State education in the Second Polish republic in the light of curricula after the introduction of the Educational Reform of 1932

Abstract

The idea of ensuring Poland the status of power, promoted by Józef Piłsudski’s camp, entailed the need to create a strong state organization and shape consolidated society, homogenous in respect of its world view, solidarily and persistently working for the highest good, that is, the state, if taken into consideration the rhetoric of the sanation camp. This could not be done without the adoption of the appropriate educational doctrine and its conversion into an efficient educational system covering possibly the broadest spectrum of society. As a result, crystallising after 1926, the educational ideology of the sanation became known as the so-called state education, which, by shaping the desired ideal of the citizen – the state adherent – was expected to “remedy” social relations in the country. The school reform of 1932, bringing a new program framework, became its conceptualization. By pointing out shallowness of goals drawn in the old curricula and their excessive vagueness, the authors of the new core curriculum focused on the very practical character of teaching. The slogan that followed it was “Poland and its culture”. It was expected that emphasisng the cultural heritage of Poland would have an integrative value in the ethnically diversed society of the Second Polish Republic. This gave rise to an implication that Poland was the legacy of many nations that created its cultural mosaic, contributing in a unique manner to the continuity of the state, despite its formal, over 100-year absence both on maps and in human consciousness. According to new assumptions, the most important for every citizen was to respect the value of the state, to be devoted to its development, to shape a sense of civic responsibility regardless of belonging to the specified national group. The promotion of these patterns had to take place on many levels of social life, not only on the institutional one. Hence, emphasis was placed on linking didactic work with educational influence and school work with non-school activities. This article deals with the assumptions of curricula in a relation to teaching contents referring to the state education.

Keywords

• wychowanie państwowe, ideologia, programy szkolne, sanacja, integracja