This article is devoted to the problem of cooperation between Polish and Czech didactitians of history and historians by the example of Polish‑Czech Group for Textbooks, which was established in 2013 by the Polish‑Czech Scientific Society. Chairmans are Danuta Konieczka‑Śliwińska from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Polish side) and Blažena Gracová from University of Ostrava (Czech side).

The lack of a current cultural studies reader prompted the author to design an oral history course that helps to communicate to North American students the paradox of life under Communism in Poland. Oral history methods as both relatable and immediately applicable to students’ lives connect them with subjects that may otherwise come across as abstract and distant. This manuscript provides an overview of the course methodology and resources and presents students’ reflections on the benefits of learning through direct contact with witnesses. The author shows that the knowledge gained through the interviewing process has significant consequences for the students’ lives that extends far beyond the course, bridging generations and cultures.

The article shows how certain historical events were described in history teaching course books in Polish People’s Republic from 1944 to 1989. The author chose two important events from the Polish history – the battle of Grunwald and Polish interventions in Russia at the beginning of the 17th century.
The first event was chosen because the Polish army during the battle was supported among others by Russian and Lithuanian forces and that fact could be easily used by communist propaganda to underline Slavic unity, brotherhood and to show who the real enemy is/was (in simplification Germany).
The second event was chosen because the course books authors had to be very creative to conciliate two contradict interests and points of views (Polish and Russian) on that interventions.
Propaganda, very emotional language and ideologisation of the course books is easily visible especially in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. History is combined with Marx’s theory of the class struggle. Later those factors are also present but not as much as at the beginning of the communist period in Poland. However they never  isappear completely.

The text is dedicated to the Institute of History at the University of Silesia. It describes a half of the century of its existence in a very synthetic way. It shows its origins reaching the time when the Departament of History of High Pedagogical School (1957–1968) and the Team Departament of History of the University of Silesia (1968–1969) functioned. It also introduces the next stages of Institute activity: since the time it was created in 1969, through  he realities of two decades of People’s Republic of Poland (1970’s, and 1980’s) and “the new beginning” at the time of birth of III Republic of Poland, until the contemporary times (2018). The text attempts to distinguish internal censorship, deals with the changing personnel situation, research activity and the presence of representatives of History Institute on the Polish Historical research ground.

This paper explores the role of the history of education in initial teacher education programmes and questions the effectiveness of persistent didactic teaching practice at both higher and second level education in the subject of history. This paper contends it is by studying the history of education, rooted in a pedagogically  scaffolded processes and based on personal experience that opportunities exists to relate personal experience to the role of a history teacher and to challenge preconceptions regarding didactic methods of teaching history. The ultimate goal of this movement towards employing collaborative history of education learning environments is to reinvigorate interest in the second level subject of history by modelling the same process with second level history students. The potential impact of such a framework will be discussed and the resultant value placed upon the history of education by pre‑service history teachers is explored.

This study is based on analysis of the key educational documents and history textbooks. It deals with intentions of history teaching at the Czech elementary and secondary schools in Czechoslovakia during 1918–1938 with regard to possible formation of national identity of schoolchildren in the democratic multinational state. The aim is to demonstrate to which extent the history teaching has been affected by issues such as the nationalism of the newly formed state, stereotyped ideas about neighbouring nations and countries and also to which extent the historical traditions of other nations in the interwar Czechoslovakia were considered.
Content analysis focuses on selected textbook narratives with possibility to assume certain stereotypes in creating images of “great” Czechs’ as a basis for strengthening the Czech national identity. These images are confronted with their transformation during the period of the communist regime.

The article presents a few comments and reflections on the education of children and youth and its ideological conditions, presented in the “Pedagogical Review” in the eighties and nineties of the nineteenth century. During this period, the journal was a representative of interesting educational and educational ideas about  humanistic provenance. These ideas, partly positivist, and partly with a clearly modernistic overtones, inspired some teachers and educators to organize the teaching process on previously unknown principles in the Kingdom of Poland, mainly based on knowledge of the psyche and students’ needs. A comprehensive nature of  education was proposed, subordinate to utilitarian needs to a large extent. However, it was not limited to the level of professional skills, pointing to the need to shape and develop aesthetic values in stu dents as well.

The Polish Guard (Labor Service) Companies were established in 1945 in Germany. They were first used to guard German POWs and war criminals. Later, they were used to guard warehouses and military posts. From the technical point of view they were not soldiers, rather, they were civilians in uniforms. However, these  companies were organized like military units: platoons, companies, centers, and areas. Every Polish Labor Company was supervised by the American Labor Supervision Company which had seven US officers and NCOs.
The workers for Polish companies were recruited from prior POWs and slave labor. Most of them did not have any formal education due to the war. Supervisors of the Labor Service recognized this problem and started to organize classes for adults to catch up on their education. Their biggest problem was to fight illiteracy.
The author in this article describes education on all levels: from illiteracy class, vocational schools, to the higher education like the Polish Higher Technical School. He also explains how the Education Department received money for education and helped students who then went to German or French Universities.
This article also describes the involvement of the Welfare Fund in paying for school books, equipment, and stipends for students in foreign higher education institutes

Polish and Ukrainian biographical notes on three clergy, that have been analysed in the article, allow us to draw some conclusions. Firstly, some gente Rutheni, natione Poloni were perceived by contemporary Ukrainians as acting against the Ruthenian/Ukrainian emancipation (Kuilovs’kyi, Sarnyts’kyi). Their biographical notes are  sually less elaborate in the Ukrainian scholarly encyclopaedias. What is more, their connections with Polish society are not comprehensively presented there. They are elaborately described in Polski słownik biograficzny though. The case of Sheptyts’kyi’ s biographical note is different. His figure is presented in detail in  Polish and Ukrainian encyclopaedias. Polish and Ukrainian notes on him highlight different facts. The Polish note shows complexity of his position and reactions, sometimes even underlining his staying in‑between two nations. Ukrainian notes underline his pro‑Ukrainian activity, avoiding talking on ambiguities of his behaviour and reactions.
Comparison of Polish and Ukrainian biographic notes show ambiguity of national identities at the turn of the 20th century. It also helps to understand the differences in today’s perception of particular figures. It is especially relevant for gente Rutheni, natione Poloni group

The aim of this paper is to consider the 1997–1999 as a significant period for Polish education, in which the conception of junior high schools was created and implemented The article has been divided into three sections. The first section examines objects and purposes of creation junior high schools. The second section gives a brief overview of heated social discussion connected with the reform of education. In the third section the final legislative process is presented. Moreover the article investigates the opinions of teachers, politicians and the society about the reform.

“The Penny Magazine” was created as a cheap periodical fulfilling both the entertaining and educational role. Financed by the “Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge”, magazine aimed at working class. Its purpose was to supply uneducated readers with information on non‑controversial topics. The whole enterprise lasted from 1832 to 1845.
Despite the ambitious goal the educational value of “The Penny Magazine” was limited. Some knowledge of history was already necessary for understanding the articles. Yet there was another dimension of education that the editor of “The Penny Magazine” seemed to aspire to – the shaping of collective identities. Historical education played an important role as a factor in nation building. “The Penny Magazine” was constantly presenting ideas of freedom as a bond unifying members of the nation around shared, common values transgressing the social class distinction.

There were more than twenty state and private gymnasiums with the Ukrainian language of instruction. Shaping the historical consciousness of young Ukrainians happened on on several levels. In the history lessons, which according to statutory provisions had to be kept in Polish, polonocentric vision of history was presented,  taking into account to a certain extent however, the past of Ukrainian lands. A specific tool of historical education were also school patrons with ideals and standards they represented. Ukrainian youth expressed a clear reluctance towards school celebration of Polish national holidays. On the other hand, anniversaries of events from the period of building the independence of Ukrainian statehood (1918–1921) were important for them.

The subject of the article is analysis of ways of acquainting students with art history studies. The article shows how the monographs help to improve the gradually more and more independent steps in the world of art history. The analysed students’ handbooks certainly allow to shape the personality of future art historians. The discussed books – introductions to the history of art – permit the reader to gain a better awareness of diverse scientific approaches and methodologies. Furthermore, they show ways of increasing knowledge and getting more skills during the reader’s own art history studies. They present many useful both theoretical and practical thoughts and instructions. The article explains the most important message of each book and considers the proposed methods. Examples as well as comparisons are shown. Reading only one monograph on the title subject would be insufficient. Studying the humanistic course and conducting research in the field of art history requires receptiveness to different views. Therefore, the article examines in detail a few publications written in German and one in English. They have similar titles, but their perspective, content and vision of studies are in each case original and independent.

Over the last decades, there has been a distinct increase of interest in various forms of education carried out in Polish martyrdom museums. They present the whole spectrum of new methods that were created to increase efficiency and meet the requirements of a modern recipient. The author of the article on the basis of the activities undertaken by the Stutthof Museum in Sztutowo outlined long-term educational actions, which in her opinion may be a sure solution to problems with learning about selected issues of World War II.