Obraz Ukrainy i Ukraińców we współczesnych polskich podręcznikach historii dla szkół podstawowych

Abstract

The image of Ukraine and the Ukrainians in contemporary Polish history textbooks for primary schools The article is aimed at presenting the image of Ukraine and the Ukrainians in contemporary history textbooks for primary schools in Poland (after the 2017 reform of the education system). The author points to the presence in these textbooks of contents dealing with the subject in question, and examines the narrative of the textbooks with regard to analysis of history, presentation of shared Polish-Ukrainian elements of the past, debatable problems, presentation of common historical heroes, language and rhetoric used, and finally the auxiliary teaching materials present in the textbooks (additional reading, illustrations, maps, diagrams etc.). The analysis covers four series of textbooks prepared solely for the education market in Poland and one (“Europe. Our History”) which is a result of the collaboration between the Joined Polish-German Textbook Commission of Historians and Geographers, Centre for Historical Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Braunschweig. The analysis has made it possible to draw conclusions concerning e.g. positive assessment of the degree of saturation of the textbooks with content relating to Ukraine and the Ukrainians, correctly applied explanatory narrative and presence of various elements of the textbooks’ auxiliary teaching materials, useful in the implementation of the contents discussed. The author has also noted some shortcomings, including the still dominant narrative describing Poland’s political history (especially its military dimension) and too few positive narratives devoted to Ukraine and the Ukrainians. In addition, the author points to the clearly different nature and specificity of textbooks from the “Europe. Our History” series.