The author attempts to interpret the best known work of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, which, although created outside the chronological boundaries of Romanticism, grew out of the ideas and needs of that epoch. The aim of the article is to analyse the genre pattern of An Ancient Tale and to indicate various references to Hindu mythology. The work under discussion combines features of a fairy tale, a historical (archaeological) novel, an epic, a syncretic romantic novel and a legend. The Eastern tradition can be traced not only in the frame story, but also in the names of deities and beliefs.

The author presents the reception of Wisława Szymborska’s work. She shows how the Nobel Prize received by the writer in 1996 caused a sudden increase in interest in her work. This interest has been shown from two perspectives: one is a fascination with poetry and an attempt to put the Nobel Prize winner on a monument, against which the poet herself strongly protested, and the other is the perspective of an open reluctance, not to say hate, resulting from indicating Szymborska’s youthful fascination with the ideals of socialism. The article shows how the Internet has become a platform that has helped to promote, above all, the knowledge about the author of the poems and, to a lesser extent, reflection on her work.

The author attempts to interpret Andrzej Stasiuk’s short story Miejsce, which was included in the new core curriculum of Polish language teaching in secondary schools. The aim of the article is to demonstrate that the theme of the place inscribed in Stasiuk’s work can be perfectly described thanks to the adoption of a hermeneutical mode of reading, which will not only emphasize the importance of the phenomenology of space inscribed in the interpreted text, but will also show young readers how Heidegger’s being in the place translates into building one’s own identity.

The author offers to use the creative activities of blackout poetry and found poetry to interpret works dealing with the subject of the Holocaust. She presents a detailed scheme of applying this form of work during lessons with students. She argues that such a solution can be an enrichment of traditional interpretation, it also allows to stimulate the creativity of students and engage them in the didactic process.

The article constitutes an attempt at an introductory description of educational values of eleven short stories for children written by Agnieszka Zimnowodzka. While discussing the educational function of the selected material, considering the compositional-structural and semantic-linguistic (including naming) layers of the stories, references to pragmalingusitic analysis and theory of semantic fields (with appropriate methodological solutions) were made.

The article concerns the issue of community languages, i.e. sociolects. The text is a didactic proposal for Polish language lessons, especially for the seventh and eighth grades of the second educational stage. In addition to the characteristics of the issue, the author presents sets of tasks (of varying degrees of difficulty), in which she uses analytical material concerning the automotive sociolect. In the language of automotive enthusiasts, the lexical field which reflects technical changes and the development of society is growing.

The aim of the article is a reconstruction of a linguistic and cultural fragment of the stereotypical views of Poles — their attitude to education and schooling. The analysis uses research tools developed as part of Polish ethno-linguistic research. The corpus of the work is language data collected in a questionnaire survey in which 140 respondents took part (70 from Poland and 70 from Slovenia). The analysis of statements reflecting a different, because Polish or Slovenian, perspective reveals some discrepancies. Three basic subcategories of Poles’ attitudes towards education and schooling were singled out and described in detail: 1) positive, 2) negative, 3) other. A vast majority of the excerpts contribute to the model of positive perception of Polish education and schooling.

The study presents research showing the possibilities of making the mother tongue/native language available to children whose parents do not know Polish or have minimal knowledge of it. The research was conducted on the basis of the dynamics of development of the Polish School in Portland in the years 2011—2013. Using questionnaires, a survey, community interview, and questions in an interview, comprehensive information was collected from parents, students and teachers. The information concerned, among others, the following issues: the demographic outline and cultural affiliation of parents, the level of knowledge of the Polish language by parents, as well as parents’, teachers’ and students’ beliefs about maintaining the Polish language. On the basis of the results and conclusions from the research, the author tries to indicate ways to improve the educational situation of Polonia children.

The author presents the beginnings and development of the Department of Polish Didactics (Chair of Linguistic Didactics and Polish Literature) which has been functioning for 60 years. She describes the development of language and literature didactics as separate scientific disciplines. She draws attention to the dynamic activity of Mitera-Dobrowolska, who had a special contribution not only to the formation of the later Chair, but also to the development of many generations of teachers of Polish and subject methodologies. 

The article discusses the contribution of native language teachers to scientific research and educational activities in the 60 years of existence of the Chair of Linguistic Didactics and Polish Literature. Circles of research work are presented, which have been constantly expanded with new issues in connection with cultural, civilization and educational transformations. The results of the research are synthetically discussed — the theories and linguistic methodologies used by the researchers are taken into account. Also, the theoretical and practical significance of publications in the field of language skills, spelling competence of students, word culture and didactic communication as well as the function and language of school textbooks have been outlined. The achievements of educators, which are directly applicable in education, have not been omitted either, e.g. sets of exercises for students, tutorials for teachers.

The sketch characterizes the research areas of the staff of the Chair of Linguistic Didactics and Polish Literature, and especially the one devoted to literature for children and teenagers. The author of the article presents the beginnings and development of reflection on writing for a young reader, which, thanks to the involvement of Mieczysława Mitera-Dobrowolska, Zofia Adamczykowa and other employees, has become the foundation of studies on “other” literature, and thus the hallmark of Katowice’s teaching of Polish literature and language among other Polish universities.

The author presents the common beginnings and 60 years of cooperation between the Chair of Linguistic Didactics and Polish Literature at the Higher School of Pedagogy in Katowice (and later at the University of Silesia) and the Chair of Polish Literature and Language Didactics at the Higher School of Pedagogy in Cracow (currently at the Pedagogical University in Cracow). Using the “family” metaphor (the sister departments), the author describes the relationships between the two units and the joint activities and the researchers who inspire these activities.