Polish Language Education Research Articles

Understanding Language Teachers’ Positional Identities in a Professional Promotion Appraisal Context

This study examines how forty-eight Polish in-service language teachers position them- selves through their discourse during professional promotion examinations for teachers. The data were collected via field notes concerning the participants’ narratives and their responses to the questions asked by the members of the examination commissions. Of particular interest were the teachers’ three self-positions: the unique self, the ideal self, and the fearful self. The analysis of the datarevealed that, apart from the emergence of the references to the three positional identities, each of these self-positions could be further subdivided into other self-position constructions which shed light on what language teachers believe would be appreciated by the examiners under the circumstances. The significance of the study lies in its focus on in-service language teachers’ discourses obtained in a particular professional situation— teacher promotion examinations— to which access is rather rare. The findings shed further light on the connection between teacher identity, teacher emotions, and teacher agency and offer implications for in-service language teachers, teacher ex- aminers, and teacher educators.

The term substitution in phonodidactics and speech therapy: A comparative analysis

The article examines the term substitution by focusing on the ways in which it has been defined and/or applied in the context of pronunciation errors, especially by two different scientific disciplines: Polish language teaching (more precisely: phonodidactics) and speech therapy. Interestingly, despite the fact that the term refers to the same or similar object of study, it is not necessarily used with the same meaning. The paper opens with a review of definitions from general and specialized dictionaries along with a formulation of the concept. The study was carried out according to a socio-terminology approach, taking into account the contextual updating of meanings, observed polysemy and synonymy, as well as a socio-cognitive approach, checking the popularity of using the term and ways of understanding it in a specific context. Both the general term and the term specified by a modifier (e.g., phonetic, phonological substitution) have been described and exemplified thanks to the database of texts from both disciplines to show similarities and differences resulting from the adopted perspectives or goals (research or practical ones) that the representatives of each fi eld of study set for themselves. The analysis made it possible to observe the process of determinologization, as well as the co-occurrence of several different concepts in both disciplines, referenced by the same terms. The study fi ts into the descriptivist trend, but it aspires to be a point in the discussion about the precise formulation of descriptions, especially in disciplines that share interests with other fitelds of science.

Chapter 11: Minorities and Minority Rights as a Problem for Populist Politics—The German Minority in Poland—A Case Study

Abstract At the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, for the first time since the democratic breakthrough of 1989, legislation was introduced into Polish law that overtly discriminated against a specific social group. The implemented changes affected the sphere of teaching German as a national minority language. Under an administrative procedure, the pool of public funds that had been used to finance the teaching of this language, as well as the number of teaching hours, was reduced. The background and political justification for the changes was the desire to exert pressure on the German authorities to improve the quality and level of funding for Polish language teaching in Germany. The article is an attempt to present the problem from a historical and political perspective by defining the motives and effects of implementing this discriminatory legislation, from an international perspective by placing it in the space of Polish-German relations, and also from a systemic perspective by characterising the legal and financial mechanisms for supporting national and ethnic minorities in Poland.

Language teacher professional curiosity: Understanding the drive for professional development

Teacher professional development (PD) has been shown to have numerous benefits, such as greater self-efficacy, higher motivation, and enhanced wellbeing (e.g., Kimura, 2014; Polin, 2023; Wang & Chen, 2022), and teaching additional languages is certainly no exception. However, the extent to which teachers are willing and able to engage in PD throughout their careers depends on many factors, some of which are related to the context in which they work, while others are reflective of their individual attributes such as attitudes, motivations, and personality. This paper focuses on the latter by reporting the findings of a study that examined language teacher professional curiosity (LTPC). The data were collected through semi-structured interviews from 6 Austrian and 6 Polish language teachers at different stages of their careers. Qualitative analysis allowed valuable insights into the nature of LTPC, curiosity-driven behaviors as well as factors influencing these behaviors. It also provided the basis for a tentative cyclic process model of LTPC in which interest and curiosity interact to produce a focus of curiosity, which is impacted by motivation, agency, autonomy, and social context, generating a drive for teacher behaviors in respect to their PD.

The State of Polish Language Learning in Ukraine During the War (Based on a Survey of Students and Teachers) 2022–2023

This article is devoted to the study of the state of Polish language learning in Ukraine during the war of 2022–2023. The author analyses official documents, language policy, language practice and social responses to the impact of the war on Polish language learning in Ukraine and its current state. This research will help to better understand the relationship between the war and the Polish language in the context of Ukraine, particularly in the Kyiv region. The research included the collection of data from various sources, including educational institutions and surveys of Polish language learners and teachers. The data were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Od adaptacji do edukacji, czyli plakaty filmowe w praktyce szkolnej

From Adaptation to Education: The Educational Potential of Film Posters The aim of this article is to present various possibilities for using film posters in Polish language classes during discussions of school readings. The author begins by explaining the reason for choosing this topic, which she sees primarily in the fact that, according to her own observations and research, students do not encounter the analysis of film posters in school, nor do they have a desire to respond to the demands of other researchers in the field of Polish language teaching. The text also presents a division into two types of movie posters - a photographic poster, which is a fragment of a movie frame, and an artistic poster, which is an author's creation of an artist. In the article, the author presents different possibilities for using film posters in educational practice. The proposals concern both photographic posters and artistic posters and are addressed to primary and secondary school students. The article focuses on the analysis and interpretation of colors on posters (with a focus on warm/cool colors, color palette, the meaning of colors, types of colors, their intensity, saturation, and contrast), the elements included on them (characters, their attributes, and other details), typography (with a focus not so much on the content of the text, but on its font, color, and placement), composition (placing poster elements in specific locations), discrepancies (between the content of the poster and the content of the reading), contexts (e.g., historical, socio-cultural, linguistic), emotions and moods (with a focus on students' feelings), as well as the choice itself (the author's choice and students' choice in relation to the elements included on the poster, their arrangement, colors, and all other aspects already indicated - with the possibility of creating their own film poster). In creating the article, the author repeatedly points out that the problem she analyzes constitutes a certain research gap and calls for it to be taken up by other researchers as well.

From Turning Points to Teacher Identity Learning Environments: Late-Career Language Teachers Speak Up

Although learning is usually associated with some regulatory bodies, external education, programmes or experts, there is another kind of learning which can be gained from reflection on a language teacher’s biography and their teacher identity learning in a professional environment. The present article focuses on the analysis of four veteran Polish late-career language teachers of English, French, German and Russian who share their language-teacher lives in in-depth narrative inquiry interviews with the author of this text. The article aims to find out how various language-related critical incidents, or turning points, that took place in these teachers’ lives have affected their succeeding professional lives, and their individual perception of the language-teacher identity learning environments available to them. From the analysis of the data, four teacher identity constructions have been distinguished: “the constructive problem solver”, “the comfort minder”, “the perceiver of language-related social injustice” and “the language learner”, and it transpires that the teachers’ previous experiences are likely to affect how and why other things happen. This finding may have vital pedagogical implications for language-teacher educators, as the construction of teacher identities that are related to the participants’ meaningful and unique past experiences may question the sense of developing one universal language-teacher identity.

O pożytkach badań posthumanistycznych dla dydaktyki polonistycznej

The aim of the article is to present a new tendency of humanities (transhumanism, posthumanism, new materialism) in the educational context. In the first part, the relationships between Polish language teaching in primary and secondary schools and literary studies are characterized in historical order. The school and university cooperation allows to conserve suitable impact on the pupils’ knowledge, skills, and their moral attitude to contemporary reality. Scientific support of school curricula is today very urgent because we are living in a chaotic reality that Zygmunt Bauman called liquid modernity. The classical patterns of knowledge and authority have been disappearing for dozens of decades. Moreover, we live in “a realm” of big data, rapid processes of digitalization, and a plethora of information. The second part of the article relates to different subjects of anthropology of literature, first of all transhumanism, posthumanism, and new materialism, which allow us to demonstrate the human condition in a new light. A teacher, using the tools of the new humanities, while reading literary texts, can indicate the natural relationships between man and the natural environment: plants, animals, terrain, climate.

Przestrzenie obojętności. Literatura i edukacja przeciw pogardzie

The article describes important aspects of life that are overlooked in Polish language education: obsolescence, intellectual disability, poverty, and pro-environmental activism. Each of these aspects becomes a reason for exclusion, a pretext for showing contempt. The literature for children and young adults opposes the signs of marginalization of these phenomena. The author reflects on the potential of literary works and the duties of Polish language education in creating an inclusive society and an inclusive school that supports each student and teaches dialogue and problem-solving.

Ćwiczenia praktyczne w szkole średniej w czasie pandemii oczami studentów polonistyki

The article presents the reflections of Polish philology students (MA studies) on practical exercises at school during the pandemic. Various forms of work proposed by academic methodologists were discussed: class scenarios, analyzing previously recorded lessons, observing teachers’ lessons conducted in a virtual space, conducting lessons by students, exchanging reflections between the tutor and students. A lot of attention was paid to the analysis of the comments of future Polish language teachers related to education in the virtual space. The observations close the concluding remarks.

Wiedza o umyśle w dydaktyce polonistycznej. O potrzebie nowej integracji

Starting from the discoveries of social neuroscience and the principles of Polish language teaching, the author constructs the foundations of the programme for educating the pupil’s mind, outlining its main elements (self-knowledge, thinking styles, therapy) and a number of specific issues. Then, looking for opportunities for integrated education, she relates all these issues to educational documents and selected curricula for primary schools in the subjects of Polish language, biology, and ethics. The article ends with conclusions regarding the scope of cross-curricular integration, and determinants of the future curriculum.

Tryptyk przekorny z ideologicznymi przyśpiewkami

On January 27, 1898, the 17th issue of “Collier’s Weekly” published the Prologue to the famous novel by Henry James The Turn of the Screw. This novel about a difficult relationship between a young governess and two orphaned children (Flora and Miles) convinces the reader that Demons really exist and Evil embodies various characters. At times it takes the form of a benefactor. The paper is an attempt to reconstruct three mechanisms of ideology which after WWII modified collective awareness. These three mechanisms, as three vices, stabilized and enabled to rebuild the insight of the immature individuals. The first one – the ideological vice of the press – initiated every day and often banal press releases; the second one – ideological educational vise – evolved from the school curricula, especially of the Polish language; the third one – the ideological reading vice – was the most hidden and treacherous, oppressed in the context of extracurricular reading. The influence of the first of them is illustrated by the analysis of exemplary press releases on a summer camp of 1947, the second one talks about the curriculum of the Polish language teaching process in 1949 in the 11-grade high school, and the ideological influences are discussed in the comments about the message of Marian Brandys’s Wyprawy do Arteku (1953).

Talking about Death: the Thanatological Perspective of Polish Teachers’ Language and Literature

Research on thanatopedagogy a subdiscipline of pedagogy is constantly developing. In Polish educational research, the prevailing position is that the category of death is not present in education. The aim of the article is to present the results of the empirical research on the experiences of Polish language teachers in dealing with this subject. The survey method was chosen to achieve the goal, and the main research question was: what are the teachers' experiences in dealing with this subject? The research was conducted in July 2023 and covered over 145 teachers. Teachers' declarations were collected on the frequency of talking to students about the death or loss, the declared level of preparation for conducting this type of class, students' reactions, and the barrier in these conversations. Respondents were asked to assess the usefulness of talking about death, as well as the benefits of discussing this topic. The conclusions emphasized that although thanatopedagogical education is conducted on a large scale by Polish language teachers, further attempts should be made to assess its quality.

Polski Teatr Ludowy we Lwowie – fenomen radzieckich czasów

The Polish People's Theater in Lviv is an extraordinary stage in many respects. It was founded in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1958 by a retired Polish language teacher, Piotr Hausvater. He gathered around him a group of enthusiasts, amateurs who over the years managed to create a team that played not only in the Soviet Union, but also outside its borders. There were no professionals among the actors, but the Theater reached a fully professional level and won numerous awards, presenting plays in Polish in the difficult conditions of a totalitarian state. Pupils, students, workers, engineers, teachers and intellectuals - all devoted their private time to create art for charity. The effect of their work was for many Poles in the USSR the only contact with their native language. It was also a way to become acquainted with the cultural heritage of the country with which they still felt a bond. Interestingly, the band was made up not only of people with Polish roots, but also Ukrainians and Russians. It was the Russian artist Valery Bortyakov who managed the Theater after its director, Zbigniew Chrzanowski, had to leave the Soviet Union due to repressions for laying flowers at the monument to Adam Mickiewicz in Lviv. The theater managed to survive the communist repressions and successfully operates to this day, in free Ukraine.

Dziecko jako recytator i interpretator tekstu. Na marginesie konkursu recytatorskiego Dziecięce Interpretacje w Tarnobrzeskim Domu Kultury – refleksje instruktorki i jurorki

The article explores the issue of artistic presentation of literary texts by children. The author bases her work on her own experience as a theatre instructor and a juror in recitation competitions, including the ever-present Children’s Interpretations – a competition organised with the youngest performers in mind – children of primary school age. Her experience as an organiser, her work with young performers and her observation of the effects of the work of teachers preparing children for stage presentation is the starting point for a description of the most important aspects of the recitation process: from statutory issues to the final performance. The author discusses the aims of recitation, repertoire selection and factors conditioning it, analysis and interpretation of a literary work, means of artistic expression in recitation, coping with stress and stage fright, individual predispositions of children, regularity of work, obstacles standing in the way of good preparation of a child for the stage performance of a text. She draws attention to the lack of preparation of Polish language teachers to work on the artistic expression of literary works, and questions the sense of the work of instructors as well as the organisation of performing arts competitions.

W świecie niepełnosprawności. Kilka refleksji wokół filmu Stephena Chbosky’ego „Cudowny chłopak”

In the article, I presented the life of a boy with a deformed face. I focused my attention on the relations with his parents and sister as well as with the peer group. I drew attention to the importance of family support in the process of adapting a disabled person to life. By introducing Auggie’s relations with peers, I emphasized the way of children from stereotypical thinking to an open attitude toward the needs of the Other thanks to the ideas of “homeopathic” pedagogy. In the end, I included recommendations for Polish language teachers about the potential of Chbosky’s film in shaping attitudes of tolerance and empathy towards others.

Yi Lijun, Renowned Polish Language Educator and Literary Translator in China

Abstract Yi Lijun devoted her life to Polish language education in China and made outstanding contributions to Polish language teaching and literary translation and research, and China-Poland cultural exchanges. Throughout her fifty-year teaching, she exerted herself tirelessly to establish and develop the discipline of the Polish language and to engage in talent cultivation in the discipline, bringing out a number of Polish language talents in diplomacy, business, trade, education, and research. Mastering the language and culture of both China and Poland, Yi Lijun translated the classics of famous ancient and contemporary Polish writers and poets into Chinese, introducing splendid Polish literature and culture to Chinese readers. With her translation achievements and personal charisma, she facilitated the multi-level and all- faceted communication between Chinese and Polish peoples through literary translation and research. Her teaching philosophy, translation works and research left behind invaluable assets for the fields of foreign language education, and translation and research of foreign literature in China.

Fantastyka Antoniego Smuszkiewicza

The article is of a review and reminiscent nature. It presents the profile and scientific activity of one of the most outstanding Polish researchers of fantasy literature — Professor Antoni Smuszkiewicz. The Professor’s works — books, articles, monographs — defined Polish fantasy not only in strictly literary studies, but also in the social dimension. Antoni Smuszkiewicz collaborated with the Polish fandom for many years and was recognized in the community of fantasy writers and lovers of this genre as the greatest authority in Poland. His Enchanted Game: An Outline of the History of Polish Science Fiction remains the only historical and literary study of phenomena and tendencies in the field of Polish science fiction. Literature for children remains the second passion of Antoni Smuszkiewicz, who for many years was a Polish language teacher. Professor Smuszkiewicz — gifted with an extraordinary didactic talent — not only analyzed and discussed this literature, but also taught how to discuss it with students. The research concepts of Antoni Smuszkiewicz, despite the passage of time, still find their functional application, both in the field of literary studies and in game studies.

Profesor Henryk Kurczab (1930–2022). Wspomnienie

The aim of the text is to commemorate Professor Henryk Kurczab. He is the creator of the theory of integration in Polish language education. The personal memories of the author of the text are combined with emphasizing the importance of scientific research conducted by Professor Kurczab.

„I jedno wiemy tylko. I nic się nie zmienia”. Pamięci Profesora Henryka Kurczaba

The paper is dedicated to the memory of Henryk Kurczab (1930-2022), a teacher of Polish lite-rature and language associated with the Rzeszow polonology Department of Polish Language, the creator of the concept of integration of Polish language education, professor at the Higher School of Pedagogy and the University of Rzeszow. The sketch is a collection of memories, covering the span of the Professor’s life and his academic biography, as well as various forms of his creative activity. In the paper with an axiological slant, based on reminiscences, three threads intertwine: personal, biographical and bibliographical.