Exploring the Teacher’s Role in Interwar Poland: Findings from Zygmunt Kukulski’s Unpublished Research

Abstract

Following Poland’s independence, the Polish educational landscape faced many challenges, such as inadequate infrastructure, disparate educational systems and curricula inherited from the partitioning powers, and financial constraints. One of the most serious problems was the shortage of well-trained teaching staff. Educational authorities sought to remedy this shortfall by establishing a network of teachers’ seminaries to cultivate a proficient cadre for the education sector.

The interwar era witnessed heightened scholarly interest in teachers as a social group. Efforts were made to learn not only about their socio-economic backgrounds, educational qualifications, and professional training but also their psychological predispositions and attitudes towards their profession and students. Zygmunt Kukulski, a professor at the Catholic University of Lublin, who was instrumental in this research movement, collaborated with fellow scholars to develop an extensive questionnaire aimed at teachers. Despite remaining unexplored, these questionnaires serve as a valuable source of knowledge about teachers during the interwar period.

The purpose of this article is to illuminate the portrayal of teachers in Poland during the interwar period through the lens of Kukulski’s unpublished research. Drawing on a collection of 289 questionnaires housed at the University Library of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, the analysis employs these primary sources as a principal research method.