(Un)Sustainable Development in Poland’s Teacher Education Programme: Experiences from a Post-communist Country

Abstract

AbstractAs the most important document concerning the education and development of teachers in Poland, the latest teacher education programme is expected to reflect and implement an ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) perspective by building necessary knowledge, skills, and competencies among Polish teachers. This chapter focuses on the presence of the ESD perspective in the latest teacher education programme of higher education in Poland through an evaluative case study. The first section of the chapter introduces the historical background and contextual basis of ESD and focuses on the sociopolitical aspects of education in Poland and the methodology adopted to evaluate this case. Drawing upon the findings, the second section illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of the current teacher education programme in terms of the prerequisite knowledge, skills, and competencies of pre-service teachers. This evaluative case study suggests that despite the sociopolitical changes and the transition from a communist country to a democratic state in the 1990s, the ESD perspective has not been adequately prioritised to facilitate the preparation of teachers in higher education programmes in Poland. The programme was found to put more emphasis on ethical rules for teachers’ on-site work, skills like interpersonal communication, and conflict resolution rather than competencies related to autonomous, independent decision-making and critical assessment of one’s own actions. This may stem from the fact that the Polish schools function in unique sociopolitical conditions that limit the autonomy and independence of teachers, which contributes to their unsustainable development.