Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0 © 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847112549 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737012546 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0 © 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847112549 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737012546 EwaOgrodzka-Mazur /Anna Szafran´ska / Josef Malach /Milan Chmura The Cultural Identity and Education of University Students in Selected East-Central Countries APolish-Czech ComparativeStudy With 61 figures V&Runipress Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0 © 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847112549 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737012546 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available online: https://dnb.de. Funded by the ªExcellent Scienceº program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education, agreement no. DNM/SP/465558/2020. The research grant was carried out at the University of Silesia in Katowice. © 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Theaterstraße 13, 37073 Göttingen, Germany This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, at DOI 10.14220/9783737012546. For a copy of this license go to https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/. Any use in cases other than those permitted by this license requires the prior written permission from the publisher. Cover image: © Anton Dragomiletskii Reviewers: Sixto Cubo Delgado, William S. New Translation: Agata Cienciaøa Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage | www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com ISBN 978-3-7370-1254-6 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0 © 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847112549 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737012546 Contents Preface ..................................... 9 Introduction. The Polish-Czechborderland in asituation of social and cultural changes – the characteristics of the environment and the surveyed groups ................................ 13 Theoretical and methodological assumptions of the research....... 25 Chapter 1. The cultural identity of young university adults – individual and community resources in building the social capital of the borderland ................................... 37 1.1. Cultural identity – the essence and scope of the notion ....... 37 1.2. Emergingadulthood – identity forminginthe period of early adulthood ................................ 41 1.3. The dilemmas of constructing individual cultural identity in the contemporary world .......................... 44 1.4. Identity in the educational perspective ................ 48 1.5. Identity behaviours manifested by university students from the Polish-Czechborderland – research results .............. 50 1.5.1. Axiological preferences ..................... 51 1.5.2. Feeling of identity and national identifications – towards a multidimensional identity .................... 55 1.5.3. Feeling of association with selected social groups ....... 61 1.5.4. One’sown life situation and satisfactionfrom it versus the feeling of identity ......................... 70 Conclusions ................................. 76 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0 © 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847112549 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737012546 6 Contents Chapter 2. Adifficult history – whatabout the present day?Borderland relationships in the declarations of surveyed university students ..... 79 2.1. Aneighbour as the other or our own?The relationship between Poles and Czechsinthe region .................... 81 2.2. Learning from the neighbour in the declarations of Polish and Czech students............................. 89 2.3. The perception of mixed marriages.................. 98 Conclusions ................................. 103 Chapter3.Pathways to higher education and its value ........... 107 3.1. Theory and practice for afuture career ................ 111 3.1.1. The thoretical knowledge students acquire during their studies ............................... 115 3.1.2. Practical skills acquired by studentsduring their university studies ............................... 117 3.1.3. The interrelations of theory and practice in individual subjects .............................. 119 3.2. Value of higher education ....................... 123 3.3. People at university ........................... 128 3.3.1. The relationship of academic staff and students ........ 137 3.3.2. Quality of the student’slife ................... 139 3.4. The conditions and process of university studies .......... 142 3.4.1. The study environment created by the university....... 145 3.4.2. Quality of education ....................... 147 3.4.3. The approachesand methods used by teachers in the course of examination and evaluation of students ........... 149 3.4.4. The overall influenceofthe university on students’ comprehensive development.................. 152 Conclusions ................................. 155 Chapter 4. University studentsstudying and workingabroad, their field of study and the university .......................... 157 4.1. University students studying and working abroad .......... 160 4.2. University students studying and working abroad – descriptive and hypothesestesting results ..................... 163 4.2.1. University students studying abroad .............. 164 4.2.2. University students working abroad .............. 165 4.2.3. Students’ willingness to study abroad ............. 166 4.2.4. Students’ willingness to work abroad .............. 167 4.3. The feeling of citizenship – correlation analysis ........... 167 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0 © 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847112549 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737012546 Contents 7 4.4. Teachers’ professional qualities and prospects ............ 171 4.5. Students’ professional qualities and prospects – descriptive and hypotheses testing results ....................... 177 4.5.1. The suitabilityofthe acquired education for the profession . 177 4.5.2. Opportunities for students’ developmentafter their studies . 178 4.5.3. Assessment of the students’ own professional qualities .... 180 4.5.4. Prospects for getting ajob in accordance with students’ acquired education ........................ 182 4.5.5. The status of an individual with education in the studied field ................................ 183 4.6. Students’ feeling of bonds with the academic community at their university – acorrelation analysis ................... 184 4.7. The image of the university and the attractiveness of the study field ................................... 186 4.7.1. The image of the universityand the attractiveness of the study field – descriptiveand hypotheses testing results .... 188 4.7.2. The image of the universityand the attractiveness of the study field – correlationanalysis ................ 191 Conclusions ................................. 192 Ending ..................................... 195 Bibliography .................................. 201 Summary ................................... 221 Streszczenie .................................. 225 Shrnutí ..................................... 227 Biographical notes .............................. 229 Index of names ................................ 233 Index of subjects ............................... 237 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0 © 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847112549 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737012546 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY 4.0 © 2021, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847112549 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737012546 Preface The idea to write ajoint book dedicated to university students wasborn during a one-month scholarlystay at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, at the end of 2017. The student and academic community in thisrelatively remote corner of the world and the staff of the Polish and Czech universities met on several formal and informal occasions, which manifested manyclear signsofa multicultural environment – an environment of cooperation, the respecting of differences, and granting the same rights and having the same requirements for each student.The direct experiences of the diverse and enriching environment of the Australian universityenhanced the germinating idea of examining students and theirviews on their life, surroundings and academic environment in the border regions of Poland and the Czech Republic, where the authors’ universities are based. The issue of the identity of young people living in borderlandsistopical due to the decomposing tendencies in the populations of most European countries, as well as an apparent disappointment with “European” politics. From this point of view, the appeal of populism,protection of national interests, the ignoringof divergent views, disregarding others and closing oneself within one’sown bor- ders, is anathema to the broader European project. Amoreattractiveattitude is to get to know each other better, to explore what we haveincommonand what makes us unique and differentfrom others. The authors of this book promote an alternative wayofliving together and make efforts to find unity within the diversity of opinions and ways of experiencing the social and academic envi- ronment of young Polish and Czech university students living in aplace where