Opinion

Bringing Progressive Values to Poland’s Schools

Poland is currently undergoing significant political change. It has been almost 30 years since the systematic transformation of 1989, but as Polish politicians, we are still faced with a lot of contemporary challenges for the continuous prosperity of our society.

As a Polish member of parliament, my main focus is on creating a new and sustainable education policy. In order to do so, I have established a parliamentary group of experts that works tirelessly to prepare a sustainable modern educational system in Poland. In the next parliamentary elections, I will then look to present a fully developed education policy that can take on future challenges and bring about a new stage of modernity to the Polish educational system.

The parliamentary group will look to promote an education policy that supports a much-needed transformation of school culture – one which will be focused on establishing an educational foundation founded upon the latest theories in upbringing and general education and from which we can develop, ensure and appropriate quality teaching standards across the board. It will furthermore seek to highlight and promote a selection of proposals, developmental ideas and implementation of new educational methods, which all aims to bring about a new modern understanding of the function of education in Poland – an educational system built on the ideas of progressive education.

These progressive theories are often aimed at maximising the potential of young citizens. Focus lies herein on teaching young citizens a wide array of skills that will enable them to face the challenges of tomorrow and improve their international readiness, which will let them thrive in this fast-paced competitive globalised world of ours.

The idea of a progressive educational system can be traced back to the works of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, both of whom are widely recognised as the fathers of progressive education. Their past thoughts have been taken up by the likes of theorist such as Dewey.

The idea of progressive education arises from the notion that “truth and knowledge… arise out of observation and experience rather than manipulation of accepted or given ideas”

The views expressed in this opinion editorial are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Emerging Europe’s editorial policy.