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ADULT EDUCATION IN MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITIES.
THE CASE OF THE CITY OF GDANSK HISTORY
M. Brodnicki
T. Maliszewski
Adult education in multicultural communities shows the features that are typical for educational activities among adult members of religiously, linguistically, nationally of ethnically homogenous communities, which have been analyzed for many years now [1]. At the same time, it has a characteristic rendering it distinctive. Let us assume, modifying slightly the definition of a Polish author
J. Nikitorowicz, that multicultural adult education should “take into consideration and respect ethnic, racial and cultural differences in the community, which entails various worldviews and culture concepts of the community members. Therefore, it is a process of a dialog of cultures, on the one hand protecting from standardization and cultural homogenization, on the other - from local egocentrism”. Also, intercultural communication means “transgressing the limits of one’s own culture [to] enrich oneself” [2]. So the aim of adult education within a multicultural community (e.g. a city or a region) should concentrate on preparing the “touching” groups (and people) to a dialog. Educating to respect what is different and to be open to the subjectified Another are thus significant aspects of both the ideas, the concepts of adult education and practical solutions (institutions) in a multicultural environment [3], while maintaining one’s own identity.
Gdansk was such a multicultural place for many centuries. Numerous authors wrote it was a special city formed by the historical coincidences, located on a geographically, politically and economically particular land, which makes it a singular place inhabited by people of various cultures who, according to many sources, knew the meaning of the term genius loci well [4]. L. Mokrzecki underlined that “it was Gdansk that played the part of a universal intermediary where cultural and intellectual models of Polish nobility and townsmen crossed with foreign traditions and customs, mainly German and Scottish” [5]. The Act of Prussian incorporation to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland in 1454 was of chief importance to the progress of adult education in Gdansk. Thanks to this act new opportunities for commerce growth, culture-forming and religious processes and science and art development. Already since mid-15th century the townsmen had been learning foreign languages they needed for trade. A fast growth of Gdansk townsmen’s wealth, in turn, influenced the rise of intellectual and cultural ambitions and broadening the interests and tightening the contacts with foreign countries. The economic, political and social situation affected the line of scientific and cultural life development [6]. Improvement of professional skills by people working in harbors, shipyards and international trade became more important in 17th c. in dynamically growing cities like Gdansk. Mathematics courses, geometry and technical drawing in particular, as well as “natural science courses for adults that have a general knowledge” were organized [7].
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A thesis of Marcel Kosman is important in considerations on the place of adult education in the history of Gdansk. The author observes that “Gdansk, [being a place of] an international nature was an example of European metropolis implementing the ideas of religious tolerance” [8]. This opinion suggests that believers of every creed functioning in Gdansk enjoyed the freedom of religion and could with no obstacles due to the predominant religion realize their religious and cultural ideas mainly among adults, who carried lively discussions and public debates on that subject. Thanks to its open attitude toward the different and the diverse, Gdansk was the first Polish city to attract protestant religions. It was largely the protestants who created a strong scientific and cultural center in this city. We should remember that Protestantism encouraged also educational aspirations of adult citizens, following “an evangelical strain and an unquestioning assumption that the principal aim of adult education was to help those who had not been able to profit from initial education” [9]. New opinions on humanistic fields became more and more popular among Gdansk citizens, they arose discussions, polemics and controversies. And so, for instance, the ideas of protestant hermeneutics were gradually introducing the need for understanding and dialog within religion. This steady change altered the nature of religious experience itself: “religion in its own confinement” was replaced by the concept of “religion as a dialog”. The thirst for interreligious dialog created a new climate of trust, openness and brotherhood. The dialog itself became a condition of pluralism, which is illustrated by a protestant academic college since the second half of 16th c., where in the atmosphere of cross-cultural dialog a Calvinist was the rector and a Lutheran - the vice-rector.
Scientific influences from the West crossed in Gdansk and frequent contact with foreign countries helped to promote the currents of renaissance and reformation. This spurred the process of emerging of a new social class of citizens with broad interests developed by auto-education (among others, by reading books and magazines), through speeches given on municipal rostra or during popular lectures organized by academic college professors of scientific societies etc. It all incited an opinion of adult educations researchers that “Gdansk [...] may be regarded as a city precursory to the popularization of knowledge” [10], as noticed B. Cyboran.
Diverse forms and offers of education for adult citizens of multicultural Gdansk knew a particular growth in the 18th century. The first Enlightenment scientific society in Gdansk, “Societas literaria” founded in 1720 was one of the first organizations that played a significant role in the development of Gdansk adult education. Later, the activity of Natural Sciences Society (“Societas physicae experimentalis”) also became an important factor in this field. The goal of the latter, which organized meetings of science enthusiasts every second week, was to seek for the truth hidden in natural phenomena yet unexplained by the means of observation and experiment. The range of scientific work and lectures for Gdansk citizens covered nature research, astronomy, natural object collecting including organizing a natural science museum [11]. The society carried out and presented to the city’s public experiments and observations in such fields as medicine, physics, ethnography, anthropology, meteorology, etc. A document by Ch. Wolff entitled “On experimental physics” constituted an example to follow of research
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methods reflected in Natural Science Society‘s charter reading: “Positive results of observations and experiments of the research teams should be archived and published in print individually or collectively. On their publishing, the most interesting research should be once more repeated with addition of new components”. The Society, basing on organization assumptions of Paris Academy, assumed extending the scope of activity beyond Gdansk by choosing honorable members among renowned scientists and famous statesmen. What was new in the Society’s structure, was division of the organization into departments gathering people of similar scientific interests and all the citizens interested in a given domain. A library was located on the Society’s premises, as well as a set of various physical devices and an astronomical observatory (since 1783). The research results were propagated among the citizens in the form of very popular showings, readings, lectures and publications.
Since 1747 brochures on philosophy, mathematics, physics, biology and medicine were published for the citizens of Gdansk. A strong emphasis was put on the organization of a natural science museum, which served a didactic purpose. Natural Science Society of Gdansk gained esteem even far beyond the city borders. The king, the court officials, magnates, other cities authorities, etc. asked the Society for opinions and expertise. Thanks to the great importance of the Society since 1756 it was being prepared to be transformed into Polish Academy of Sciences [12].
City, being a social, cultural, economic, spatial, communal structure has always been an object of sensations, cognitions and considerations experienced by men. Living “somewhere” has always been a non-physical relation between entities, a relation known exclusively to men. This specific harmony created between a man and his surroundings is primarily of a spiritual nature because it is realized in the act of understanding the place where you are. People in their existence build their own relations with what surrounds them and thanks to these relations they become housemates of a given place, while the place becomes their home.
Gdansk, being a home for its community, has always had a nature of a place where many different cultures met. Consequently, for centuries the city was assigning its adult habitants educational tasks in a way more distinct and inviting to dialog than other cities, and historically earlier.
Educational activities of adult Gdansk citizens of 16th-18th c. even nowadays may serve as an illustration of how tasks set properly by a multicultural community to its members in the field of adult education can help it progress.
References
1. Debates on this subject has been kept for a decade now within the framework of periodic conferences on adult education held in Saint Petersburg - cf.: “Lifelong Education. Continuous Education for Sustainable Development”, N. A. Lobanov, V.N. Skvortsov (eds), Vol. 1-10, Saint-Petersburg 2003-2012.
2. Nikitorowicz J., Kreowanie tozsamosci dziecka. Wyzwania edukacji miqdzykulturowej, Gdansk 2005, p. 49.
3. Banks J.A., Multicultural Education, “Review of Research in Education” 1992, vol. 19; Osman A., Culture in multiculturalism, [in:] T0sse S. et al. (eds), Corporate and non-formal learning, Trondheim 1998, p. 228-230; Parekh B., Rethinking multiculturalism. Cultural diversity and political theory, London 2000, pass.
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4. Obracht-Prondzynski C., Wielokulturowosc Pomorza, “Pomorze Gdanskie” 1997, vol. 20.
5. Mokrzecki L., Znaczenie mniejszosci narodowych w Prusach Krolewskich na przykladzie wybranych reprezentantow srodowiska patrycjatu I uczonych w XVIII w., [in:] Bilewicz A., Walasek S. (eds), Rola mniejszosci narodowych w kulturze i oswiacie polskiej w latach 17001939, Wroclaw 1998, p. 9.
6. Kubik K., Mokrzecki L., Trzy wieki nauki gdanskiej, Gdansk 1976, p. 6 and subsequent.
7. Pachocinski R., Andragogika w wymiarze miqdzynarodowym, Warszawa 1998, p. 66-67.
8. Labuda G. (ed.), Historia Pomorza, vol. II, part 2, Poznan 1984, p. 226.
9. Lowe J., The education of adults: a world perspective, Paris-Toronto 1975, p. 40.
10. Cyboran B., Miejsce popularyzacji wiedzy w przeciwdzialaniu wykluczeniu spolecznemu, [in:] Maliszewski T., Zerko J. (eds), Edukacja doroslych wobec wykluczenia spolecznego: przeszlosc i terazniejszosc, Warszawa-Gdansk 2012, p. 145-146.
11. Kubik K., Mokrzecki L., Trzy wieki nauki gdanskiej, Gdansk 1976, p. 40 and subsequent.
12. Kubik K., Wspolpraca Gimnazjum Akademickiego z Towarzystwem Przyrodniczym w Gdansku, [w:] Gdanskie Gimnazjum Akademickie. Ksiqga pamiqtkowa dla uczczenia czterechsetnej rocznicy zalozenia Gimnazjum Gdanskiego, Gdynia 1958, p. 153-234.
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