The paper reports from the author’s perspective the debate on the book by M.P. Markowski Polityka wrażliwości. Wprowadzenie do humanistyki (Kraków: Universitas, 2013). This debate was organized within the Framework of the Conrad Festival in Cracow in 2013, and the participants were the following professors: Michał Paweł Markowski as the author of the book himself, Ryszard Nycz as the moderator of discussion, Agata Bielik-Robson, Krzysztof Kłosiński and Lech Witkowski, together with Grzegorz Jankowicz represen ing the journal „Tygodnik Powszechny”. The key question for the debate was linked with the issue whether and in what a way one can defend the value of humanities in their contrast with the scientific rigour on one side, and the neoliberal afirmation of equivalence of banality on the other.

One of widely accepted signs of our times is the belief that culture is in crisis. In this context the rank of the humanities should be reassessed. Conventionally the humanities were viewed as a core part of cultural education (Bildung) and their purpose was to implement in young people moral virtues that were thought to guide them in their activity in the social world. In the face of the changing concept of culture the humanities have to be reconsidered. The problem is how to keep their emancipatory role and the same time to give up any pretense to universality in other words to make a shift from the vertical claims to universality to horizontal claims which influence dialogue. Such an understanding does not mean agreement but on the contrary it presupposes conflicts and misinterpretations of other’s intentions. However it is necessary for the unremitting existence of democratic society. The humanities must form fundamentals of this kind of understanding.

In this essay, I aim at identifying the dangers inherent in the language of the humanities engaged in the construction of political identities. The notions of “society” and “the nation” are in focus here. My approach is based on Hegel’s dialectic of identity, on its postcolonial critique, and on Ernesto Laclau’s conception of the rhetorical construction of society, where semantic emptiness is the condition of particular notions being applicable in collective identity construction. The engagement of the language of the humanities in such constructions means that proponents of such categories in public discourse should assume ethical responsibility for their use in the formation of social totalities, and for exclusions and violence implied in such a use of proposed signifiers. In this context, the possibility of moral evaluation of potential exclusions inherent in the concepts of “society” and “the nation” is tested on the examples taken from the current political discourse in Poland.

The paper discusses pedagogical aspects of the issue of the hermeneutical problem raised by Hans -Georg Gadamer. Is the issue included in the contemporary style of teaching? Is education open for the experience of alienation? Does the massage that inspired thinkers and artists in the West tradition prevails in the readings and interpretations of the contemporary teachers and students? The questions inspire to reflect on the current styles of teaching and learning and on the role that teachers play nowadays in educational circum stances.

Analysis presented in the paper are related to the problems of social siences’ and humanities’s engagement and alienation in the postmodern, postindustrial and neoliberał society. Humanities and social sciences are presented in the context of university, in which are developed by the realization and publication of social research, by undertaking scientific discussions, polemics, scientific disputes, by reproduction of knowledge enrooted in the social sciences and humanities perspective as well as by shaping the habitus and imagination specific for humanities. There could be assumed, that contemporary systemic localization of university creates risk of its alienation, the risk factors are: commercialization of the scientific research and it’s results, sciences’ bureaucratization, becaming university education popular among the massess. Putting on the classical role and functions of university neoliberal matrices may create risk of diminishing its critical and emancipating potential.

In the article, a kind of reconnaissance, the author considers possibilities of applying bricolage method used as a diagnostic strategy during research carried out while communing with the work of art (art -based research). This type of considerations was classified as mixed -method research and particular importance was attached to Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique. Multisensory potential of the technique was emphasized as the strategy insists in revealing the pupil’s interests, predilections but also his/her needs as well as the manner of understanding the world.

Nowadays the notion of imitation does not have positive conotations. However, re interpretation of it sheds light on an „educational sense” (due to necessary condensation, the text streches in between a historic idealisation and an attempt to make a diagnosis of contemporary education). The sense stems from a „humanistic idea” understood as a formation of the sense of recognition (including diagnosis sui generis). On account of the crucial concept of education which is a model of (and for) the arts and the humanities, the article includes implicit argumentation for a change in thinking of education. It is understood as fee, language sensual and creative experience of admiration (theoria). The arts and the humanities in a way „imitate” the spirit of education, so thinking of it in a university context teaches humility (humilitas) towards its own „content”, but without servility or an inferiority complex to
wards another academic fields.

The net of theories and concepts describing, interpreting or apprising emotion, becomes dense. The purpose of the text is to signal the changes, called emotional turn which is observable both in scientific and everyday discourses. The turn, first of all undermines assumption about the ontology of emotions, preserved in culture texts. In consequence, a new paradigm of softness is set. The boundaries between private and public space are translocated and the culture is getting (too much) emotional. Explicitly, softness and savagery become the frames of the text. The complexity of the problem allows only for brief and selective presentation of the issue.

The author attempts to show the andragogy contecst of love, which seeks to capture the interpersonal relationships of several pairs. The relationship of these pairs have been shown in perspective autobiographical, in the context of life’s problems. To search for research were selected pair, which was recorded in the feeling of autobiographical material in an extremely suggestive and saturated. These pairs experienced a number of crises and difficulties such as illness, imprisonment, separation. What they learned partners in the face of the experience of the hardships of love?, what lessons gave them love? How to bring out their experience? These are just some questions that anchor the discussion in the andragogy.

In the present text, the author attempts to consider the humanities: their essence, values, and subversiveness; serving here as both a source of inspiration and the main reference point for considerations is a book by Michał Paweł Markowski Polityka wrażliwości. Wprowadzenie do humanistyki (Kraków: Universitas, 2013). Initially, she determines matters concerning definitions, dwelling into problems from purely lexicographical issues to philosophical disputes about the value of humanities. Later on in the text, she tries to exercise the descriptive categories pertaining to the humanities’ problem, proposed by M.P. Markowski (compensation, democracy, stimulation, autonomy, legitimization), upon investigating the academic difficulties in the study of pedagogy, which – as she claims – also suffers the said crisis of humanities.

Polityka wrażliwości. Wprowadzenie do humanistyki by Michał Paweł Markowski is the book which is an ally for pedagogues in making dense their own discipline. It is worth reading his text as an inspiring story about one of the most important education issues: the formation of sensibility. It is also an important voice for self awareness of the humanities. The author of this arti cle based on Markowski’s book emphasizes the existential dimension of pedagogics and education and demands a complicated scientific concept, arguing against the idea that the humanities is not a science. He justifies the belief that creative resistance against the appropriation of the language and institutions by the managerial jargon is possible based on the tradition of Bildung.

The paper attempts to explore the processes involved in the methodological, intellectual and cultural reproduction (valorization) of the traditional statues of social sciences in the beginng of XXI century, with its specific reference to some commercial conditions. Several disciplines should give a great deal attention to the processes called/connected with modernization and (post)modernity. Compensation and reproduction is discussed as a study of universities experience in the period of numerous changes. Particularly the economic and cultural determinants of chosen problems and the direction of the transformation which is still in the course in the Polish democratic and the normative order in post - monocentric society is criticized not only by the author, but also academic professors, lectures and students. However, in the and of paper, the author presents optimism connected with the reproduction of expected reforms also in higher level education in Poland and post-industrial world.

Considerable advancements in the accessibility and – as a consequence – in the scale of Polish higher education have not been proportionately represented in such niche spheres as teaching persons with autism. Therefore, the genuine enforcement of the nominally universal right to learn may be put into question. Whether the said questioning is substantiated or not and whether there are in fact positive perspectives of solutions to the problems that have arisen – are the main challenges faced by the organizers of the NOAUTism project – along with the attempt to scientifically explain them. The project itself has been planned and already initially implemented (with the Department of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Bialystok, as the project leader, and with participation of both university and external entities, planned for the years 2015–2019, financed with the funds from Santander Universidades programme). What served as immediate inspiration of the project were the actions pertaining to education, socialization, and providing proper support within the mentioned areas to the PhD candidate with dysfunctions and his family. The research carried out (as a part of the project) are aimed at analysing the education system of persons with autism on the level of higher education, in addition to surveying the relevant legal regulations, as well as cultural determinants related to educational capabilities of persons with special educational needs in Poland and abroad.

The article presents an analysis of opinions and professional experiences of Health Pedagogy students. This specialty was implemented in the years 2001–2013 at the University of Silesia. Until the expiry of specialization, it was finished by 248 students of the 5 -year studies, 80 students of the 1st degree studies and 21 students of 2nd degree studies (data for the Central Statisical Office prepared in the stationary studies secretariat, Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, University of Silesia). The method of individual cases and the interview technique were used in the presented research. The study involved 12 graduates. The results will be used for further improvement of learning opportunities for students of Pedagogy, which promotes the idea of health in the environment.

The main sources of professional burnout are connected with working environment organization and with some personal features of an individual. Adequate education on acquisition of psychosocial competencies can contribute to reducing phenomenon of professional burnout, which may (in opinion of some scientists) be the civilization disease in the21st century. Huge meaning in terms of acquiring some life skills has health education. Its main task is to make some suitable educational programmes to increase health potential (physical, psychological, and social health) of children and adolescents. The issues undertaken in the article are to turn readers’ attention to problem of professional burnout of professionally active persons and the developing of life skills of teenagers via health education. With a well -designed health education a student aquires skills which are necessary to properly function in society.

This work focuses on the issue of stress in the teaching profession. Strong emphasis was put on determining the source of stress which is common in this line of work as well as on the ways of dealing with the tension. More over, the aim of the research was to attempt to estimate how stress affects teachers’ health condition and their assigned job. The research was conducted on a group of 100 teachers from east side of Poland. Authorial tool and Subjective Work Assessment Questionnaire created by Dudek and co -workers were the research tools. The analysis of the research material was conducted with the use of STATISTICA 10 and Microsoft Office Excel software. U MannWhitney, Kruskal–Wallis and χ2 tests were applied. Statistical significance of p < 0,05 was assumed. Workload and lack of rewards were recognized to be the most stress inducing factors in the teaching profession. Teachers perceive their job as difficult and their rewards are not adequate to the effort and engagement put into their work. Despite that most of them like their occupation.

The article ruminates on the need to prioritize in the discussion about developing so -called social competencies as a part of the education process. Starting off with philosophical and political takes on the subject in question, which stress moral, ethical, and freedom issues, the author eventually manages to distinguish these human characteristics, attitudes, and capabilities that in a very particular, reflective, and comprehensive way allow the contemporary human being to live with and for others. Concurrently, what was considered closely was the character and structure of the higher education focused on the issues of effectiveness, competitiveness, and utility of actions undertaken in interpersonal relations. The need which is underscored here is the one for developing social competency (most of all perceived in critical, emancipatory, ethical, and moral categories) involving sensitivity towards other human beings, being oneself, being for a purpose and for someone, the quality of human life, respect for oneself, or learning to accept usual human deficiencies and weaknesses. The theoretical considerations presented in the article are complemented with the research carried out in the discussed thematic scope.

This paper examines a book by Julita Orzelska entitled W stronę pedagogiki istotnej egzystencjalnie (Kraków: Impuls, 2014), which can be seen as an opening for the project of a pedagogy based on residua of identity. Julita Orzelska, who looks at the educational reality from the position of the guardian of absence, proposes a reconstruction of pedagogy in order to fulfill the postulate of existential significance and integrity of pedagogy. The value of the book is based on the idea of residuality which significantly reprogrammes pedagogy towards transversality. The author of the publication presents the assumptions and the paths of development of the project which aims at creating residual pedagogies embedded in the course of human life. This project involves research in the mode of deepened specialization across disciplinary divisions.