Image: The venue of the MVHD Autumn School at the Tabačka Kulturfabrik in Košice, Slovakia (credit: EuroClio)
During the Making Visegrad Histories Digital Autumn School in Košice, Rafał Drużdżel, a Polish history teacher with more than two decades of experience, shared his impressions of the programme. At the moment, he works in both public and private schools as well as with Polish students around the world through an online school network. This variety has been a motivation for him to continuously look for new approaches and methods suited for different learners.
At the Autumn School, workshops on themes of opposition and dissent resonated particularly strongly with him, as Rafał noted that students today often take democracy and its values as a given. Teaching this history, he explained, is about preparing young people for the present by asking difficult questions such as: “What would you do if there is no free speech or censorship?”
A central part of own teaching practice is the Oxford Debate, a method he has been using for more than a decade. He describes it as a way to help students develop essential civic skills: “How to think, how to present your thoughts, how to learn to disagree… how to make arguments and counterarguments.” He often organises debates inside his classes and even invites students from other classes to observe: “I want them to see how older students are doing this – they are teaching even when they don’t know they’re teaching.”
Rafał sees events like the Autumn School as essential for refreshing one’s practice: “Sometimes I’d like to be a student to listen to those smarter than I am. There is still a lot of learning.” He adds that meeting teachers from across Europe has been very valuable: “It gives me a wider perspective…we all are living in the same times, but not through the same experiences.”
