Professional Advancement of RE Teachers in the Context of the Challenges of the Information Society

The Person and the Challenges Volume 11 (2020) Number 2, p. 65–78 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15633/pch.3750 Beata Bilicka ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1223-4889 Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland Professional Advancement of RE Teachers in the Context of the Challenges of the Information Society Abstract In the first years of political transformation in Poland starting in 1989, one of the crucial issues was the reform of education, including changes in the procedure of professional advancement for teachers. At that time, it was also important for the Catholic Church to restore Religious Education in schools, which returned to the state education system in the 1990–1991 school year. Since then, RE teachers have had the same rights and obligations as teachers of compulsory subjects and undergone the same professional advancement procedure. Twenty years have passed since the new procedure of career progression for teachers was introduced in Poland. Therefore the author of the article attempts to answer the following questions: To what extent does the procedure meet the challenges of the information society and in what direction should it evolve due to the rapid development of information and communication technology in the world? Keywords Information society, RE teacher, advancement of teachers. The Person and the Challenges Volume 11 (2020) Number 2, p. 65 –78 66 1. Introduction Many historians and political scientists claim that the year 1989, and in particular the first, although not fully free, parliamentary election, which took place on June 4th, allowed Poles to embark on a new stage of social, political, economic and cultural development. The systemic transformation and radical changes in all spheres of society’s life also required a comprehensively planned and executed reform of the education system. Its aim was to respond to civilizational challenges on a global, European and national scale as a long-term and in-depth transformation process in the field of national education1, which was a consequence of the “civilizational breakthrough characterized by the transformation of the current post-industrial society to the conditions and requirements of the information society which focuses on the development of knowledge in all areas of human activity.”2 Preparation of young Poles to function in the information society has become an important task, which, in turn, requires from teachers, including teachers of religious education, the development of information and communication competences. These competences are understood as the ability to use modern sources of information, efficient application of various types of digital devices, and the demonstration of the right attitudes towards the challenges of the information society. The pragmatics of teachers’ professional development became a significant issue related to the education reform in Poland in the period under discussion. The consequence of the changes in Polish education introduced by the Act of 25 July 1998 on amending the act on the education system3 and the Act of 8 January 1999 which introduced the reform of the school system4 were changes related to the procedure of professional advancement for teachers. They were introduced by two legal acts: the Teachers’ Charter Act5, amended by the Act 1 Cf. M. Zalewska – Bujak, Udział nauczycieli w przemianach edukacyjnych przełomu XX i XXI stulecia w Polsce, Katowice 2010, p. 35. 2 A. Górski, Procesy powstawania, przetwarzania i wykorzystywania wiedzy w społeczeństwie informacyjnym, “Studia Informatica Pomerania” (2017) No 4, p. 19. 3 Act of 25 July 1998 amending the School Education Act, Journal of Laws 1998, No 117, item 759. 4 Act of 8 January 1999 – The School System Reform Act, Journal of Laws 1999, No 12, item 96. 5 The Teachers’ Charter Act of 18 February 2000, Journal of Laws 2000, No 19, item 239. Beata Bilicka Professional Advancement of RE Teachers… 67 of February 18, 2000 and the Regulation of the Minister of National Education of August 3, 2000 on the career progression of teachers.6 Twenty years have passed since the new professional advancement procedure for teachers was introduced in Poland. At this point, it seems pertinent to raise the following questions: 1. To what extent does the procedure for the professional advancement of RE teachers after the political transformation in Poland meet the challenges of the information society? 2. In what direction should this procedure evolve due to the rapid development of information and communication technology in the world? As no research has been carried out in this regard so far, it appears justified to discuss this topic in detail given the relevance of the issue. 2. Context – Information Society It is difficult to clearly define what the information society is and what its components are. This term functions in almost all areas of modern life and its various aspects are analyzed from different perspectives, hence it may be defined differently. The multitude of definitions leads to attempts at their classification and thus, Tomasz Goban-Klas, for example, offers five groups of definitions of the information society taking into consideration technical, economic, professional, spatial and cultural criteria7. Similar difficulties arise when we try to look for the genesis of this term. Some researchers see its origin in the works of Fritz Machlup from the 1950s, for example8, others in the studies of Japanese scholars Tadeo Umesao, Kenichi Koyama, and Yuji Maruda. An important issue that Marian Golka draws attention to is the lack of agreement as to the legitimacy of using the term information society due to the functioning of other expressions which try to describe new phenomena such as, knowledge society, network society, computerized society, post-capitalist society, excess society, 6 The Regulation of the Minister of National Education of 3 August 2000 on the Acquisition of Teachers’ Professional Titles, Journal of Laws 2000, No. 70, item 825. 7 Cf. T. Goban-Klas, Społeczeństwo informacyjne i jego teoretycy, in: W drodze do społeczeństwa informacyjnego, J. Lubacz (ed.), Warszawa 1999, p. 30. 8 Cf. T. Goban-Klas, P. Sienkiewicz, Społeczeństwo informacyjne: szanse, zagrożenia, wyzwania, Kraków 1999, p. 52. The Person and the Challenges Volume 11 (2020) Number 2, p. 65 –78 68 technological society and cyber society. Golka emphasizes that the most popular term is the information society as a mental shorthand, which synthetically defines the most important features, mechanisms of functioning and effects of global phenomena we are witnessing.9 It is not my intention to resolve the aforementioned question, which is why in this paper the understanding of the term information society present in the works of the majority of authors will be applied. The condition for the functioning of such a society is the production, collection and circulation of information, and the comput (...truncated)