Marek Wilczyński

The psychological and disciplinary treatment of soldiers in the armies of late antiquity

The multiethnic army of the Late Roman Empire generated a huge number of disciplinary problems. Reading the work of Vegetius we hear about serious negligence in the overall military discipline. Other sources inform us repeatedly about mutinies, desertions and self-mutilations of the soldiers who wanted to avoid being incorporated into the army. Very often the mentality of barbarians (e.g. the Huns) in the service of the Roman Army was completely contradictory to the requirements of the Roman law and military customs. A huge role in keeping discipline in army ranks was played by a commander. He was expected to look after his soldiers, build a manly spirit in the detachment, inspire his people by examples of personal courage and – what was truly no less important – have a good fortune on the battlefield. As an impact factor exerting influence on the soldiers, they tried to use not only the harsh punishments, but also some psychological methods e.g. if the signs from the gods were auspicious, they tried to spread the news as far and wide as possible; they took care of the sick and wounded; they supervised the supply of goods and an equitable sharing of the spoils. However whenever they considered it useful, they also resorted to blackmail, taking soldiers’ families hostage; they also threatened that the commander would resign or cut off the only way of escape without any hesitation. Understanding the psychological effects of such actions constitutes a real research challenge.
 

The Influence of the Bologna Process on Teachers Training

Since 1999 when the Bologna Declaration was signed, European institutions started to modernize and reform higher education. In Poland the year 2013 not only introduced the most basic assumptions of the reform of the university, but also allowed to finish work on the Polish Framework for Higher Education Qualifications. The Bologna Process attaches great importance to the question of employment, i.e. to the ability of graduates to find and maintain work in the changing labor market. Employers are looking for people with competences, knowledge of at least two foreign languages at the level of free communication and with certain skills which facilitate team work in multicultural and multiethnic teams. Institutions educating future teachers should take over the role of integrators learning through whole life (lifelong learning process – LLP). First of all, graduates of these courses should be better equipped with the most universal competence. The range of possibilities is virtually unlimited, especially that one can connect LLP activities with the process of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), which is supposed to help in the recognition of competences acquired outside the formal education process.