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Nation, national remembrance, and education — Polish schools as factories of nationalism and prejudice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Piotr Żuk
Piotr Żuk*
Affiliation:
University of Wroclaw, The Centre for Civil Rights and Democracy Research, Wroclaw, Poland
*
*Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article describes and attempts to explain the reasons for the conservative and nationalist character of Polish schools. The author uses data from surveys, analyzes political programs, postulates concerning education put forward by conservatives, and quotes poems emphasizing national identity from textbooks used at schools to teach reading skills. According to the author, it can be observed that nationalists build an atmosphere of aversion to immigrants, which affects racism in the school hallways. The article also presents the phenomenon of so-called school chambers of national remembrance, which are part of patriotic rituals practiced by Polish society. The author emphasizes that nationalism is the basis for changes in history programs of study, which are part of the educational reform implemented by the Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość — PiS) government. The cultural soft power, which is used to make reality more “national,” complements the administrative and political hard power of the PiS party — both tools are used to create an authoritarian-nationalist vision of social order.

Keywords

right-wing educationnational remembrance in schoolsethnic prejudices“pedagogy of shame”nationalist legitimacynationalism
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 6: Special Section: The evolution of nationhood in 20th century Europe: Lessons from the Northern Adriatic borderlands , November 2018 , pp. 1046 - 1062
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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