Accounting Education in times of the COVID-19 pandemic – virtual teaching and implications for the future

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated the transformation of education from a traditional to a virtual model. The aim of this study is to present the most important didactic challenges faced by accounting lecturers during the pandemic. On their basis, the problem of teaching methods and the substantive scope in accounting education in the future was analyzed. The basic research methods used are literature studies, as well as formulating conclusions on the basis of the deduction and synthesis methods. The first pandemic experiences in accounting education were intensive work on rethinking and redesigning the in many cases exclusively traditional blackboard education for the use of e-learning. The rebuilding and updating of teaching materials, combined with technical problems, was very time consuming. In accounting education, new methods such as flipped learning, microlearning, crowdlearning have been introduced. In addition to discussing modern methods of education, the article highlights the need to supplement or extend the substantive scope with issues related to online accounting services and cybersecurity in accounting offices. An additional challenge is to ensure an adequate level of education in the times of growing challenges related to reporting sustainable development by economic entities.

eTwinning – a tool for creating a transcultural society

Significant changes in education that occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in terms of organization, in the form of the transition to distance learning, significantly increased the interest of teachers and schools to use the international eTwinning platform. The main task of the eTwinning program is to encourage international exchange by building a network of cooperation and interaction between students and teachers from various European countries. This, in turn, according to the author, is a way to build a transcultural society. Going beyond the current understanding of culture as a homogeneous creation, the author uses W. Welsch’s concept of transculturalism and Wittgenstein’s understanding of culture as a way of being and the result of intercultural interactions. Therefore, the article is devoted to the using of the eTwinnig tool in the process of shaping a transcultural society. There are also some presented examples of international eTwinning projects that have already been completed and are in the process of being implemented with the direct goal of acquiring intercultural competences by all its participants and those for whom this is an indirect goal, carried out while performing other tasks.

Selected areas of women’s functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland (compared to European Union countries)

The aim of the research is to analyze research reports, articles and diaries showing how women function during the COVID-19 pandemic. The subject of my analyzes was quantitative and qualitative data showing differences in the functioning of women and men during the pandemic, along with their real and potential consequences from the perspective of gender equality. Although I was mainly interested in the situation of women in the text, the adopted perspective of gender equality required me to often (for comparative purposes) compile data regarding men. The article attempts to answer the question: What changes in particular areas of women’s social functioning have been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic? I decided to use nonreactive research using the method of analyzing existing data. My research shows that the Covid pandemic has caused unfavorable changes from the perspective of gender equality, not only in Poland, but also in other countries belonging to the European Union. Women suffered health consequences, felt exhausted by their duties and returned to stereotypical social roles. Despite the attempts to eliminate gender inequality in European Union countries (including Poland), the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reversed progress in these activities.