Between confessionality and openness. Religious education in polish complementary schools in Great Britain

ABSTRACT

The beginnings of Polish emigration to the British Isles date back to the 16th century, but a particularly large Polish diaspora was established after World War II when many soldiers stayed in Great Britain because they could not return to communist Poland for fear of persecution. The largest wave of emigration, however, occurred after Poland accessed the European Union in 2004. Since then, around a million Poles have settled in the United Kingdom.

In order to educate their children, over a hundred years ago, Polish emigrants established schools where Polish language, history, geography and religion were taught. Along with the increase in the number of Poles in United Kingdom, more and more schools were established. Currently, there are about 140. The objective of the present article is to analyse Religious Education in Polish complementary schools in Great Britain. We will discuss the organisation and concept of this particular reality on the basis of published sources and the conducted empirical research. The context for these considerations is the establishment and broad activity of Polish complementary schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Polish Saturday Schools
• Religious Education
• Religious Upbringing
• Polish immigrants in the UK

Acknowledgments

The project is funded by the Minister of Science and Higher Education within the program under the name “Regional Initiative of Excellence” in 2019–2022, project number:028/RID/2018/19, the amount of funding: 11 742 500 PLN

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Minister of Science and Higher Education [028/RID/2018/19].

Notes on contributors

Paweł Mąkosa

Assistant Professor at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland. He specialises in religious education and catechetics. Over the years he studied also at Sacro Cuore University in Milan (Italy), has been a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford and the Institue of Education in London. He has also collaborated with the University of Malta, University of Split (Croatia) and the Theological Institute in Lviv (Ucraine). He has authored numerous books and articles.