The origin of comparative pedagogy at KUL should be placed back till the inter-war period of 1918 - 1939. Foundation in 1997 of the Chair of Comparative Pedagogy was a reference to the research of that time.

 

The demand for research on comparative pedagogy appeared in the period of the crisis of a man that appeared in Poland after 1989, when at last the possibility was created to speak openly about the damages in the education sphere that had been done during the PRL time (1944-1989).

 

Research performed in the Chair of Comparative Pedagogy, entitled "Education and ideological systems and philosophy of life systems" concentrates on searching the connections between the pedagogical process and the functioning of cultural phenomena both in social sphere and in reference to a particular individual.  They can be situated in an area common for traditional pedagogy and culture understood in a dynamic sense, as creating the models of realising the values, setting the aims of human creativity and forming the attitudes. As the examples of such research two publications might serve which were published by Rev. E. Walewander: Katolicka a liberalna myśl wychowawcza w Polsce w latach 1918 - 1939 (Catholic and liberal educational thought in Poland 1918 - 1939), Lublin 2000 and Oblicze ideologiczne szkoły polskiej w latach 1944 - 1956 (Ideological face of Polish school 1944 - 1956), Lublin 2002.

 

Another aim that the Chair sets for itself is to research the multi-cultural aspect of the contents of education and formation that form the material for personality formation. Contemporary it is rather a fashionable trend that develops mainly as a result of the collision of enormously different national, cultural and religious minorities, that takes place on the grounds of traditional societies. As a result of this, a question arises: Should we, in the process of education and formation, use traditional hermetic ideal and means of its reception, or should we search for common cultural elements, aiming at creating a new man, indifferent to the cultural differences and the differences in philosophy of life? This subject is contemporarily an up-to-date now and thoroughly discussed in Western Europe, which is surprised by the invasion of a very offensive form of Islam, not only discrediting the Christian traditions, but also attacking the dogma of the Western democracy. An example of research in this field might be an international scientific conference, organised in 2001 on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the death of a French Jesuit, Jakub Sevin. Results of this conference were collected in a book Skauting katolicki. Idea o. Jakuba Sevina SJ (Catholic scouting. Father' Jakub Sevin's idea), edited by B. Migut (Tarnów 2002).

 

The problem that is even more burning is multi-cultural situation of Polish immigrants all over the world. It is connected mainly with searching for the ways of acceptation in an education process for all essential cultural values that are present in a given social spectrum. A book published by the chairperson of the Chair of Comparative Education, Rev. E. Walewander, Problematyka wychowawcza w środowiskach emigracyjnych (Educational problems in emigration communities), (Lublin 2000), is devoted to this issue.

 

Another question is connected with in-culturation, which contemporarily is understood as a must of each mission activity. School, together with Church, is a main field on which this process takes place. A publication of a volume of memoirs Losy pedagogów polskich na Wschodzie (Polish pedagogues histories form the East) (ed. E. Walewander, Warszawa 2002) is a publication touching this problem. One of the PhD students, Rev. Andrzej Kryński, using as a material his own many years' experience of pedagogical work in a mission context, searched rather an exotic topic of mission work in Cameroon. The results were published in a dissertation Wychowanie chrześcijańskie w diecezji Bertoua w Kamerunie (Christian education in a Bertoua diocese in Cameroonn), Częstochowa 2000).

 

The history of the Chair of Comparative Pedagogy at KUL is not a long one, but especially worth noticing are the works that undertake educational questions in a wide spectrum of especially difficult conditions of education. To a group of such publications a dissertation of Małgorzata Stopikowska, PhD, entitled Rodzina polska na zesłaniu w ZSRR. Studium pedagogiczne (Polish family in an exile in USSR. Pedagogical study), (Warszawa 2000) may be included. Also Robert Stopikowski in his PhD dissertation made a thorough study of the process of education in a historical perspective and in the context of the Church pedagogy teaching on a certain area. His dissertation is entitled Kościół katolicki w cesarstwie rosyjskim w świetle polskiej prasy katolickiej drugiej połowy XIX wieku (The Catholic Church in the Russian Empire in the light of the Polish catholic papers in the second half of the 20^th century) (Warszawa 2001).

 

It should be noticed that the Chair of Comparative Pedagogy does not concentrate in its research only on one selected subject series (what might be easier from the methodological point of view), but seeks for the problems most significant for this sub-discipline. It has also a practical dimension in this sense that both from the successful and unsuccessful attempts the conclusions can be drawn that may serve contemporary educational initiatives. To such conclusions lead, among others, doctoral dissertations of Rev. Piotr Mazur Szkolnictwo na Lubelszczyźnie w świetle prasy lokalnej 1918 - 1939 (Schools in Lublin district in the light of local papers 1918 - 1939) (Lublin 2004) and of Rev. Czesław Galka Myśl pedagogiczna Bolesława Prusa na tle pozytywizmu polskiego (Pedagogical thought of Bolesław Prus in the context of Polish Positivism) (Zamość 2005), and publication of Rev. Edward Walewander Pedagogia katolicka w diecezji lubelskiej 1918-1939 (Catholic pedagogy in a Lublin diocese 1918-1939 ) (Lublin 2007).

 

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COMPARATIVE PEDAGOGY

 

Description: The significance of the subject for theoretical and practical pedagogy;  Concepts and methods of comparative pedagogical research; the significance of the cultural context and its role for shaping education in particular countries; basic obstacles and educational problems in the modern world, particularly those associated with academic administration; the significance of international organizations, institutions and centers involved with education; contemporary educational reforms and their situation; international educational standards and Polish educational institutions; innovative pedagogy in selected developed countries, including the contemporary concept of school; education and schools in the member states of the EU; contemporary trends in general and vocational education; failure in school and ways of overcoming it, using examples from particular countries; working with difficult youth, from a comparative perspective; contemporary trends in training and professional development of teachers.

 

Premises: The presentation of a contemporary vision of education at the dawn of the 21^st century.  Acquaintance with contemporary educational systems and their reform in various developed countries, with particular attention to EU member states.

 

Literature: R. Pachociński, Oświata XXI wieku [21st Century Education] (Warsaw, 1999); M.J. Adamczyk and A. Ładyżyński, Edukacja w krajach rozwiniętych [Education in Developed Countries] (Stalowa Wola, 1999); D. Dziewulak, Systemy szkolne Unii Europejskiej [School Systems of the European Union] (Warsaw, 1997).

 

 

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Contact:

 

Chairperson of the Chair of Comparative Pedagogy

Rev. prof. dr hab. Edward Walewander

Private adresse: ul. Zana 70 m. 5; 20 - 601 Lublin

 

Home tel.  number: +48 81 743 49 36

Work tel. number: +48 81 445 33 11,

 

e - mail: ewale@kul.lublin.pl.

 

Office hours: Tuesdays, 13.00 to 14.30, room C 311

 

 

 

(tłumaczenie Ewa Domagała - Zyśk)