Rural Teachers’ Family as a Specific Educational Environment. The Case of (Auto)biography of Jan Woskowski, Łodź Education Sociologist (1921–2015)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present a process of socialisation in a teachers’ family living in rural areas in interwar Poland. These were the times when the Polish public education was only being created. Rural teachers, like Jan Woskowski’s parents, belonged to local intellectual elites and were identified as local leaders and cultural animators. This sociologist of education underlined in his memoirs their key role in shaping him as a man and a scientist. The educational, cultural and social activity of his parents inspired him to deal with different aspects of education in his scientific work. In numerous studies and publications he undertook such issues as social conditions for the formation of an institution of school and the teaching profession, their functions in society and social status of teacher. The article is based on family stories and diaries written by Jan Woskowski and his father Stanislaw.