The Polish water ecosystems and ways of implementing them into Polish education

The contributors attempt to describe Polish rivers and lakes as a nexus of narratives about nature culture, pointing out those elements of the story around which scientific, political, media, social and ecological narratives are created. All of them influence the shape of reflection on the water ecosystem and its function in Polish education. The authors recreate old and contemporary Polish mythmaking narratives about Polish rivers and lakes and, by proposing a critical reading of them, try to develop new educational practices that would take into account the 21st century conditions related to the climate catastrophe. The context related to the crisis also opens up thinking about rivers to other categories (cooperation, solidarity, activism) than those that have been applicable in Polish education so far (national symbolism, utility).

Autorentext
Prof Dr Bernadeta Niesporek-Szamburska, linguist and language educator, is Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Research on Humanistic Education at University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Her research focuses on linguistic image of the world of children and young people, language of children and young people, literature for children and young people, teaching Polish, including Polish as a foreign language, teaching Polish abroad. Malgorzata Wójcik-Dudek, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Studies at University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Her research focuses on literature for children and youth, literature teaching, school education, cultural memory, Holocaust studies, environmental humanities. Magdalena Ochwat, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Studies at University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Her research focuses on Polish language education, the use of literary reportage in education.