mothers:-to occupy the attention of the child, to allow the mother to perform other activities,-to calm the child down at times of anxiety,-as a reward. The interviews have shown that for the respondents the educational function of smartphone are not significant, although they see them.

The need for law education is indispensable in the individual and, as a consequence, social dimension. Its early initiation will “internalize” patterns of behaviour and response which will contribute to conscious functioning in society, and, as a result, building of a society of law. Therefore, one of the goals of the presented text is to indicate the fact that ignorantia iuris nocet. Such a conceptualization is preventive, prophylactic, and inhibitory. First and foremost, the purpose of addressing the issue is to show the need to raise legal awareness that builds legal culture of society, and improves the quality of life. The analysis of the results of the research conducted among schoolchildren aged 15-16 indicates that legal awareness of the young generation differentiates the frequency of behaviours contrary to social and legal standards-the higher legal awareness of young people is, the lower the level of particular problem behaviours in this group is. The paper also outlines recommendations on solutions that can be used to create future prevention programs aimed at building an aware information society and the high legal culture of its members.

The article attempts to explore the problem of functional illiteracy in the rich countries of the West. The author presents situations of adult illiterate people living in the world of Western culture who-deprived of the ability to read and write -surpass social and symbolic barriers in everyday life, struggling for survival and human dignity. The idiomatic phrase “the torture of Tantalus” symbolizes a person’s pain resulting from the desire of owning things which are close but remain unobtainable. Through their complex biographies, the author indicates crucial moments in their lives: the decision to acquire reading and writing skills, and the pivotal point directly after the accomplished literacy course. If one deprives these people of professional assistance, it reduces their chances to materialise the expectations connected with reading and writing skills. The aim of the article is to draw attention to the phenomenon of adult illiteracy, which became a major task in educational policy and adult education also in many highly developed countries.

Interests allow young people to define themselves, encourage the formation of positive elements of their own identity, and give value and importance to their own activities. The issues related to the components of young people’s identities have been a subject of increasing research interest in recent years. As it has been determined, there is a lack of data in Poland regarding the role of educational environments in shaping a positive identity based on the development of young people’s interests. The purpose of the study is to identify the general level of interests among adolescents. Additionally, it is important to determine whether the level of interests is linked to sense of coherence and resilience. The study was carried out on a sample of 635 adolescents of both genders, aged 14-18 years old. The participants were students of lower secondary schools of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The following research tools were used in the study: Life Orientation Questionnaire (SOC-29), Resilience Scale (SPP-18), and author’s own measurement tool: Level of Interests Measurement Scale. In the sample of adolescents, general sense of coherence and sense of comprehensibility proved to be positively correlated with general level of interests. Regression analysis demonstrated the significance of psychological resilience components and sense of coherence factors that support the development of interests. Preventive and educational work should aim to support the shaping of a positive and creative identity by stimulating the potentials, resources and talents of young people. Young people’s passions and interests should be stimulated and encouraged towards creating a positive identity.

Information technology evolves in order to meet the needs of ageing society. Despite the life-long learning perspective and availability of ICT courses, studies indicate that only a limited number of seniors take full advantage of possibilities given by mobile technology and the Internet. The question arises if the old are part of the Information Society or they are excluded from it. This article provides evidence that seniors underutilise the ICT devices and e-services and indicates the main lines of the recent debates on the current need for ICT education among older adults. The analysis of seniors’ ICT competence is based on a literature survey.

The purpose of the conducted research was to analyze the processual dimension of the transformations of a disabled person’s life which take place under the influence of experiences related to practicing sport. Therefore, the article attempts to discuss the issues related to the influence of sport institutions responsible for the organization of sport practiced by physically disabled individuals in their care. In the article, I try to prove the similarity of the sport structure with the educational system structure where, apart from the strictly educational functions, there are also socialization processes taking place, diverse in terms of measures and results. The basis for the realization of the purpose mentioned above was the personal experiences of the researched individuals. Hence, the research exploits qualitative data collected during participant observations and in-depth free interviews conducted among the disabled practicing sports. Analysis and interpretation of the research material was performed in accordance with the procedures of grounded theory. The article has been prepared as a consequence of research carried out between 2012 and 2015 among the society of the disabled who practice professional sports. The studies are related to the characteristics of a sports career of the disabled, which, regarding its specificity, is deeply rooted in institutionalized initiation practices regarding inclusion, continuance and the maintenance of the main action, i.e., practicing sport.

The narratives included in this article were collected within the framework of the project “We Support Senior Citizens in the Local Environment-Culture as an Element of the Identity of the Elderly”, implemented in the Daily Care Home of the Local Support Center in Gdańsk in 2016. They are the result of the author’s personal observations of seniors being in need of telling their past, sharing it, and at the same time sorting it out, and reconciling themselves with the difficult moments in their lives. There is also a need for reflection on one’s past, which gives power and strength to go on in life. In other words, who and/or what makes you want to live and even enjoy life? What is resilience in my life? Remaining impressed by the power of their stories, the stories of people who in the moments of difficulty and pain were able to say: ‘I want to live’, and asking them to reflect on the past, I came to realize what it is that determines the sources to keep the resilience described below and the ability to regenerate.

The article is an attempt at describing the relation between resilience and needs. It is based on the assumption that these are two sets of variables vital for harmonious development that resonate with each other in a peculiar manner. Resilience and human needs are both contextually and hereditarily conditioned, but the relation between them seems not necessarily a linear one. In adults, resilience might be a significant medium in the satisfaction of needs and even condition them. In children, however, the relation between these variables is different. A child is born with certain potential determining its level of resilience, but deprivation of their key needs, especially during first years, might simply impair their development or disturb its synchronisation. The main issue discussed in this article is the basis of the relation between resilience and the needs that must be satisfied at school. The article contains observations made while carrying out an experimental project that enables the youngest pupils to access and fulfil their multidimensional needs.