SCHOOLS THAT “STAY AWAY” FROM THE COMMUNITY. IS IT A LOST CHANCE FOR COMMUNITY LEARNING AND DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP IN NGO SCHOOLS?

Abstract

One of the most important values that the non-public sector brought into the educational system in Poland in the year 1989 was the breaking of the state monopoly in education. It brought the hope that school institutions would be able to open up new learning spaces for democracy, including agreement, the autonomy of teachers, the involvement of parents, and student self-government that in turn would have led to deep school socialization. Cooperation with the local communities became obligatory for schools after the introduction of the school reform in 1999. Civic education was expected to bring benefits for both the schools and society through creating the conditions for informal learning, democracy in practice and citizenship within and beyond the schools. The aim of this research was to recognize the main areas/fields that constitute the non-public schools in a Polish city today. The paper presents a qualitative pilot research project conducted in the years 2014-2017 in three selected non-public primary schools led by NGOs in a city of 600,000 inhabitants in Poland. The data reveals the syndrome of “cultural narcissism” that has probably become a feature of some urban non-public schools.