ACTIVITIES OF POLITICAL OPPOSITION IN PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF POLAND (PRL) OF 1970S AND 1980S IN FIELD OF CIVIC EDUCATION. REFLECTIONS OVER NEGLECTED DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article presents activities oriented toward an independent civic adult education under a totalitarian regime. The text is intended as a voice in the debate about the opposition’s victory over the communist rule – the debate that is still on, twenty years after the systemic transition began. In the mainstream discussions about the paths leading to transition and democratization of the system there is no mention of education. Educational dimension of oppositional activities in the PRL helped people to acquire critical understanding of their civil and political situation and provided the means to raise their awareness. It was education that conditioned a collective action against the system. From the pedagogical point of view, forms of this educational activity seem very interesting. Referring to both the critical education, some contexts of post-pedagogy and to biographical and lifelong learning they well preceded academic theories of that period. Education in the times of the mass opposition movement was of an informal character and reached beyond the official educational system. This informal education resulted in greater understanding of the experienced oppression and provided the motivation to overthrow the regime. The description of these educational activities reveals the significance of the socially-involved education for the processes of emancipation.