Między etosem a zawodem. Nauczyciel wobec zadań wychowawczych szkoły

The article discusses how radical socio-political and educational change, new economic realities in Poland after 1989, as well as wider cultural and civilization change in the modern world influence professional awareness, the system of values and attitudes of teachers towards the new tasks of the school. The reflections and analyses develop around the question, or a sort of thesis: whether – in the process of the necessary modernisation of the teaching profession, its adaptation to the pragmatic requirements of (post)modernity, globalisation, neo-liberal economy, digital civilisation, and the learning society – it is advisable to get rid of the noble, romantic tradition, the social worker’s ethos, socio-cultural references and identification. The article uses the results of the author’s qualitative research on autobiographies and memoirs of generations of Polish teachers from the times of transformation in the years 1989–2004, as well as other studies on the socio-cultural professional condition of contemporary teachers in the era of cultural change. Special attention is given to Dr Anna Radziwiłł’s way of thinking about the teaching profession and its new democratic challenges. In her article with the telling title “On the teacher’s ethos”, which appeared in “Znak” in 1991, Anna Radziwiłł saw the teacher as someone who shows and hands down values and traditions functioning in a given community. She wrote that “someone described the role of the teacher as a ‘humble mission’”.