Between the Attraction and Distraction, or a Gloss to the Discussion about the University's Elitism Cover Image

Między atrakcją a dystrakcją, czyli glosa do dyskusji o elitarności uniwersytetu
Between the Attraction and Distraction, or a Gloss to the Discussion about the University's Elitism

Author(s): Katarzyna Szkaradnik
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Culture and social structure
Published by: Instytut Nauk o Kulturze i Studiów Interdyscyplinarnych - Wydział Filologiczny - Uniwersytet Śląski

Summary/Abstract: This article covers the subject of the elite university and if it can be attractive in future educational systems. The text's leitmotiv is the idea of attractiveness and its various meanings as nowadays it is conjugated with market categories of efficiency and glamorousness. Therefore, the question arises, should universities react for economy's and business' demands as well as for students' expectations of practical character of the education. In the article the devaluation of the notion "elite" is considered as well as bad practices among some academic professors who concentrate on keeping their positions. However, the authoress defends the traditional Humboldt's model of the university, i.e. firstly, the community of continuous critical reflection over categories which organize social and political life, secondly, persistent quest for the cognition even if it would have to appear "the tragic wisdom". Underlining the meaning of elite university oriented on the impartial search for the truth, the authoress introduces the category of "being interested", inter esse: i.e. being in between, on the borderland, openness to different interpretations, but also readiness to taking the responsibility for one's own ones.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 28
  • Page Range: 89-101
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Polish
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