What education?Social and civic attitudes in the core curricula of general education

Abstract

The subject of the presented analysis is the core curricula of general education for all stages of education and compulsory education subjects in terms of the presence of learning outcomes related to attitudes within social and civic competences. This document was treated as an interpretation of the assumptions of the state about what kind of person should be formed by the Polish school. The presented results are part of a research project carried out at the Department of School Education at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toru in the years 2018-2021. The research consisted in analysing existing sources (core curricula) using the quantitative and qualitative approaches. This article asks the question about what vision of education emerges from the core curricula of general education. The analysis of general and specific requirements makes it possible to formulate a fundamental conclusion that the attitudes and values characteristic of a conservative vision of education, focusing on the nation/Poland and tradition, are promoted in the core curriculum of general education, and by the absence of such notions as solidarity, justice, and equality education is given an excluding direction. On the other hand, the domination of reconstructive and adaptive attitudes among the learning outcomes may lead to passivity in social life.