Kształcenie nauczycieli religii rzymskokatolickiej w Polsce – między formacją teologiczno-katechetyczną a pedagogizacją

Abstract

The training of teachers of Roman Catholic religion in Poland is carried out at universities – at the faculties of theology – as part of uniform five-year master’s degree studies or two-year (four-semester) postgraduate studies. The Church ensures the quality of both subject matter (theological) and catechetical preparation, as well as pedagogical preparation of future religion teachers. Current ministerial standards of pedagogical education in Poland are considered important. The analyses undertaken in this paper highlight the fact that the presence of religion lessons in Polish schools requires the reliable preparation of future religion teachers to perform didactic, educational and caring tasks. It also raises the need to pay more attention to the personal and spiritual development of religion teachers. It is, above all, the Roman Catholic Church that is responsible for the quality of theological and catechetical and pedagogical education of those people to whom it gives a mission to teach religion in Polish schools. It is supported in these activities by external entities (e.g. the Ministry of National Education and Science). The above-mentioned activities ensure that the education of teachers of Roman Catholic religion in Poland is integral and, at the same time, adequate for contemporary educational tasks. In the training of Roman Catholic religion teachers, a balance between theological and catechetical and pedagogical formation can be observed. This is visible both in the content and forms of education, where it is preferred to combine theory with practice. This is achieved by internships of theology students carried out in primary schools and various types of secondary schools. Such an integrated approach to the training of religion teachers seems to be the most professional.