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LIFELONG LEARNING AS A SIGNIFICANT COMPONENT OF TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL PREPARATION (BASED ON POLISH EXPERIENCE)
R. Grzybowski
Lifelong learning of adults is included in the basic categories of contemporary Polish education. It is a process of systematic learning following the obligatory period of schooling or after continued regular higher education, lasting the whole period of professional activity or even more. The essence of lifelong learning in Polish pedagogic literature is expressed by the following terms: permanent education, lifelong education or never-ending education.
Many pedagogues in Poland agree with the statement that an optimum term to describe lifelong learning is ‘permanent education’. It involves entirety of educational processes taking place in human life, led in every organisational form and every form of interpersonal communication. According to Zygmunt Wiatrowski, all basic parameters of educational activity can be distinguished in permanent education. These parameters are: natural education taking place mainly in family environment, group of peers, local environment or at work; parallel education pursued during extra classes, in non-governmental organisations or in mass media; permanent education of adults, expressed by self-study, additional trainings, and disinterested education1.
Complexity of the discussed issue is therefore emphasised by contemporary understanding of the term ‘contemporary education’, the issue concerning not only the mature phase of human life. Its genesis is seen among conditions and expectations that appear at work, in family and among peers. However, it seems hard to deny that lifelong education acquires a special meaning when one becomes a mature person. In productive age we take up this kind of activity of our own free will, consciously and according to constantly changing jobs and family requirements. It happens that this kind of activity evolves from the internal need of self-study or self-mastery.
There are two approaches to lifelong education that one is likely to encounter in pedagogic literature: lifelong education as a lifelong process including formal and informal education, lasting the whole life and aiming at achieving optimum development of one’ s own personality or lifelong
1 Ibid p. 904.
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education as after-school education, characteristic of an adult1. Lifelong learning appears as one of dominant features of contemporary civilisation. Although it was in the sixties and seventies of the twenty first century when permanent education became popular in both Polish literature and educational practice, the issue had become significant at the beginning of the twenty first century. According to Jacgues Delors and UNESCO report Education - treasure hidden inside: „(.,..) the idea of permanent education is the key to the gate of the twenty first century. (...)”.
The idea of permanent education was not though born in the second half of the twentieth century. Its tradition is longer, and its genesis rooted in the eighteenth century and associated with the influence of French Enlightenment. In Polish culture the beginnings of permanent education are seen in the work of Committee of National Education established on 14 October 1773. It is known that the Committee was the first secular Ministry of Education in Europe. It was established in adverse conditions for Poland. Its statehood was close to collapse whereas territorial power was strained in 1772 by the countries that carried out the partitions of Poland, that is Russia, Austria and Prussia. The psychological shock caused by the partitions, the influence of French Enlightenment, ideas of physiocratie, and, above all, abolition of the Society of Jesus in Poland determined the establishment of the Committee. It saved secondary education in Poland of those days, which till that time had mainly been owned by the Company of Jesus. Had the schools been liquidated, Polish noble youth would not have had a place to study. 1 2
From many initiatives and actions taken by the Committee there is one worth emphasising, namely trying to create a homogeneous system of education with the Committee (as the Ministry of Education of the time) on the top. Moreover, programmes and curricula of all kinds of schools were thoroughly modified, and the new role model of a person (Pole, citizen) was created. New textbooks written especially for the schools of Committee were published. Decisions of the committee concerning teachers were of great importance for the undertaken deliberations. Teachers played significant part in the Committee’ s plans. Polish school of the end of the eighteenth century was supposed to contribute to the rebirth of civil and
1 Ibid, p. 904.
2 Por. R. Dutkowa, Komisja Edukacji Narodowej. Zarys dziatalnosci. Wybor materiatow zrodtowych, Ossolineum, Wroctaw 1973. A. Jobert, Komisja Edukacji Narodowej Polsce 1773 - 1794. Jej Dzieto wychowania obywatelskiego, Wroctaw !979.
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patriotic education, so important to the further ways of Poland. Taking that into consideration, the Committee created the new type of a teacher, a secular, talented and educated person, showing creative attitude towards society and school realities, and understanding the importance of educating young generation for further ways of the Polish nation.
Teachers, according to decisions of the Committee, were supposed to constitute a separate social state including teachers of main schools (universities) and secondary schools (the so called provincial and district schools). Standing of tasks made for teachers was expressed by the privileges they had been given by the Committee. Teachers were guaranteed fair salaries, the possibility of getting a promotion and a perspective of retiring after 16 (in case of primary school teachers) and 20 years of work in other cases. Taking the significance of the profession of a teacher into consideration, the Committee suggested a thorough selection of candidates for academic positions. That required a long-term observation of educational progress, keeping candidates encouraged and assessing their qualifications which were supposed to be ‘better than average’. Four years’ graduation in specially established teacher seminaries was based on the program in which a candidate’ s interests and talents were taken into consideration as well as schools’ demand for proper specialists. At the end of their studies graduates were given Ph.D. degree.
Graduating from a university was not the end of teachers’ education process. Since the committee stated: ‘(...) virtues of her/his (teacher’ s) mind and heart will influence pupils’ minds and hearts (...)\ it consistently headed for teachers having/possessing those features, moreover developing and perfecting them, and then passing on to their pupils. Thus the Committee advised their teachers to take up self-education and professional development at the place of work. Studying of research papers, textbooks and other books was the foundation of self-education. Thus schools were obliged to open their own scientific libraries. Basic resources were secured by the Committee. But reading scientific works and textbooks was not all as teachers were advised to think critically about their educational practice: ‘(...) deal with yourself after school ,think about what you have done, think and consider even more than read (,..)’1 2.
1 '
Z ustaw Komisji Edukacji Narodowej, [w:] Zrodta do dziejow wychowania i
mysli pedagogicznej, t. I , wybOr i opracowanie S. Wotoszyn, PWN Warszawa
1965, s. 648.
2 Ibid, s. 649.
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And here we arrive at the issue of our interest, mainly permanent learning. In the above deliberations applied by the Committee we can still see a present task for a contemporary teacher. It is emphasised by representatives of pedeutology who pay attention to the change of attitude towards education and getting qualifications by a teacher. They emphasise the fact that there are no qualifications that are efficient in every kind of situation. This means that teachers’ qualities limited to the area of competences are insufficient as they simply lack some afterthought about one’ s actions and their conditionings. Yet it is the afterthought and consideration in real situations that makes it possible for a teacher to react flexibly and appropriately to an educational situation.1 In this case a teacher’s professional qualifications are incomplete and demand constant verification. However, becoming a teacher is above all learning how to use your qualifications and talents to make your pupils develop1 2.
Both experience of the Committee and contention of contemporary pedeutologists harmoniously show that the profession of a teacher, unlike other professions, requires continuous learning and constant selfeducation. This dependence is worth being illustrated to the next generations of candidates for teachers.
1
D. Got^bniak, Zmiany edukacji nauczycieli. Wiedza - biegtosc -refleksyjnosc. Torun - Poznan 1998, s. 145.
2 H. Kwiatkowska, Edukacja nauczycieli. Konteksty - kategoria - praktyki, Warszawa 1997, s. 223.
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