Intercultural education as mediation between “domestic” and “foreign” Poles. Shaping the discursive image of Poles from the Czech Part of Cieszyn Silesia

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61988987%3A17250%2F25%3AA2603BUD" target="_blank" >RIV/61988987:17250/25:A2603BUD - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://czasopisma.marszalek.com.pl/journals/17/813" target="_blank" >https://czasopisma.marszalek.com.pl/journals/17/813</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15804/em.2025.04.11" target="_blank" >10.15804/em.2025.04.11</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Intercultural education as mediation between “domestic” and “foreign” Poles. Shaping the discursive image of Poles from the Czech Part of Cieszyn Silesia

Original language description

This article addresses the discursive construction of the Polish minority in the Czech part of Cieszyn Silesia within contemporary Polish media texts. Adopting a perspective of intercultural education, it is an attempt to answer the question how language and media shape the cognitive and emotional frameworks through which the Polish public perceives their “foreign” compatriots in the Czech borderland. Drawing on concepts such as connotation and habitus, the article demonstrates that seemingly neutral designations – such as “Zaolzie” or “Cieszyn Silesia” – carry associative images that influence how the Polish minority in the Czech Republic is perceived in contemporary Poland. Through an analysis of corpus data, the article shows that the term “Zaolzie” is either unfamiliar to the average Polish reader or associated with the fraught legacy of past border conflicts between Poland and Czechoslovakia. These historical connotations tend to obscure the reality of today’s Polish minority in the Czech Republic, rendering it either invisible or ideologically burdened. In contrast, the term “the Czech part of Cieszyn Silesia” – though less widely used – avoids these associations and opens up interpretive space for more accurate and future-oriented representations. The article argues that replacing “Zaolzie” with “the Czech part of Cieszyn Silesia” in Polish public discourse offers several advantages. It restores the awareness that the region extends beyond Poland’s borders, reinforces a shared historical and cultural identity among Poles on both sides of the border, and dissociates the minority’s image from associations of loss or shame. This linguistic shift can support intercultural narratives that emphasize common cultural heritage. Finally, the article presents intercultural education as a pedagogical tool that ultimately serves to shape public discourse. It can function as a form of mediation between “domestic” and “foreign” Poles, fostering greater inclusivity and the symbolic visibility of Poles living on the Czech side of the border.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50401 - Sociology

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Edukacja Międzykulturowa

ISSN

2299-4106

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

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Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

PL - POLAND

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

164-175

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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