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THE ROLE OF TEACHER TRAINING IN POLAND AFTER WORLD WAR II (1945-1955)
E. Gorloff
Analysing the development of teacher training in Poland after World War II one must be aware of the significant impact of political, social and economic conditions of the time. As for teacher training, the time of 1945-1955 can be divided into two periods. The first one is the time of 1945-1948, when assistance in good preparation for teaching and educational work was the main idea. That is when the political and educational authorities developed a single, centralised teacher training system. The second period, the years 1949-1955, saw the development of a single structure of teacher training institutions1, which enabled full control over all forms of teacher training in terms of organization and programmes, and which also focused on ideological shaping of teachers’ attitudes.
Providing teachers for schools of all levels was one of the most urgent problems in the first years after the end of the war. The great shortage of teaching staff was due to extermination of Polish intelligentsia by the invader, army draft of many teachers, pedagogues leaving their profession for better paid jobs and reserve or even aversion to new authorities2. So teachers with no qualifications were hastily employed. In the situation of such a shortage, the main objective in the period of 1945-1948 was creating a system of teacher training both for unqualified teachers and those having qualifications relevant for their position3. Two trends in teacher training could be observed. The first one included training outside the teacher’s work place, in the form of courses, seminars and conferences. The other one included advisory services, most often provided at the teacher’s work place, which consisted in giving advice to the teacher, lesson observation, organizing school pedagogical conferences or indicating and supplying teaching materials. It must be emphasised that at that time teachers improved their qualifications mainly in a self-educating manner. To enhance that, as early as in 1945, the Ministry of Education established teaching-educational centres similar to methodology of teaching centres functioning in the Second Republic of Poland. They did not constitute one consolidated institution but most often were based on teams of subject instructors, who were recruited mostly from among high school teachers4. Very soon the Union of Polish Teachers got involved in the teacher self-education, with its offer of regional conferences, known from the pre-war period, whose organization, with the assistance of local educational authorities, started in the liberated areas as early as in the spring of 19455. In November 1945 the Minister of Education, in his ordinance on transferring the organization of regional conferences to the Union of Polish Teachers, sanctioned its patronage over that
1 It should be noted that the structural system survived till the 1970s. Z. Ratajek, Przegl^d form doskonalenia nauczycieli w okresie 40-lecia, “Nowa Szkota” 1984, № 10, p. 438-439.
2 Grzybowski R. Wyzsze Szkoty Pedagogiczne w Polsce w latach 1946-1956, Gdansk, 2000, p. 28-30.
3 Krawcewicz S., Ksztatcenie i doskonalenie nauczycieli. Problemy i tendencje, Warszawa, 1974, p. 84.
4 Potyrata B., Oswiata w Polsce w latach 1949-1956, Prace Pedagogiczne LXXXIV, Wroclaw 1992, p. 121.
5 Kahl E., Zwi^zkowe doskonalenia nauczycieli w Polsce (1944-1989). Uwarunkowania, Przejawy Konsekwencje, Krakow 2008, p. 31-33.
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form of teacher training. The minister also considered participation in the conferences to be an obligatory form of training for all the teachers and authorized school inspectors to excuse teachers going to such conferences from their absence at classes1. During that initial period the content of training activity of the Union of Polish Teachers was based mainly on general pedagogical subjects and included information on pedagogy, psychology and methodology of teaching. The regional conferences were also to improve the teacher’s work methods. Their programme was being adjusted to the current needs of the teacher community in a given region. The rich offer of the conferences was often complemented by classes attended by the conference participants and periodical lectures, which earned it appreciation of many teachers. It must be noted, however, that already at that time the Union of Polish Teachers tried to unify, in terms of programme and organization, that form of training, and the content of self-education was always subordinated to the guidelines of educational and political authorities2. To standardise the programme and organization of teacher training system, in 1948 the Ministry of Education decided to create a network of teaching-educational centres located in the capitals of regions and counties. In September 1948 the Minister of Education established the Central Teaching-Educational Centre, with its registered office in Otwock, which was to take care of subject and methodological teacher training. In the capitals of the regions there were Regional Teaching-Educational Centres, and in the counties - County Teaching-Educational Centre'3. Their main objective was to improve the quality of work of teachers and their ideological awareness.
Significant changes in teacher training system in Poland took place after 1948, influenced mainly by political situation connected with the establishment of Polish United Workers’ Party and the growing power of the mono-authority in the country. It was the period the so called “building of socialist society”, based on the Marxists-Leninist doctrine. All the areas of the state’s functioning, including the entire teacher training system, were subordinated to that purpose. At the beginning of 1950, Department of Staff Education and Training was established in the Ministry of Education. Its goals in terms of teacher training focused of their ideological self-education, preparing holiday actions and courses, re-organization of teaching-educational centres4. In 1951 the existing teacher training system was replaced by a new organizational solution in the form of Central Educational Staff Training Centre. There were also Regional Educational Staff Training Centres and County (Municipal) Educational Staff Training Centres. Regional centres were to attain three basic groups of tasks: 1) improving the ideological and political
1 Ordinance of Minister of Education of 9 November 1945, Official Journal of Ministry of Education ( Dz. Urz. MO) 1945, No 7, pos. 295. See also E. Gorloff. Sytuacja zawodowa nauczycieli szkot ogolnoksztatc^cych wojewodztwa gdanskiego w kontekscie migracji powojennych [in:] Edukacja w warunkach zniewolenia i autonomii (1945-2009) edited by E. Gorloff. R. Grzybowski and A. Kotakowski, Krakow 2010, p. 140.
2 See.: U. Pulinska, Doskonalenie zawodowe nauczycieli szkot ogolnoksztatc^cych na Warmii i Mazurach w latach 1945-1989, Olsztyn 2005, p. 40-42. B. Grzes, Zwi^zek Nauczycielstwa Polskiego od korzeni po wspotczesnosc, Warszawa 2000, p. 94-95, A. Smotalski, ZNP na Dolnym Sl^sku w latach 1945, Wroctaw 1976, p. 24-25.
3 Ordinance of Minister of Education of 9 September 1948., Dz. Urz. MO 1948. № 11. pos. 1971.
4 AAN, Ministry of Education, file: 2470, Reports on operation of Department of Staff Education and Training for the first quarter of 1950.
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awareness of teachers, 2) providing assistance to schools, 3) managing county centres. The county centres were to deliver ideological training to teachers and improve their qualifications by providing practical assistance and managing interschool methodological teams1. That is how a new, centralized teacher training system, connected strictly with the supervision system and school headmasters was established. Teaching Staff Training Studies were created parallel to the reorganization of the educational staff training centres centres. The first such a study was established in Bydgoszcz. The first training course for heads of schools from production villages took place in December 1950. The next ones were organized in Miedzeszyn, Otwock, Lodz and i Gdansk2.
It must be noted that at that time the teacher training tasks were performed also by the Union of Polish Teachers. So there were two basic lines. The first one was handled by educational administration and the other one - by the Union of Polish Teachers, and both institutions strictly cooperated with each other3. The transformation in the teacher training system commenced in 1950 was mainly of formal and organizational character and did not create conditions for implementing new forms of teacher training in Poland4. Here various forms of conferences still had a lead and so pedagogical, methodological, regional, district conferences were organized. In 1949, the so called August conferences were launched. They were two-day county teacher meetings, during which, apart from subject matter enriching the teacher work methods, also ideological issues got a wide coverage, including the problems of Marxism-Leninism5. With time, the August conferences became the area of teacher community indoctrination. Methodological courses were also a very popular form. They gained popularity starting 1950. Their main objectives included but were not limited to: identifying, in terms of ideology, professional qualifications and organizational skills, young teachers from all over the country, improving the ideological awareness of teachers, getting to know the essential problems of socialist pedagogy. Those courses also served the purpose of learning more about the new programmes and preparing for their practical implementation6.
To sum up, it should be noted that during the entire period under research the educational and political authorities7 paid great attention to ideological training. That policy became more apparent after 1948 when not only the content of the conferences organized at that time was connected mainly with ideology but also teacher self-education took the same course, whose purpose a supplement to “Gtos Nauczyciela” [“Teacher’s Voice”] magazine also served”8.
1 Ordinance of Minister of Education of 7 July 1951, Dz. Urz. MO 1950. № 12, pos. 1931.
2 AAN, MO, file: 2470, Reports on operation of Department of Staff Education and Training for the fourth quarter of 1950.
3 AAN MO, file: 2470, Reports on operation of Department of Staff Education and Training for the first, second and fourth quarter of 1950.
4 Ratajek Z. op. cit. p. 439.
5 Potyrata B., op. cit., p. 122-125.
6 AAN MO, file: 2516, Visits in departments of education responsible for high schools and pedagogical courses, Letter of Ministry of Education on summer courses.
7 In 1945-1948 Polish Workers’ Party, after 1948 Polish United Workers’ Party (the author’s note).
8 AAN MO, file: 2470, Reports on operation of Department of Staff Education and Training for the first, second and fourth quarter of 1950.
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