Theoretical framework

Over the past decade, a scholarly consensus has emerged that democracy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is deteriorating (Kochenov 2008; Sedelmeier 2014), with visible illiberal nationalism (Cianetti, et.al., 2018). Political leaders with illiberal programmes have entered government not only in Bulgaria, Slovakia, The Czech Republic, Hungary and Serbia, but also in Poland (Kelemen 2017; Mounk 2018). Keffer (2005) claims that education, together with other policy dimensions, is  particularly influenced by the governance of young democracies as is the case in Poland.

Poland has several special features that make this country relevant to this study. Firstly, it has been cited as a country under the Soviet sphere of influence after World War II, which persisted up to the socio-political changes of the 1990s. Secondly, studies on IB in Poland present a promising picture (Leek, 2020a) of IB as an alternative to the national programme that affords a chance to promote leadership (Leek, 2020b) among teachers and in a more general sense, advocates promotion of leadership in teacher pre-training within the national teacher training system (Leek, 2020b).

The optimistic picture of democratization in East Central Europe and IB education is changing and there is now a broad consensus that the region is in serious democratic difficulties. There is also widespread agreement that these difficulties go beyond  problems of poor democratic quality usually understood as legacies of communist or pre-communist authoritarianism, or side-effects of transition politics (Cianetti, et.al., 2018). After an initially rapid transition towards democracy in the 1990s, the region has shown worrying signs of de-consolidation, and has, in recent years, even been diagnosed as being on the edge of an authoritarian backlash (Bochsler, al.al, 2019).

IB in Poland

International education constitutes both a change and a challenge within worldwide education systems. International Baccalaureate (IB) (is one of international programmes) can offer a fruitful alternative to the gloomy situation which many state education systems find themselves in.

The rise of IB schools in Poland since 1989 hasn’t been a firework show, but instead, rather a  slow process. Since the first IB schools, which were in some ways dazzlingly successful, were established after the socio-political changes 1990s, legal solutions set into law have contributed to this success. One thing that is noticeable in Poland is that from the peaceful revolution that led to the collapse of communism, there is now conspicuous political radicalization in this country. How these tendencies influence IB schools in Poland? What role play IB schools in centrally steered system of education in Poland? This questions will be answeard within the presentation.

In order to examine the functions of the IB programmes in Poland and the extent to which the unique aspects of IB programmes contribute to the policy development in which they are implemented, the following main research question has been posed: (1) What are the functions of IB programmes in Poland? In 2018 and 2019, qualitative data was gathered as part of a pilot research project in 9 out of the 48 IB schools in Poland (those with at least 3 years’ experience of IB implementation). It has been utilized a multiple case research design for this study, in part, because of the recognition that case studies are particularly valuable when a researcher seeks an in-depth understanding of a specific problem, or situation (Patton 2001) which is the understanding of the function of IB in Poland.

Firstly, ‘Internationalism’, in its common sense means promoting understanding and cooperation between different nations. Inter-national education is not opposed to national education in Poland, however, it has the potential to break away from intra-national education in Poland. Despite the fact that IB schools are not that popular in Poland, they do have the potential to be “islands of resistance in a sea of indoctrination” against intra-national tendencies in education (intra understood as inside; ) and become (1) an opportunity to depoliticize education in Poland, (2) a counter-revolution that supports grassroots social initiatives of teachers and students, (3) a school of educational democracy that guards against indoctrination in a country with a centralized education policy. Secondly, I claim that as long as the IB programmes do not conflict with the ideological aims of the government’s national education policies in Poland, international schools will remain safe from any authoritarian interference from the government and become “islands of educational resistance”. The progressive approach in education offered by IB has the potential to spread thanks to IB and non-IB teachers in Poland (IB is usually introduced in public schools alongside the national programme); Thirdly, teachers recognize an opportunity in international programme, to change their interactions with students. At the same time, they re-interpret their role and professional activities, reaching compromises with the powers that control national education. I would interpret this to mean that when teachers give up their own freedoms (like the case with teachers in national schools is), they partially determine a similar state of affairs in relation to their pupils, and this contradicts the idea of IB education. That is one of the reasons why interviewed IB teachers enjoy taking leadership roles and freedom of teaching the way they want and not the way how the government prescribes it by policy.

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