Religion, church, national identity, and the solidarity movement in school history textbooks in Poland

This paper analyses the Solidarity movement narratives, focusing on church representatives, religious issues, and symbols in the Polish history textbooks for upper secondary schools between 1991 and 2018. The analysed textbooks prove to reinforce Poland’s national and religious identities, with John...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Hejwosz-Gromkowska, Daria (Author) ; Hildebrandt-Wypych, Dobrochna (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: [publisher not identified] 2024
In: British Journal of religious education
Year: 2024, Volume: 46, Issue: 2, Pages: 212–224
Further subjects:B HISTORY education
B Poland
B Religion
B Textbooks
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This paper analyses the Solidarity movement narratives, focusing on church representatives, religious issues, and symbols in the Polish history textbooks for upper secondary schools between 1991 and 2018. The analysed textbooks prove to reinforce Poland’s national and religious identities, with John Paul II and the priest Popiełuszko being the primary national heroes of the Solidarity movement. The Catholic Church is presented as a protector of national values during the Solidarity period. The study also reveals the gradual reduction and simplification of the textbooks’ content. This tendency is a trigger for the polarisation of the historical discourse, posing a weapon for secular policies to misuse the ideological and symbolic roles of the Church in reproducing the Pole-Catholic pattern in history textbooks.
ISSN:1740-7931
Contains:Enthalten in: British Journal of religious education
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/01416200.2023.2278441