Kształcenie międzykulturowe w gimnazjum. Na przykładzie tolerancji

Abstract

The topic of the article relates to one of the aspects of contemporary humanistic education; namely, to the realization of objectives and tasks connected with the idea of intercultural education. Currently, in the reality considerably influenced by cultural pluralism as well as multi- and interculturality, extremely important turn out to be all initiatives – including educational activities – for promotion of behaviours that allow young people to construct and understand their own identity (in its individual, social and intercultural dimension) in relation to other people, cultures, ways of the world conceptualization, etc. A category mentioned in this context is «tolerance» which, according to reference books, is ascribed an important role in defining attitudes towards individuality, difference, alternative lifestyles and other phenomena defining contemporary reality. The first part of the article discusses conceptual assumptions of the intercultural education and their relation to the process of identity development among lower secondary school students. The next part comprises an explication of the notion of «tolerance» mentioned in the title. The amplification of the findings is an extensive report from the empirical research on the understanding of «tolerance» within a representative group of lower secondary school students. The following part of the article presents the results of an aspect analysis of selected educational documents from the point of view of their reference to the issues constituting the subject of the research. Some reflections and educational conclusions inspired by the collected empirical data and reference books are formulated at the end of the article.