ABSTRACT
Summary: The chapter reviews the topics, organization, financing, assumptions and results of educational research studies in Poland in the years 1945‘83 by universities and research centres.
Institutionalized education needs constant updating in aims, method, content, organization and resources. When this is done on the basis of well planned, systematic educational research, the outcomes as a rule are better than when this basis is lacking. This conclusion applies equally to the micro-domain of classroom teaching and to the macro-scale organization of the whole educational system and the socio-economic and cultural conditions which affect its functioning.
The aims and problems of educational research need to be considered in the context of contemporary realities. Two dimensions of reality are identified. The national dimension includes, for example, the particular economic difficulties which affect the state of education and how people perceive its value. The international dimension influences, for example, people's awareness of and feelings about community, and indirectly their attitudes to education. Because of these realities this chapter stresses that the right to exist is secured not just by slogans such as ‘learning to be’, but also by less optimistic slogans such as ‘learn or perish’.
