7th All-Poland Congress of Pedagogic (Toruń)

A new life of pedagogy, a new life of pedagogues, a new life of school...was the announcement in the title of the Seventh Pedagogical Meeting. We arrived at the meeting, intrigued by a promise of breakthrough, moved by the atmosphere in our country, full of involvement and with a strong belief in the power and importance of education. What did we find, what did we agree on, what happened during the next Meeting of the researchers of education and learning processes? Do we have any kind of picture of the Polish educational reality today? What picture is it and what are its consequences for all the participants of this reality? The present text shall attempt to offer the author of the present paper 's own, subjective answer to the question.
Firstly: pedagogy. Once more, during the next big conference, the pedagogues proved that the first and most important issue is the state of their discipline.
Secondly: school. Today, school as the basic educational institution demands a deeper and a bolder diagnosis, a comprehensive description of the processes which take place in it; a description of what functions it really has today in the life of each of us: the parent, the student, the teacher.
Thirdly: the individual. The individual finds oneself in the conditions when they are forced to accept dissimilar, and even contradictory images of themselves which refer to the roles they perform. In the past, the traditional answer to the question 'who are you?' was 'I am my father's son'. Today, the answer is 'I am myself, I decide for myself by what I do and what I choose'. This change of self-identification is a sign of the present. It is also a forecast of a serious crisis of individual's identity.
It is good that during the Seventh Pedagogical Meeting there was a chance to discuss this issue. However, is it possible today to say that we have reached out for 'a new life'? For new ideas and problems, new ways and new opportunities of describing and understanding reality, for new theories used as instruments for such descriptions, and finally, has a new generation or even a group of researchers emerged? Has the quote from Adam Asnyk's poem become a realised hope of meeting a community of pedagogues, or is it still our dream? An unrealised one, and thus, so inspiring? I think that each of us, the participants of the meeting, may have their own, often different (which does not mean – false or less correct) answer to this question.

 

more in No 5/2010    Mirosława Dziemianowicz

 

„What’s going on with society?” Polish society and polish sociology as reflected by the 14th Polish Congress of Sociology, Krakow, september 2010

Expectations that a big sociological congress (in this case, 1,200 active participants) can be coherent, can give a precise answer to its slogan’s question seem to us excessive under conditions of relative, even if dynamic, economic, political, structural and cultural stability. Similarly, expectations that at any three-day long scientific congress it is possible to reach a compromise which would satisfy all interested parties, between the aspirations of numerous hundreds of scholars who would like to have enough time to present the details of their findings and their willingness to have plenty of time for discussion during each session, we consider to be completely unrealistic. It is enough to participate in any Conference of the European Sociological Association or in any World Congress of Sociology in order to see that it is not possible in practice to fulfill these hopes.
Big social scientific events (if not during the social crises) serve, in our opinion, other functions. They give the scholars a chance to talk (formally and informally) with peers who study similar issues, to learn about new trends in empirical and theoretical analysis of social phenomena, to listen to contemporary classics, local and global, of the discipline, whom it is difficult to see on the everyday basis. We are of the opinion that the Krakow Congress met these functions, even if not to the extent outlined by the official program. We are also aware of the fact that some participants were not satisfied. During the Congress discussions, formal and informal, as well as in the media, they expressed the convictions that the conference had not proposed any new perspectives on the dynamics of Polish society and Polish sociology, that it had not concentrated enough on the vital problems of Polish society, on barriers hindering its growth (whatever the understanding of this growth was).
We are of the opinion that the Krakow Congress accurately reflected the state of art of Polish sociology but we cannot be sure if Polish sociology (in fact, any ”national sociology”) can accurately reflect the social state of affairs and its dynamics in any society. We believe that sociology provides many, more or less significant contributions which help us understand society in its dynamics. Thematic groups and special sessions of the Congress presented a variety of “old” and “new” social phenomena which are worth studying in a systematic way. Main sessions turned our attention to the increasing diversity, pluralism, dynamics and network character of Polish society, increasing significance of its cultural aspects, but they also stressed the fact that it is still possible to catch, in social research, main social actors, decision makers, on different levels of influence on social processes. Speakers did not always agree which actors and when are particularly powerful, but we think that the consensus might potentially limit the chance for further discourse.
We do not think that this Congress brought any breakthrough in the public understanding of “Polish matters”, nor that it set new directions for social research. However, unlike some of disappointed colleagues, we do not think that that would be the only reason to organize this kind of event.

  

more in No 5/2010    Janusz Mucha, Paulina Świątek