Title:

Teachers of Cieszyn Silesia as depicted in the memoirs of Jan Kubisz and Jan Żebrok – ethos, social activity and political attitudes (1860–1920)

Creator:

Greń, Jędrzej

Publisher:

Instytut Historii Nauki im. Ludwika i Aleksandra Birkenmajerów Polskiej Akademii Nauk ; Polska Akademia Nauk

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Date issued/created:

2025

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

Cieszyn Silesia ; Jan Kubisz ; Jan Żebrok ; social history ; teachers ; ethos ; protestants ; memoirs ; border regions ; Trans-Olza Silesia ; Czechoslovakia ; educational institutions

Abstract:

The paper presents the ethos, the realities of social activities, and the political attitudes of teachers in the region of Cieszyn Silesia at the turn of the 20th century based on the memoirs of two educators and social activists – Jan Kubisz and Jan Żebrok. As a multiethnic and multi-denominational region, Cieszyn Silesia was characterized by complex conditions for the development of education in the crucial period of the formation of national identities in the second half of the 19th century. The activities of teachers and Polish educational organizations (e.g. Macierz Szkolna dla Księstwa Cieszyńskiego) were led by representatives of both Protestant and Catholic communities which often cooperated with each other. Kubisz, a Protestant, completed a German-language secondary school in Cieszyn. Żebrok, on the other hand, a Catholic, studied at a Polish secondary school in Cieszyn. Their careers took completely different paths. Throughout his entire career, Kubisz taught in Gnojnik and remained in the Czechoslovakian part of Cieszyn Silesia after 1920. Żebrok worked in a number of regional schools of various levels (in Marklowice, Dąbrowa, Orłowa, Skoczów and Cieszyn), and after the division of Cieszyn Silesia he settled in Poland. The memoirs of both teachers paint a complex picture of the efforts to strengthen national identity among the border communities, the far-reaching changes caused by the division of the region between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and the difficult political relations in the reborn Poland.

Relation:

Rozprawy z Dziejów Oświaty

Volume:

62

Start page:

117

End page:

138

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article : original article

Format:

PDF

Resource Identifier:

0080-4754

Language:

pol

Language of abstract:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, full text available at:

Copyright holder:

Instytut Historii Nauki im. Ludwika i Aleksandra Birkenmajerów PAN

Original in:

Library of the Institute for the History of Science PAS

Access:

Open