Interview with Professor Irena Wojnar on the academic figure of the scholar Bogdan Suchodolski

Abstract

Bogdan Suchodolski was a great Polish humanist and pedagogist of the second half
of the twentieth century. He was not only active in the national context, but also on
an international level, since he had frequent cultural exchanges with scholars from
other countries and especially since he was a member of international bodies such
as Unesco. He asserted, both in his vast scientific production and in his teaching,
the need for a formation of the people marked by the most authentic values, now
betrayed and menaced by a society that is often subject to consumerism and fundamentalism.
This interview (carried out in January 2014) with Irena Wojnar, one of
his most staunch disciples and close collaborator, helps us shed some light on a
few aspects of the teaching and production of the master, twenty years after his
death. The questions focus on three areas: the international role of B. Suchodolski,
the weight of his thought in the political and social context of his country, the
lifelong learning. Educational design can be widened by investigation of the writings
of the author discussed in the article. Before the beginning of the interview,
an introduction gives some information on the figure of the Polish pedagogist.