Jan Konopnicki (1905–1980): A Researcher of the Education System and Organizer of the Education of Polish Teachers in Exile

Abstract

Jan Konopnicki spent years of World War II in exile in Great Britain where he initially served in the Polish army quartered in Scotland. Soon, however, he became involved in the educational activity of the Association of Polish Teachers in Great Britain and came into contact with British teachers. He cooperated with the Office of Education and The Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment of the Polish government in Great Britain. He organized and managed a lot of courses for Polish teachers who stayed on in the British Isles. He managed a Teacher Training Course at the University of Edinburgh which prepared teachers of pedagogical subjects for future teacher training institutions in Poland. He created a curriculum for a two-year-long teacher training school in exile and also was the author of a conception on teacher training in Poland in the period just after the war. Together with a group of teachers he paid much attention to the research into the British education system. Under his leadership (with the use of questionnaire) a research was conducted into some development disorders of children. The outcome of that research were publications and articles printed in “Wiadomości Nauczycielskie” (“Teacher’s News”). After the war he returned to Poland.

Keywords

• jan konopnicki
• organizator
• nauczyciele
• kursy
• badania naukowe
• wielka brytania