Celem opracowania jest zwrócenie uwagi na znaczenie, jakie aktualnie młodzi ludzie przypisują oddziaływaniom socjalizacyjno-wychowawczym dziadków. Głównym obszarem rozważań staje się rodzina jako miejsce międzypokoleniowej transmisji wartości oraz międzypokoleniowych kontaktów. W celu ukazania szczególnego rodzaju kodu kulturowego przekazywanego w środowisku rodzinnym autorka przywołuje fragmenty narracji studentów, zwraca uwagę na fakt, że problematyka stosunków międzypokoleniowych dziadkowie–wnuki, osadzona na pograniczu wielu dyscyplin, jest także przedmiotem zainteresowań edukacji międzykulturowej.

Współczesny świat nękany jest wieloma problemami, które budzą niepokój o przyszłość społeczeństw żyjących w różnych częściach naszego globu. Problemy te dotyczą również społeczeństw europejskich. Dokuczliwe i pod różnymi względami szkodliwe są zachowania polityków, odżywają radykalne nurty nacjonalistyczne i szowinistyczne, nie słabną konflikty na tle religijnym, pogłębiają się różnice w warunkach życia bogatych i biednych, toksyczne jest oddziaływanie licznych środków masowej komunikacji. W tej trudnej sytuacji niewielką pomoc niesie ludziom edukacja, której powinnością jest przecież przygotowanie do życia. Powinności tej nie sposób wypełnić z powodzeniem, nie uwzględniając podstawowych problemów współczesnego świata, nie pomagając w ich zrozumieniu i poszukiwaniu rozwiązań. Szczególną rolę w tym dziele odgrywać może i powinna edukacja międzykulturowa – inspirując i promując poczynania służące przygotowaniu do godnego i zgodnego życia w dotkniętym poważnymi problemami wielokulturowym świecie.

Polish experience of multiculturalism in the interpretation of John Paul II as an inspiration for intercultural education

The inquiry aims at indicating that the interpretation of Polish experience of multiculturalism performed by John Paul II may become an inspiration for intercultural education and comparative pedagogy of religion. This can occur mainly because the issue of particularity and universality, which is considered significant for research into intercultural education, is present in the interpretation of Polish experience of multiculturalism carried out by John Paul II. He combined Polish experience of multiculturalism with his own personal experience which shaped his identity as well as with moral experience and experiencing the Christian faith. For those who share axiological convictions promoted by John Paul II, his interpretation of Polish experience of multiculturalism has become crucial. They can see significant merits of the papal interpretation of the Polish ethos. If this interpretation is granted rightness, it acquires the qualities of an intellectually and morally important point of reference for the axiological and educational sense of Polish experience of multiculturalism. The issues of intercultural education and comparative pedagogy of religion were frequently undertaken by John Paul II. In his book Pamięć i tożsamość. Rozmowy na przełomie tysiącleci /Memory and Identity: Conversations at the Dawn of a Millennium/, in which John Paul II recapitulates his philosophical and theological considerations on culture, his convictions concerning Polish experience of multiculturalisms are also expressed: ‘Polishness is in fact multitude and pluralism, not narrowness and confinement. It seems, however, that this »Jagiellonian« dimension of Polishness [...] ceased to be, unfortunately, something obvious in our times’74. What is essential for intercultural education is the recognition that Polishness is marked by ‘multitude and pluralism, not narrowness and confinement’, because in this way axiological principles of shaping beliefs and attitudes in interpersonal relations are created in the complex situation of multiculturalism.

Prezentowany tekst jest próbą zwrócenia uwagi na potrzeby oswojenia dokonujących się zmian w przestrzeni globalnej. Zagrożenia i konsekwencje współcześnie dokonujących się przemian w wieloaspektowym zakresie implikują potrzebę podejmowania zintegrowanych działań edukacyjnych. W tekście uwagę skupiam na działaniach szkoły/nauczyciela w sytuacji nieładu światowego. Istotną kwestią pozostaje świadomość nauczycieli oraz ich aktywność wychowawczo-edukacyjna zorientowana na kreowanie świadomości młodych ludzi wobec permanentnych zmian oraz zjawiska wielokulturowości. Jak wskazują minione epoki, istotnym instrumentem regulującym pozytywne współistnienie, relacje społeczne, wspólne funkcjonowanie pozostaje kultura i sztuka, będąca nie tylko odzwierciedleniem rzeczywistości, ale ważnym społecznym komunikatem, materiałem edukacyjnym, a nade wszystko spoiwem społeczności, szczególnie wielokulturowych. Uwzględniając wartość kultury/sztuki, nie tylko jej artyzm, estetykę, ale jej utylitaryzm, celowym zamysłem pozostaje włączenie jej do działań edukacyjnych.

W artykule zaprezentowano perspektywę Ukraińców mieszkających w Republice Czeskiej dotyczącą wybranych aspektów życia. Celem podjętych badań było ustalenie, jak Ukraińcy postrzegają życie w Republice Czeskiej, czeską kulturę i edukację, oraz co dostrzegają jako różnice i podobieństwa w obu kulturach i sposobach edukacji. Zwrócono uwagę, że badanie dotyczy subiektywnych doświadczeń, postaw i opinii indywidualnych respondentów. Dlatego, nie reprezentuje ono całej ukraińskiej mniejszości narodowej żyjącej w Republice Czeskiej. Grupa badana składała się z dwóch grup respondentów o następującym składzie: pierwsza zawierała 8 respondentów Ukraińców na stałe mieszkających w Czechach ponad 10 lat, w drugiej grupie – wywiad przeprowadzono wśród 7 ukraińskich studentów, uczących się w Czechach, oraz wśród ich rodziców. W badaniu zastosowano podejście jakościowe, a dokładnie metodę półustrukturyzowanego wywiadu z respondentami. Analizę uzyskanych danych przeprowadzono za pomocą otwartego, a potem osiowego i selektywnego kodowania.

The considerations in the article focus on the role of territorial local government in two important spheres of welfare state – in providing access to education, and health care. The authors characterize the situation in Poland after the parliamentary elections won in 2015 by the Law and Justice (PiS). The first part of the study analyses the reforms undertaken in the education system and their consequences for territorial local government, in particular increasing the compulsory education age as well as changing the school system. The second part contains a description of planned and implemented changes in health care.

The protection of cultural heritage does not only have social but political and economic consequences as well. While the contents of a national and personal identity are closely tied to inherited cultural heritage, this heritage, as far as material culture is concerned, requires political support often beyond the means of the countries concerned. International support is rendered by organizations such as UNESCO with its World Heritage List, which includes World Cultural treasures as well as Natural Monuments. Politically, cultural heritage can be either a cohesive force or a divisive one when exploited for political purposes directed towards political hegemony. Economically, the cost of preserving cultural heritage can be a lucrative source of income as a result of the global promotion of cultural tourism. By this research, we can come to the idea that the State should facilitate the community empowerment through preservation and development of the cultural heritage – its organic environment, because without protection of the cultural environment and misusing the opportunities offered by it we cannot achieve the proper – i.e., feasible, sustainable – social and economic development of a country.

It is obvious that the educational system shapes the skill of critical thinking, also in the sphere of the assessment of political phenomena. The educational background of a person determines the kind of decisions he or she makes. These decisions refer to political activity both defined as interest in political issues and manifested in the form of active political participation. The aim of this paper is to identify relations between holding a university degree and political subjectivity. The study, conducted with the use of a survey questionnaire, involved students from the University of Zielona Góra and from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

Education is a metaprocess focused on causing changes in individual and social resources of experience, knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations, as well as in the state of health and physical fitness. This system of processes consists of many diverse interrelated interactions, actions, acts, deeds and activities, with many related elements and components, and among them control and evaluation activities. The purpose of the article is to present the results of analyzes and thoughts related to the determination of the role of these activities among other educational acts, related in particular to cooperation and mutual interaction. It goes well beyond the commonly accepted so-called school and colloquial understanding of these terms. They are treated primarily as cognitive and research activities, as well as valuing activities, as subject-making, person-forming and sociogenic tools. The basis of the research was a diachronic-synchronous model of the full, broadly understood act of educational activity. The resulting conclusions indicate their fundamental role in education.

In our report we briefly describe the existing state and tendencies in teacher training for primary schools. It is important to state that we are implementing a vital reform effort in our educational system. If we really want to emphasize the nature of changes in our school system, we need to be focused mainly on the use of those methods by beginner teachers that are not forming just knowledge, but also leading to creative use of knowledge in learning and life.

As a part of its long-term strategic objectives, the European Union has set efforts to increase internal cohesion, improve economic growth levels, which will strengthen its position in the world economy area and also strengthen its competitiveness vis-à-vis other key players in the world economy. The level and quality of education, as well as the level and quality of science and research, are key areas for achieving this goal. Thus, the main attention at the level of the European Union and its individual member states should be focused on the implementation of systemic measures aimed at improving the educational process and research activities in all aspects (legislative, personnel, financial, procedural, etc.). The article focuses on the definition and analysis of the main developmental trends and tendencies in the area of education and support of science and research in the area of the European Union and the Slovak Republic.

When I was a young father, my children believed that my sayings were a true wisdom worthy repetition; today things have changed - it was my turn is to repeat wisdom of my children, believing that they usually are right. A few months ago, my son, Daviken, said that those who were writing frequently cannot easily survive without writing. Daviken was right. I loved to write, especially when something I wrote and which was contrary to what people believe was correct. I believe I inherited the dislike to generally accepted truth from my father, who was described by a Polish weekly that he was “the man who always goes against the general flow”. My father thought that this was an excellent statement of his character. He loved saying: “I am indeed a man who will think and act against prevailing flow, because only shit floats always with main current, and people who try to float in the main flow are those who repeat, without understanding, everything what they had heard”.

In this article, through the prism of broadly understood education, we attempt to analyze one of the extremely important and needed contemporary issues, which are intercultural competences. We assume that in the process of shaping them, in addition to content selection, methods of education are also very important. The above thesis is supported by the example of the „Kochana nasza klaso” project implemented by Dariusz SzadaBorzyszkowski at the prison in Bialystok. Such activities can constitute an interesting offer addressed to participants of intercultural activities, based on education, involving in educational and socialization elements. They are also extremely effective in social rehabilitation activities.

We współczesnej przestrzeni edukacyjnej stałe miejsce znalazły szkoły dla mniejszości narodowych, w tym także Polaków przebywających na obczyźnie. Duża ruchliwość społeczna i duża liczba Polaków przebywających na wychodźstwie sprawia, że konieczne staje się dostosowanie polskiej oferty edukacyjnej dla najmłodszych odbiorców (dzieci i młodzieży), również poza Polską. W publikacji omawiam znaczenie i konsekwencje współczesnych migracji, charakteryzuję sieć i ofertę szkolnictwa z polskim językiem nauczania, a także omawiam wyniki badań przeprowadzonych w polskich placówkach oświatowych na obczyźnie w wybranych szkołach (w Austrii, Francji oraz Republice Czeskiej), które pozwalają określić główne problemy i oczekiwania rodziców uczniów wobec tych placówek. Opracowanie zamyka podsumowanie. Publikacja stanowi wprowadzenie do szerszych badań nad działalnością i funkcjonowaniem szkół z polskim językiem nauczania na obczyźnie oraz podmiotów silnie związanych z jej działalnością (uczniów, nauczycieli i rodziców).

The article aims at a redefinition of Islamic suicide terrorist’s motivation. It describes the basic determinants and conceptualizations of terrorism and discusses major theories and explanations of that phenomenon from an individualistic and sociocultural perspective. Due to the fact that suicide terrorism is a very distinct and narrow subcategory of terrorism, the paper addresses the questions of Why it is unique? and in What ways it is distinct from (“normal”) terrorism in general? Given the absence of convincing psychological, sociological and educational evidence that terrorists (and especially suicide terrorists) differ in any particular way from the normal population, the author has developed and proposed an “altruistic” suicide-terrorist model. The proposed model treats suicide terrorism as a process of continuous communication/education between the terrorist and his/her reference group in which psychosocial bonds are developed between the individual and the terrorist organization. The process is determined by: (1) an erroneous understanding of jihad, (2) the existence of conducive external conditions, such as frustration underpinned by poor living standards and a sectarian mentality negating the outside world and its values, and (3) a high level of altruism (and in particular reciprocal altruism) in would-be suicide bombers.

Formalna i nieformalna relacja między nauczycielem a uczniem jest istotnym aspektem, który bezpośrednio przekłada się na jakość procesu edukacyjnego. Z perspektywy inkluzji istnieje jeszcze większa potrzeba skupienia uwagi także na płaszczyźnie relacji nauczyciela i ucznia z innego kręgu kulturowego, ponieważ specyfika społeczno-kulturowa przenika do codziennych interakcji w szkole i w istotny sposób warunkuje motywację i uczenie się ucznia romskiego. Celem prezentowanych w artykule badań było wyjaśnienie istotnych aspektów relacji nauczyciel-uczeń, które mają wpływ na młodych Romów, oraz na ich postrzeganie szkoły i edukacji. Z badań wynika, że za istotne aspekty można uznać postrzeganie nauczycieli przez uczniów (koncepcje wstępne), poziom otrzymywanej pomocy i wsparcia, nierówności i dzielenie się z uczniami informacjami o ich perspektywach.

Life in a culturally diverse environment and being a national minority member causes the socialization of young people to occur in more than one language. Language is not only a medium of culture but also a core element of identity. This article discusses the implementation of the right of national minorities to education in their languages. In Belarus, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Ukraine, there are national minorities of autochthonous character, along with schools with the language of a particular minority as the teaching language. The most developed and numerous network of schools operating in the official school system is in the Czech Republic. In Belarus and Ukraine, the legal possibility of opening and running minority schools was introduced several years ago. Not without significance is the functioning of parish schools, Saturday-Sunday schools, national or ethnic clubs. Apart from family, school is the basic place of learning the minority language, an important element of national identity. At school, learners deepen their cultural competences, within their national, majority group and European culture.

The paper is devoted to chosen aspects of the situation of a child with migration experience in a new socio-cultural reality. The analyses undertaken in the article show the dilemmas and difficulties which accompany an individual functioning in the conditions of cultural differences. The text consists of two complementary parts. The first one presents specificity of enculturation and acculturation processes (learning of own and new culture). The second part describes the threads related to experiencing cultural differences and their psychological and social consequences. The consideration included in the paper enrich the narratives of people who experienced/are experiencing migration (mainly in the childhood) which are the results of empirical research (Polish context). The article may be useful to everyone who is interested in the issues of socio-cultural adaptation of children with migration experience.

The first decade of transition. Polish school in opinion magazines (1989–1999)

The turn of 1989 did not bring any structural changes in education. For the next decade there was a two-tier general education system based on an 8-year primary school and a 4-year high school. This was the shape of the Polish school as early as 1961 and it did not change until the end of the 20th century. However, this does not mean that there were no changes in the educational system. Discussions on the shape and needs of the Polish school in the new political and economic reality were also reflected in the opinion magazines. The article is a concise analysis of texts dealing with the broadly understood economic condition of Polish schools, social position of teachers and school problems of children and young people appearing in “Polityka”, “Wprost” and “Tygodnik Powszechny” in the years 1989–1999.

The aim of the text is to present the educational potential of selected books by Iwona Chmielewska - a Polish artist, illustrator, graphic artist. The attention was paid to the content of selected works by the author, which can be treated as tools conducive to work on the development of readers’ imagination and empathy. By analyzing the entire architecture of selected picture books by Chmielewska, they can be seen as an unlimited field that can be used to design „educational opportunities”. The text is an idea of going out to children with an art book, an encouragement to look for others with a similar wealth of metaphors and symbols, so that this type of literature becomes the subject of various forms of school and extracurricular education. The text is structured as follows: explain the meaning of the term picture book; emphasizing the importance of picturebooks in contemporary culture; an attempt to define the characteristic style of Iwona Chmielewska’s books; consider the importance of empathy and imagination for the cultural sensitization of the reader; presenting proposals for educational activities inspired by the books by Iwona Chmielewska. The content analysis method used in the methodology of qualitative research was used.