Education - discipline seminar 1600-SZD-SD-PED

During the course we will present and discuss key Polish studies on education, which results have been published recently. Presentations are planned to be diverse in the case of its topics as well as methodology. They will show different directions of development of studies on education. The course consists of following seminars:
- Bogusław Milerski i Maciej Karwowski
On the rationality of school education
In modern educational research, the process of teaching and learning is usually analyzed from the perspective of empirically operationalized competences. As a result, the critical question that education researchers usually explore is what factors influence school achievement (see e.g., Hattie, 2009). In our research project (see e.g., Milerski, 2015; Milerski and Karwowski, 2016), we analyze education from the perspective of its internal logic, called rationality, attributed to education by its participants: students, parents, and teachers. The identification of rationality makes it possible to understand how school education is legitimized in the eyes of its actors. It allows us to understand how students, parents, and teachers perceive and give meaning to education. Rationality, therefore, provides a mental background to the processes of school education and is an essential premise for education theory and practice. In this presentation, we will focus on the possibilities and limitations of a project that, by its philosophy, draws on research and analytical methods specific to empirically oriented social sciences.
-Urszula Markowska-Manista

Participatory field research with children through postcolonial perspective

The seminar will offer a discussion of key aspects of participatory field research with children (concept, methods, ethical symmetry, ...). The author will present her own research (co-conducted with children) relating to childhood and children's rights studies in so-called "pre-dysfunctional contexts" implemented through postcolonial perspective, in the stream of indigenous field research

-Aleksandra Jasińska-Maciążek
An introduction to the educational value-added measures and their applications in evaluation and educational research
Value added measures are one of the quantitative indicators that are used in many countries, including Poland, to ensure the quality of education. The assessment of schools’ quality based only on examination results gives an advantage to institutions recruiting students that have achieved better educational outcomes. Educational value added (EVA) indicators face this problem by trying to capture the part of the learning outcomes which can be attributed to the activities of the school and exclude the part that is independent of the school.
This class aims to introduce students to educational value-added models and their application, and discuss their limitations.

-Zbigniew Izdebski
Human sexuality in the life cycle

During the lecture, the sexuality of Polish women and men in various stages of life will be discussed. Classes will be based on the analysis of researches carried out by Z Izdebski in 1997-2020 (including the latest report on sexual life and relationships during a coronavirus pandemic). There will be discused also the aspects of the research methodology.

- Sławomir Krzychała
School development – a key role of the teachers community
A lot of research concerning determinants of schools’ quality concentrates on a school classroom, individual teachers and strategies used by them. However, the quality, especially its improvement, can be influenced by school community, and teachers’ community, which play a key role in generating and implementing educational changes. During the meeting, qualitative social research on teachers’ communities as those, which are important for improvement and development of schools, will be presented.