Multidisciplinary Journal of School Education

Editorial

Ewa Dybowska, Paweł Kaźmierczak — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 13:39:33 +0000

“Learning to Learn” as a Way of Making the Most of Experiences of Failure

Marta Blanco Navarro — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This article focuses on the educational principle of action as a means for personality development. In a climate of self-improvement and reflection, well-prepared educators can guide children and young people to be able to learn from the experience of failure in their lives. In particular, we analyze the extent to which the doing-doing methodology proposed by Tomás Morales in his work Forja de Hombres [Forge of Men] can contribute to the development of the key personal, social and learning-to-learn competency, incorporating the Sustainable Development Goal of Health and Well-Being.

Self-education and Resilience: The Case of Agota Kristof (In an illiterate world we are always illiterate)

Raquel Cercós Raichs, Conrad Vilanou Torrano — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

It is evident that we live in a world rich in languages and tongues. Such a situation determines that human formation is an open work, never completely finished, because there are always languages and tongues to be known. Hence, the human being can be considered a kind of illiterate, as the Hungarian writer Agota Kristof (1935-2001), who took refuge in Switzerland in 1956, wrote in a short autobiographical account, published posthumously (2004). The example of this author, who had to learn French in order to survive in Switzerland, shows how learning languages strengthens and prepares us to face and overcome extreme life situations.

Es evidente que vivimos en un mundo empalabrado, rico en lenguas y lenguajes. Tal situación determina que la formación humana sea una obra abierta, nunca acabada del todo, porque siempre quedan lenguas y lenguajes por conocer. De ahí que el ser humano pueda ser considerado una especie de analfabeto, tal como la escritora húngara Agota Kristof (1935-2001), que se refugió en Suiza en 1956, dejó escrito en un breve relato autobiográfico, publicado póstumamente (2004). El ejemplo de esta autora, que tuvo que aprender francés para poder subsistir en Suiza, muestra cómo el aprender lenguas y lenguajes nos fortalece y prepara para hacer frente y superar situaciones vitales extremas.

Pandemic(s), Crisis, and Bibliotherapy

Sylwia Janina Wojciechowska — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Covid-19 crisis has led to a re-definition of our lives and a significant de-stabilization of our mental condition. Research shows that we tend to conceive of challenging realities in terms of war and battle: thus, we have struggled with depression, lower spirits and a lack of human interactions. If so, how can we counteract such depressive tendencies? Although today it seems both writing and reading are efficient in mitigating feelings of loneliness, historical records of the reactions to the Spanish influenza pandemic (1918) reveals that silence and evasion are also possible. Using the method of wide reading, I first examine the divergent responses to crisis. Through close reading, I then explore the manner in which literature may be therapeutic for both writers and readers. Finally, I argue that the literary choices of the reading public, recently re-directed towards auto/biographical fiction, may soon impact on the canon within education. This, in turn, prompts a final hypothesis concerning a generic re-shaping of a future literary canon.

Visual Thinking and Logical Flexibility as Successful Key Elements in the Resilience of Roma Children and Adults

Sergio Rodríguez López-Ros — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Up to 30% of the engineers in Silicon Valley in the United States are of Indian origin. And India is now one of the largest producers of technology. People of gypsy culture, because of the common Indian cultural matrix, have a greater facility for visual thinking, inductive logic and categorical flexibility. These elements, together with the consideration of the basic nucleus of socialisation that specifically constitutes the Romany families, mean that any successful pedagogical strategy must take these elements into account, always in dialogue with the school institution.

Hasta un 30% de los ingenieros de Silicon Valley, en Estados Unidos, son de origen indio. Y la India es hoy uno de los mayores productores de tecnologías. Las personas de cultura gitana, por la común matriz cultural india, presentan una mayor facilidad para el pensamiento visual, la lógica inductiva y la flexibilidad categorial. Tales elementos, junto con la consideración del núcleo básico de socialización que específicamente constituyen las familias gitanas, hace que cualquier estrategia pedagógica de éxito deba contemplar estos elementos, en diálogo siempre con la institución escolar.

Mathematical Resilience as a Conceptual Framework for School Practice

Urszula Oszwa — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of the study is to analyze mathematical resilience from theoretical and practical perspectives. The paper is based on a review of the literature. Research on mathematics education has revealed a large proportion of students with math anxiety whose achievements in math are worsening. Such results encourage a discussion on preventing math anxiety. Research on the resilience of children and adolescents has accelerated in recent decades, resulting in the formulation of the concepts of school and mathematical resilience. The article presents the ecological model of mathematical resilience. The role of parents and teachers in promoting mathematical resilience is also described. The paper presents areas where students can self-foster mathematical resilience. The conclusions are related to the importance of strengthening mathematical resilience in education.

The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini. A Model of Resilient Vocation

José María Forment Costa — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Benvenuto Cellini is one of the great sculptors of the 16th century. Already in his time, his works were admired in Rome, Paris and his native Florence. Beyond his works, his popularity has remained unchanged over the last four centuries thanks to his autobiography. This autobiography is an essential work for gaining first-hand knowledge of the sculptor's work, but also, and especially, of the anthropological vision of culture at the time. This article attempts to show this vision and at the same time to highlight how the reading of this autobiography is an example of how following one's vocation is a fundamental help in overcoming difficulties.

Biography as a Spatial Frame of Meanings: A Proxemic Analysis in Pedagogical Narrative Analysis

Anna Walulik — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This article presents a method for qualitative data analysis, which is called proxemic analysis. This method was based on a didactic method of structural analysis of narratives (Knecht & Knecht, 1992; Zirker, 1991). A proxemic analysis consists in working with data and indicating five categories in the text – actors, places, time, values, and expectations – and building them using elements, called entities. During the next stage, the researcher discovers the understanding of these categories by defining the relationships between entities. This analysis can be used on narrative texts regardless of the way in which they were obtained (unstructured interviews, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, etc.). Interpreting the relationships between entities allows the researcher to formulate pedagogical implications, which they may use as a premise for constructing theories and/or activities. The example of the technique presented in this paper, from andragogical research, refers to the study of a life story obtained from a narrative interview.

The Subject-Participatory Paradigm in Correlation with the Constitutive Features of Pedagogical Qualitative Research: A Personalistic Perspective

Maria Szymańska — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of the article is to show the correlation between the subject-participatory paradigm and the basic features of qualitative pedagogical research in practical terms. The choice of this research topic can be justified by the insufficient range of literature in the field. Therefore, the subject-participatory paradigm will be explored from the personalistic perspective, with reference to the constitutive features of pedagogical qualitative research in order to address the research problem while taking into account the above-mentioned correlation. The starting point is the concept of the subject-participatory paradigm grounded in the thought of Karol Wojtyła. Then, in conducting a hermeneutic analysis, the author refers to the concepts of scientists such as Dariusz Kubinowski, Krzysztof Szmidt, Marcella Kelly, Maura Dowling, Michelle Millar, Matthew de Carlo, and others. Also, references are made to the research stages, mainly embedded in the creative methodology, which can facilitate the emergence of the correlation between the aforementioned paradigm and the constitutive features of pedagogical qualitative research.

Social Barriers of Pupils and Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Jan Viktorin — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This literature review analyzes nine specialized papers which focus on issues of the social barriers of pupils and students with specific learning disabilities. In identifying the most important features and characteristics of pupils and students with specific learning disabilities, we need to recognize which areas have a significant impact on the learning process. At the forefront come the level of motor skills, the level of memory and intellectual abilities, laterality, perception, spatial orientation, learning strategies showing the competence of self-learning, communication, and social relations. The aim of the literature review was to analyze the research of foreign authors who primarily dealt with the issue of social relations and the abilities of pupils and students with specific learning disabilities. Based on the review, it was determined that the social barriers of pupils and students with specific learning disabilities extend throughout their entire education, from the beginning until the transition to higher education. Pupils and students with specific learning disabilities are most influenced by relationships to their immediate surroundings and to themselves.

Connective Learning as Teachers’ Approach to One’s Own Professional Development: The Case of Poland

Jolanta Karbowniczek, Dorota Zdybel — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Although the genesis of connectivism as a theory of learning in the digital age dates back to the early 2000s, in Polish pedagogy this concept remains relatively unknown, sparse in academic debates, and downright rare in empirical research. The main purpose of the article is to present the knowledge and opinions of Polish teachers regarding connectivism. To what extent do Polish teachers know the theory of connective learning? Which of its assumptions do they see as key? To what extent are they willing to apply these assumptions in practice as a path or tool for developing their own professional competences? These research questions were the basis for a survey, the presentation of which constitutes the backbone of this article. The research indicates a clear cognitive dissonance in the minds of the teachers surveyed: the gap between the perception of the potential values of connectivism and the ability/readiness to use its tools in their own learning. The summary of the text contains conclusions for in-service teacher training, which needs to be reorganized to include the most valuable connected learning instruments so as to provide teachers with the skills necessary for successful self-regulated learning in the digital age.

Attitudes Toward Inclusion Among Polish Primary School Teachers: A Strategic Factor in Implementing Inclusive Education

Ewa Domagała-Zyśk, Tomasz Knopik — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of the article is to determine the dominant attitude toward inclusive education among primary school teachers in Poland and to explain the predictors of this attitude. Research conducted on a group of 71 teachers using the “Attitudes Toward Inclusive Education” questionnaire showed a moderately positive attitude toward inclusive education among teachers, with statistically significant differences between teachers of grades 1 to 3 and 4 to 8. The much more positive attitude among the teachers of lower grades is supported by their richer experience of working with students with special educational needs and their broader competences and qualifications in inclusive education. These results give an important perspective that should be considered when implementing the idea of inclusion in the Polish education system (mainly when preparing teachers for the profession) so as to ensure continuity in supporting the development of all students at every stage of their education – not only in grades 1 to 3.

If I were a teacher…: Concepts of People on the Autism Spectrum About the Education System

Jacek Błeszyński — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Assumptions: This article is part of a wider study on adults with autism. The main assumption of the series of studies is concerned with listening to and hearing the voices of those most affected – those with a diagnosis of autism. The material, which is based on the experiences of people with autism, allows us to present views on the role of the teacher – the creator of the educational space. Thus far, we have presented the experiences and comments of teachers and therapists; now we can listen to the voices of not only students and parents, but people with autism. The research problem was to present the educational experiences described by autistic people in a paper on pedeutology. The aim of the study was to investigate the opinions on education held by people with autism.

Method. This study employed the netnographic method and involved a group of people with a diagnosis of autism who met online and agreed to participate.

Results. Reaching out to a large group made it possible to analyze their statements by ranking and creating meaning bundles.

Conclusions. The first conclusion is that there is a difference in the approach to the teaching/learning process. This is due to symptoms that are specific to autism, as well as to the different educational and therapeutic approaches. The second conclusion is related to the use of punishment that, in addition to forbidden forms (such as physical punishment), often evolve into psychological and social punishment, such as isolation, marginalization, or a lack of interest. It seems to be equally important to draw attention to the ineffective attempts to impose recognized normative forms of functioning (often referred to as a violation), as well as treating these people as not fully intellectually capable, which is not a condition (intellectual disability can co-occur in a few cases [see Casanova et al., 2000]).

Reflections by C. S. Lewis on Biblical Narrative as a Literary Phenomenon: The Cathartic Example of the Youth Literary Cycle The Chronicles of Narnia

Cintia Carreira Zafra — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This essay provides a detailed exploration of interest in the Bible as a literary phenomenon. We start with Frye’s research in order to analyze academic perspectives that studied the Bible as a form of literary criticism. Among these perspectives, it is worth highlighting those that define biblical narrative as the principal element of the Western imaginative tradition. This phenomenon builds a set of interrelations that have shaped our specific literary tradition, imbuing it with this symbiosis between sacred and profane influences. Moving on to a second level of interpretation of the question at hand, we examine the encounter between secular and religious literatures as a consequence of the work initiated by Frye. The philological background of the writer C. S. Lewis is key and unprecedented in shedding light on the frontiers between reality and fantasy in the field of literary studies, as exemplified in The Chronicles of Narnia. The Narnia books allow their readers to experience catharsis. This experience is foundational for the acquisition and cultivation of some character strengths, as the ancient Greek tradition held and put into practice centuries ago.

The Model of a Polish Diplomat and Its Evolution From the 16th to the 21st century, in the Context of Education, Axiology, Professionalism and Socialization

Urszula Świderska-Włodarczyk — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The contemporary model of a Polish diplomat is the result of a long evolution. The first mentions of the topic date back to antiquity and the Middle Ages. It was not until modern times, however, that more interest was vested in this issue. In Western Europe, Niccolo Machiavelli, Torquato Tasso, Abraham de Wicquefort, François de Callierrès, Harold Nicolson, and others have commented on this topic. In Poland, Jakub Przyłuski, Krzysztof Warszewicki, Wawrzyniec Piaseczyński, Stanisław Miński, Tadeusz Morski, Adam Czartoryski – and currently Jerzy M. Nowak, Roman Czyżycki, and Bogdan Grzeloński – have discussed the virtues and vices of diplomats. Their remarks provide a sufficient basis for developing a model of a diplomat and following its evolution over the span of five centuries. To achieve this goal, I utilized my proprietary method of pattern research, analyzing the four components of genealogical, personality, professional, and social conditions. The first is related to one’s birth, which can lead to a comprehensive education, good physical condition and inherited wealth. The last one was important in the past, but of no importance now. The second concerns the personal predispositions of a diplomat, in which effectiveness initially took precedence over morality, but morality is now on par with effectiveness. The next set of determinants relates to professionalism, which entails a great responsibility for the position of the state in the international arena and for the fate of one’s fellow citizens. Thus, it is more than a profession, as it constitutes a kind of mission and service to one’s country. The last component – social conditions – determines the relationships with members of the diplomatic corps, which is especially important today, now that diplomacy has become a team sport. Such a pattern remains difficult to follow, both for past and present generations. However, it is still a desired object of aspiration meant to transform into actual patterns.

Faith, Works and Grace According to Saint Augustine and Its Pedagogical Relevance

Alexandre Rodrigues Gomes — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This article deals with the concept of Saint Augustine about faith, works and grace, showing, according to his philosophical and theological perspective, what would be the faith worthy of being considered true and what would be, therefore, a false faith. Regarding divine grace, it is discuted here the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius, which shook the Church in middle of the 5th century. The text reflects to what extent and in what way Saint Augustine's thought is still relevant for current times, both for Christians and non-Christians. Finally, the article speculates on how Augustinian approaches on the aforementioned issues are relevant for education and moral formation of individual.

Este artículo versa sobre el concepto de san Agustín acerca de la fe, las obras y la gracia, mostrando, según su perspectiva filosófica y teológica, cuál sería la fe digna de ser considerada verdadera y cuál sería, por consiguiente, una fe falsa. Por lo que respecta a la gracia divina, el texto discute la polémica entre Agustín y Pelagio, que sacudió a la Iglesia a mediados del siglo V. Igualmente, expone en qué medida y de qué manera el pensamiento de san Agustín sigue siendo relevante para los tiempos actuales, tanto para cristianos como para no cristianos. Finalmente, el artículo analiza de qué modo los planteamientos agustinianos sobre los temas arriba mencionados son relevantes para la educación y la formación moral del individuo.