ABSTRACT
The Republic of Poland is a Central European country. After 100 years of partitions (1795-1918), the country reclaimed its independence in 1918 with enhanced national identity and patriotic attitudes of Poles. After the Second World War, with a name change to the Polish People’s Republic, it became a satellite country of the USSR with a distorted democracy (communism or real socialism), proletariat dictatorship and a strong control from SU. After the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989, new possibilities appeared and Poland made significant democratic and economic progress. An educational boom in the 1990s channelled young people’s energy and hope in the efficacy of qualifications and possibilities for promotion. By contrast, more recently young people are losing out in the labour market, and many of their expectations have been forfeited due to the unemployment, poor quality of social systems (e.g. healthcare) and a lack of possibility to become independent. Young Poles have handled the situation by taking the matters into their own hands. The question arises, whether they try to influence the country by political and social actions, or maybe they concentrate on their own needs and personal development? A challenge for citizenship education in independent Poland after almost 50 years of SU hegemony was to prepare the society to understand and use democratic systems as well in a pluralistic society. The way young people have responded to this context is the focus of this chapter.
