**3. Current problems and research orientations**

for noticing and understanding the originality and the primary sense of this field of education. In contrast to the typical (of other disciplines) view on the multitude of cultures existing »next to« each other, what is significant in intercultural education is the existence of cultures »together« – with mutual recognition, impact, and acceptance of other cultural influences. This is also a view, more and more close to sociology, on the multidimensional identity of the modern human (who keeps the bonds with the »little homeland«, region, state, society, Europe). This means admitting that, apart from the »given identity«, there can be and there is the »chosen identity«. These and many other issues should be subjected to a multisided (also pedagogical and sociological) observation […] Sociology, even without the undertakings aimed at social changes, provides an opportunity of »monitoring« educational activity, controlling its outcomes, and social perception. This increases the chances, to say it in the simplest way, for rational educational influence. The advantages of some interrelations with sociology are not one-sided. Intercultural education is a field for new observations and sociological analyses. This may be beneficial for both sociology and

60 New Pedagogical Challenges in the 21st Century - Contributions of Research in Education

• the area of interests, research fields and subjects have been also specified rather clearly, which is reflected in many scientific studies. The interdisciplinary character of intercultural education should be emphasized: the results of research activity of the major schools are presented in the publications issued in the scientific journal 'Edukacja Międzykulturowa [Intercultural Education]' (indexed on the point scoring list of the Ministry of Science and Education) and in the publishing series *Edukacja Międzykulturowa* [Intercultural Education],

• referring to some related humanistic disciplines, a wide range of methods, techniques and research tools are used in both quantitative and qualitative studies, rich research results

• the research and structural undertakings follow the guidelines of many theories present in social sciences. Polish intercultural education has its own interesting theoretical suggestions, which is not frequent in pedagogy. Tadeusz Lewowicki's *Theory of Identity Behaviours* can serve as an example. It provides a new perspective in the search for regularities, which determine the feeling of identity in the multicultural environment. The theory promotes a comprehensive but at the same time comparative approach to the processes and phenomena taking place in culturally diversified environments. The author distinguishes the following fields (elements) of identity: *the first* comprising historical fortunes and identification with a particular territory or social group; *the second* indicated by the unlikeness of culture, language, transmission of tradition, and the knowledge of the spiritual and material wealth of a particular community; *the third* associated with a specific historical genealogy and specific features of a group (groups) as well as with the stereotypes functioning within it; *the fourth* concerning the economic condition and living standards of a group (groups); *the fifth* associated with needs, life aims and axiological preferences; and *the sixth* taking into account the political, ideological, social and industrial context [11]. Another important theoretical suggestion, very useful in intercultural studies, is Jerzy Nikitorowicz's *Concept of multidimensional and constantly self-creating identity.* It assumes an unceasing process of

pedagogy, intercultural education' [10];

so far comprising over 150 volumes;

have been also collected;

Indicating the current most important problems and research orientations in intercultural education means also making an attempt at eliciting the fields of permanence and changeability in typical behaviour patterns in multicultural communities. These issues are worth the attention due to both cognitive and practical aspects, for example, the usefulness in shaping modern intercultural education. In this context, it seems important to carry out a critical analysis of the concepts of social, cultural and educational policy, which are formulated in Poland and in many other countries and which cause that many different solutions concerning education in multicultural societies are applied.

Not only the relatively long tradition of different varieties of multicultural education but also contemporary experiences confirm that, by protecting a particular culture, this education gives rise to several problems. What clearly proves the failure of many different kinds of multicultural education are the conflicts in the countries, which are recognized as the models of democracy, for example, the USA or France. The isolation of large social groups, signs of exclusion, stigmatization, poor living standards, social dissatisfaction, and the feeling of discrimination are partially perpetuated by multicultural education, which functions alongside the main current of life [4].

Due to the undertaken considerations, what becomes particularly significant is specifying cultural and cognitive contexts of intercultural early school pedagogy, which might be applied

Intercultural Education in Poland: Experiences, Problems and Prospects

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63

According to Irena Wojnar [37], culture (viewed nowadays as 'not only the heritage, the universum of creative acts of mankind, but also as the humanistic quality of human activity and lifestyle) becomes the basic educational authority corresponding to a new educational demand which is being born. Education is a way to make culture real—first of all 'the culture in people'. Thus, education and culture determine each other—education enlightens and culture differentiates (as 'an effect' of education), which results in an ongoing process of developing culture itself. In approaching the relation *individual*—*culture*—*education*, intercultural pedagogy applies the cultural orientation, which links the sphere of culture with values and personal self-development and which emphasizes the individual's liberty and self-identifica-

• the individual is independent from culture, which consists in the freedom of applying an attitude to it (outside or within oneself) and to possible cultural determinism. One of the forms of applying this attitude is self-awareness. This liberty constitutes the specificity and

• the specifically human way of existence is in fact the orientation towards values as possible elements of culture. The individual anticipates them and makes them concrete, whereas the elements attract the individual. This is not freedom towards culture but within it [38]. In the suggested approach, what should be important in the education are the processes of culturation, as well as of primary and secondary socialization. On the one hand, they enable rooting into culture (the assimilation of the existing cultural values) and gaining a particular place in the community. On the other hand, owing to the individual's self-fulfilment abilities, they allow individuals to 'create' new, socially accepted values, in the form of cultural prod-

ucts, and, in this way, to create a 'new' quality of the group's or community's culture.

Forming the child's feeling of multidimensional cultural identity in the individual (self-oriented) and social (outer) perspective occurs in the area of: (a) 'I' condition, (b) the concept of oneself in the world and (c) competences concerning activity (possible contacts with the world and relations with others). At the same time, this process is a kind of self-identification which the individual must be able both to develop along with gradual maturing and to redefine during the whole life. The individual's orientation in the surrounding cultural reality, which develops in this way, finds its representation in the system of 'meanings' formulated in particular family, school, and out-of-school situations by people who are important for the individual. These meanings become a source of different values (and their possible 'interpretations'), which come into being, and of developing the ability to judge the acquired knowledge

*4.1.2. Building the feeling of multidimensional cultural identity*

in teachers' educational activity.

*4.1.1. Relation: individual—culture—education*

tion (being a subject). In accordance with this:

**4.1. Cultural contexts**

essence of man;

The analysis of numerous studies undertaking this subject matter [30–32] confirms the existence of two different approaches to the evaluations and consequences of the occurring changes:


Applying the reflective perspective, in contrast to the radical pessimistic approach, seems to be the right direction in pedagogical research into contemporary intercultural education. The multisided approach of theorists and researchers to this issue, as well as the occurring modifications concerning its aims, tasks and functions, makes it possible to notice and understand the problems and insufficiencies of multicultural education and to find the ways leading to positive solutions and appropriate activities.
