Educational Restructuring and Change: Post-Communist Educational Transformation in Poland

Abstract

This study provides an overall picture of educational transformation in Poland since the political changes in 1989. The transformation process in Poland is analyzed in accordance with a common theoretical framework distinguishing three phases of transformation: (1) deconstruction, (2) reconstruction/modernization/ stabilitzation and (3) systemic reform. The process of transformation is analyzed in terms of ten specific areas, including, among others things, curriculum, structural changes, teachers, the social dimension. It is argued that the changes introduced in the reconstruction phase of the transformation were more important and powerful than the structural reform introduced in 1999. In the last part, the recent initiatives of an ultra-conservative minister of education, Roman Giertych, are commented upon.