Panel Discussion. The Politics of Truth in Education and the Public Space: Discussion at the Opening of the Volume

Marek Czyżewski is a Professor at the Institute of Sociology and Head of the Department of Research on Social Communication, University of Lodz, Poland. His main interests include: discourse analysis; public and mass communication; public opinion and democracy; hate speech; “govern­mentality”; intercultural and international communication; social theory (especially interpretive approaches, sociology of knowledge, and Foucault). Editor-in-chief of “Przegląd Socjologiczny”; editor of the series Biblioteka Dyskursu Publicznego.

Ewa Marynowicz-Hetka is a social pedagogue, Professor of Humanities, D.H.C. of the University of Ostrava (Czech Republic), Head of the Department of Social Pedagogy at the University of Lodz (1987-2019), member of the Ped­agogy Sciences Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2003-2011), Editor-in-chief of the journal “Educational Sciences. Interdisciplinary Studies.” Her research interests are: reflection on the basis of social pedagogue in the field of practice; training for social professions and action in the field of social/societal work; associations of social pedagogy with social work, understood as an area of activity; epistemological and methodological issues of social comprehension as a discipline and as the orientation of social activity. The author of many books and articles on these topics. She is the author of the book Social Pedagogy, Comprehending Activity in the Field of Practice (LAMBERT Academic P ublishing, 2020).

Maria Mendel is a Professor at the University of Gdańsk, Chair of the Department of Social Pedagogy, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Education. She is interested in social pedagogy as critically oriented pedagogical thinking about the human-world relationship, especially in regards to local communities, parents, and teachers. For years, she has been developing the area of research and educational practice known as the pedagogy of place. The latest research projects concern the pedagogy of the city, including “Miasto jako wspólny pokój” (“The City as the Shared Room”), “Gdańsk według dzieci. Dziecięce geografie na rzecz spójności społecznej miasta” (“The ways children see Gdansk. Children’s geographies for the city’s social cohesion).” Recently published books: Pedagogika miejsca wspólnego. Miasto i szkoła (Pedagogy of the Shared Place. The City and the School [2017]); Miasto dla sztuki. Sztuka dla miasta (City for Art. Art for the City [2018, co-ed.]); Pamięć i miejsce (Memory and Place [2019, co-ed.]); Eduwidma. Rzeczy i miejsca nawiedzone (Edu-Specters. Things and Haunted Places [2020, ed.]).

Ryszard Mordarski is a PhD, Hab., Associate Professor in the Institute of Philosophy, Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. His research areas are: philosophy of politics, ethics, and philosophy of religion. His recent publications: “Probabilistic Theism and the Traditional Doctrine of Actus Purus,” Roczniki Filozoficzne, no. 3(LXVIII), 2020, pp. 187-203; “Józef M. Bocheński’s Conception of Analytic Philosophy,” Heteroglossia, no. 9, 2019, pp. 245-256. He is also a translator of philosophical literature from English into Polish. He recently translated: John L. Schellenberg, Argument z ukrytości, Bydgoszcz, 2019 (J. L. Schellenberg, The Hiddenness Argument, Oxford University Press, 2015).

Helena Ostrowicka is a PhD, Hab., Associate Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Pedagogy, and Head of the Department of Research Methodology and Discourse Studies at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Her research areas are: policy and educational discourse analysis, reception of Foucauldian ideas in educational research, science and higher education policy, discourses on the youth and citizenship. She is the author of five monographs (i.a., Regulating Social Life: Discourses on the Youth and the Dispositif of Age 2019, Palgrave Macmillan; co-author: The Dispositif of the University Reform. The Higher Education Policy Discourse in Poland, 2020, Routledge) and many articles published, among others, in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Higher Education Research & Development, European Educational Research Journal.

Cezary Rudnicki is a doctor of philosophy. His doctoral dissertation concerned the ethical concepts of Foucault and Deleuze and Guattari. His research interests are: ontology, ethics, social philosophy, and the diagnosis of topicality.