Anna Szafrańska (Szafrańska-Gajdzica; Gajdzica)
Anna Szafrańska (Gajdzica), Ph.D. hab., prof. UŚ – Professor in the Department of General Pedagogy and Research Methodology of the Faculty of Ethnology and Education in Cieszyn (University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland). Scientific and research interests: early school pedagogy, pedeutology, multi- and intercultural education. The author, co-author and scientific co-editor of 16 monographs and over 130 articles, including: Reforma oświaty a praktyka edukacji wczesnoszkolnej [Educational reforming and early school practice] (2006); Portret zbiorowy nauczycieli aktywnych – między zaangażowaniem a oporem wobec zmian [A group portrait of active teachers – between engagement and resistance to change] (2013); Pedagogická diagnostika v teórii a aplikáciách [Educational diagnostics in the theory and applications] (2013); Edukacja na obczyźnie postrzegana z perspektywy dzieci, nauczycieli i rodziców ze szkół z polskim językiem nauczania [Education abroad viewed from the perspective of children, teachers and parents from schools with Polish as the teaching language] (2014), Education of children and youth in culturally diverse environments: experiences – problems – prospects (2016), Sfery życia duchowego dzieci, młodzieży i dorosłych – studium z pogranicza polsko-czeskiego. O nauczycielach, ich spostrzeganiu świata społecznego i aktywności [Spheres of spiritual life of children and youth – a study from the Polish-Czech borderland](2017), Selected problems of teachers’ functioning in Central and Eastern Europe. A Polish-Czech-Slovak study. Faculty of Education (2017). A participant in 160 (over 50 foreign) conferences and in 18 research and didactic projects – in 7 as the coordinator. Since 1999, a member of the Social Team for Research into Borderland Culture and Education, supervised by Tadeusz Lewowicki, Full Professor. A participant in research placements, e.g. to Curtin University (Perth, Australia, 2014, 2016 and 2017), Twente University (Enschede, the Netherlands, 2015), Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia (St. Petersburg, Russia, 2014 and 2015), Borys Grinchenko Kiev University (Kiev, Ukraine, 2015, 2016 and 2017), Lusiada Lisbon University (Portugal, 2016). Extramadura University (Badajoz, Spain, 2017). A member of the Team for Pedagogy of Culture and Intercultural Education, the Team for Social Pedagogy, and the Team for School Pedagogy at the Committee of Pedagogical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences; the Polish-Czech Scientific Society; the Association for Supporting Intercultural Education. An Assistant Editor of the academic journal “Edukacja Międzykulturowa [Intercultural Education]”.
Phone: +48 502402373
Phone: +48 502402373
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What seems to be the essence of each school reform are the changes taking place in teachers’ activities. All other changes – in legal regulations, in the organization of school work, or in curricula, are of secondary significance. This takes place because the school reality changes according to the reformers’ assumptions only if teachers have necessary qualifications and willingness to implement the assumed transformations. The change should affect the system of teachers’ professional education and training, which ought to alter not only the content-based method of professional work but also teachers’ attitude to their qualifications. In the process of their education, teachers should be equipped with expert knowledge of the subject and practical experience. The discussion on educational models often concerns the proportions in which these elements should appear. The teacher’s profession has always raised emotions due to the possibility of shaping and modelling the young generation. There has been a lot of debates on the personality, authority or power of teachers, various phenomena associated with their didactic work (e.g. “work burnout”), as well as the change in the relation between the teacher and the learner. Another phenomenon concerning the reflections upon the teacher is the “myth of a teacher” – in the past, someone who loves a child’s soul, a social activist rooted in the local environment and acting for others and currently – a specialist and expert in a particular subject.
School is not the only and basic source of knowledge for children any longer. Contemporary learners know more and more, but this does not mean that they understand more. Therefore, what seems a chance and a duty of teachers is using children’s resources of information and experience to teach them to think and organize their own experience. At the same time, a crisis of school knowledge co-occurs with the problem of a teacher’s authority – in the past, a teacher was a mentor and a master, who was widely respected due to the acquired knowledge and a high-rank social position.