About the need for increased intercultural education in the face of the right-wing populism in Poland

The phenomenon of right-wing populism, which has been spreading in Poland for several years, is deeply permeated with exclusive and anti-pluralist demagogy, which has consequences for public education in our country. In this context, an urgent socio-educational challenge is to counteract students’ fear of what is different and unknown, as well as to develop respect and empathy towards other people, i.e. their different worldview, culture and religion. The aim of this article is not to construct some ad hoc and one-off school and pedagogical initiatives in the face of populist lies and manipulation, but to create the conceptual foundations of an educational, interdisciplinary and, above all, anti-populist preventive system that would be thoroughly filled with the premises of intercultural education and educate young citizens who perceive pluralism as cultural and social value.