Silesian teachers in the face of European integration

The aim of education in the uniting Europe is to teach people of different cultures, religions and nationalities how to live together in peace. In the political aspect, it means bringing about rapprochement between nations. In Polish circumstances, Europeanism in the school context means carrying out activities aimed at making pupils realize the existence of the European Union, as well as its objectives and guiding rules. European education assumes that the European Community should be perceived not only in the institutional, economic or poHtical perspective, but mainly in the human one, as related to ever tightening bonds within the frameworks of the OId Continent that build an integrated community. However, the consciousness of the on-going changes can hardly be acknowledged as prevailing and well founded, since the probing research reveals that the knowledge of European problems among present and future PoHsh teachers from the Upper Silesian region is only fragmentary. Such a state of affairs should be a subject of retlection, especially in view of PoIand's imminent accession to the European Union.

REFERENCES:

• Dzich D., 1997: "Nauczyciel polski wobec wyzwań edukacji europejskiej". In: Kształcenie nauczycieli w kontekście integracji europejskiej, ed. M. Ochmański. Lublin.
• Beernaert Y., Van Dijk H., Sander Th.,1993:TheEuropeanDimension in Teacher Education. Brussels: Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE), pp. 154-164.
• Beernaert Y., Conrad R., 1993: The European Dimension and Cultural Education, Proceedings, Summer University. Brussels: Association for Teacher Education in Europe, pp. 120-156.