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Report on the 4th Seminar on Public Policy: Polish Historical, Educational and Scientific Policy. Organizer: Collegium of Economics and Social Sciences, Warsaw School of Economics, May 29, 2015.

My article is a succinct overview of macro-Polish governments' evolution over 25 years of political transformation. It is presented from the perspective of education for democracy, in a democracy and not about democracy. I explain how Poles, after they got rid of the monistic doctrine of the totalitarian state, have become subjected to a covert process of democratization of education and the school system. I analyze public education, mechanisms and structures for its management in a way that counteracts democratic change. The school is subjected to political game-makers. It becomes an institution which is painfully ineffective and without a face. This institution destroys tradition and causes intellectual regression. There are threats to educational reforms which lie not only in the sociopolitical mechanisms, but also and perhaps primarily within the education system, which has not created procedures to eliminate Pharisees of innovation from it. After 25 years of transformation, the Polish educational system is not only partially reprivatized but highly bureaucratic and fully involved in political parties. ; 38 ; 21 ; 42 ; 2 ; Studia Edukacyjne

Od roku 2004 łączne zadłużenie Amerykanów z tytułu zaciągniętych kredytów studenckich wzrosło o ponad bilion dolarów. "Edukacyjna bańka", jak bywa określane to zjawisko, stało się dla uczelnianej administracji i dla polityków problemem, który wymaga interwencji władz publicznych. Przedstawiana w artykule problematyka jest warta zainteresowania, bo stanowi bardzo dobrą ilustrację czterech głównych problemów: definiowania polityki wobec szkolnictwa wyższego jako części szerszej polityki publicznej; wykorzystania kredytów studenckich jako metody wspierania dostępności do wyższej edukacji; obecności i znaczenia dyskursu (i analizy dyskursu) w tworzeniu i badaniu polityki wobec szkolnictwa wyższego; oraz znaczenia badań innych systemów szkolnictwa wyższego dla przygotowania skutecznych polskich rozwiązań. Budowanie polityki opartej na dowodach (evidence-based policy) oznacza także konieczność krytycznej oceny rozwiązań przyjętych za granicą, by móc zrozumieć przyczyny tamtejszych sukcesów i niepowodzeń. Także i po to, by przekonać się o tym, czego należy unikać. ; Since 2004 the combined student debt in the United States has grown by more than one trillion dollars! This "educational bubble", as it is sometimes referred to, makes university administration and some politicians aware that some kind of government intervention is urgently necessary. The paper presents four main problems, used also as the illustration of broader research projects: the definition of higher education policy as a part of broader public policy; the use of student credits as the means of providing more inclusive higher education; the role of discourse (and discourse analysis) in forming and analyzing higher education policy; and the importance of discussing foreign higher education systems for developing the effective Polish higher education policy. The evidence-based policy approach requires the critique of foreign experiences and solutions that builds better understanding of their successes and failures. The main reason is to avoid the errors the others already made.

The system of protection of historical monuments in Poland, including Monuments of History, is not fully adapted to the political changes after 1989. An underestimated, important element of this system determining effective protection is professional architectural heritage management combining conservation with contemporary use of historical buildings. Interdependencies between conservation and non-conservation conditions force us to perceive the protection of monuments as a complex and interdisciplinary process – mutually correlated interactions on the historic object, in which conservation measures are the key, but not the only, activity. The organizational entirety of these activities is management. Monuments of History as the most valuable heritage should be a model of management of the national, historical resources. Fifteen years of experience of the Srebrna Góra (Silver Mountain) Fortress monument allow us to bring closer the objectives and complex conditions of related management activities as well as applications addressed to national authorities responsible for the protection of cultural heritage. ; System ochrony zabytków w Polsce, w tym pomników historii nie jest w pełni dostosowany do zmian ustrojowych po 1989 roku. Niedocenianym, istotnym elementem tego systemu determinującym skuteczną ochronę jest profesjonalne zarządzanie architektonicznym dziedzictwem łączące konserwację ze współczesnym użytkowaniem historycznych obiektów. Współzależności konserwatorskich i pozakonserwatorskich uwarunkowań wymuszają dziś postrzeganie ochrony zabytków jako złożonego i interdyscyplinarnego procesu – skorelowanych ze sobą oddziaływań na zabytkowy obiekt, w którym zabiegi konserwatorskie są kluczową, ale nie jedyną działalnością. Całością organizacyjną tych działań jest zarządzanie. Pomniki historii jako najcenniejsze dziedzictwo powinny być wzorem zarządzania dla krajowego, zabytkowego zasobu. Piętnastoletnie doświadczenia pomnika Twierdza Srebrna Góra pozwalają przybliżyć cele i złożone uwarunkowania powiązanych ze sobą działań zarządczych oraz wnioski adresowane do władz krajowych odpowiedzialnych za ochronę kulturowego dziedzictwa.

The following debate took place on September 24, 2019 at the Warsaw School of Economics. Its subject was the issues of upbringing / moral education in schools. On the other hand, the aim was to outline a diagnosis of the situation in this respect, i.e. how schools cope with the implementation of educational functions and moral formation of students. At the beginning, the educational functions of schools were distinguished from the didactic functions (transmission of knowledge from teachers to students), leaving the latter to be discussed on another occasion. The issue of ways of creating a better balance in schools between the two functions they perform: education and transfer of knowledge (didactics) was also discussed.

The main goal of the article is to present to Polish readers the most important information about one of the newer theories of the public policy process - Narrative Policy Framework (NPF). The NPF assumes that public policy narratives play a fundamental role in the public policy process. These are strategically constructed stories about the causes and solutions to public policy problems. Actors use narratives to achieve their goals, for example, implementing policies closest to their preferences. On the example of the government's "Good start" ("Dobry start" in Polish) program, the article presents practical applications of the NPF at the micro, meso, and macro levels.

The article is an attempt to trace the changes taking place in vocational education in Poland, paying special attention to the possibilities of local and regional activities supporting vocational education. The conclusions presented in the text result from the author's expert experience related to the implementation of projects to support vocational education. The presented model of support for vocational education is currently carried out by the Bialystok Human Resources Training Foundation in the city of Białystok and Białystok Poviat as the Competence Centre of the Białystok Functional Area. The experience in the implementation of the project and its effectiveness is so universal that the project will be implemented throughout the Podlasie Voivodeship. It can also be a model for local government units running vocational schools.

The aim of the article is to determine the functions of spatial policy instruments and to determine the aspects in which a spatial policy instrument could be used. Analyses pertain to especially local plans of spatial management. The most important function is the protection of spatial order. Besides, spatial policy instruments could have other functions, connected with the environment, social policy or antique protection.

The multicultural and multiethnic character of Śląsk Opolski frequently leads to emotionally heated disputes over such symbols of the past as historical monuments, anniversaries of historical events, cemeteries, signs with topographic names and so on, which is reflected in regional policy. History and collective memory are obviously used by the politicians of Śląsk Opolski (both by political parties and minority organizations) for their current political purposes, in order to achieve certain political interests (such as winning or retaining voters) by means of exerting an influence on the regional community or selected groups and by shaping certain attitudes and behaviors. The author refers to concrete examples of debates held in the region to explain the phenomenon of the politicization of history. She ponders the role of researchers, including political scientists, in preventing the politicization of the past and emphasizes the necessity for their taking a stand in the process of forming regional historical policy. ; The multicultural and multiethnic character of Śląsk Opolski frequently leads to emotionally heated disputes over such symbols of the past as historical monuments, anniversaries of historical events, cemeteries, signs with topographic names and so on, which is reflected in regional policy. History and collective memory are obviously used by the politicians of Śląsk Opolski (both by political parties and minority organizations) for their current political purposes, in order to achieve certain political interests (such as winning or retaining voters) by means of exerting an influence on the regional community or selected groups and by shaping certain attitudes and behaviors. The author refers to concrete examples of debates held in the region to explain the phenomenon of the politicization of history. She ponders the role of researchers, including political scientists, in preventing the politicization of the past and emphasizes the necessity for their taking a stand in the process of forming regional historical policy.