Kostyło on school failure’s independence of political change

A interesting and disturbing article by Professor Piotr Kostyło on “School failure and its interpretations” [pdf], published in Kultura Pedagogiczna out of the University of Warsaw. Kostyło is a professor of philosophy of education at the University of Kazimierz Wielki.

Kostyło’s analysis is disturbing because it suggests that Poland’s change from communism to liberal democracy has not improved its school failure rate. Here is his abstract:

“The author sketches the history of a longitudinal study on student failure in Poland conducted by a Polish educational sociologist, Zbigniew Kwieciński et al. Simultaneously, he provides a philosophical review of the study which took nearly three decades, starting in the early 1970s continuing through the fall of communism in Poland and the advent of liberal democracy. The findings of the longitudinal study are striking. They suggest that changes in the political system, in social and economic factors, in educational ideals and policies accompanied by different dominant philosophical paradigms, had no major effect in redressing school failure, or in reducing the numbers of socially excluded pupils. Having critically reviewed the research, its findings, philosophical interpretations, as well as the evolution of Kwieciński’s views, the author highlights the significance of the role of the teacher in the complex dynamics of educational practice. He argues a case for substantial teacher responsibility, and for greater moral responsibility for the student. In this paper I present a concise history and a philosophical review of an important body of research on failure in Polish schools from the early 1970s until the late 1990s. The research was carried out over this period by Zbigniew Kwieciński, a Polish sociologist of education, and his team. The research period covered different stages of recent Polish history: from the last years of communism, through the transformation period, until the beginning of liberal democracy. The most striking point in the research was that, in spite of the many social, political and cultural changes over the three decades, the numbers of pupils socially excluded because of underperformance or failure remained stable. Significant change was evident, not in students’ achievements, but in the dynamics of school selections, as well as in the philosophical interpretations brought to bear by the researchers in their analyses of failure.”

The full essay is here.