Two sides of one coin. Images of school in Polish historical education in the times of communism (1945-1989).

This article presents and analyses the various visions of school in historical education during the communist period in Poland – school as a tool of institutional ideologisation, pointing to changes in structure and content within the educational system between 1945-1989. The authors argue that the history of school (its historical image) was an important argument in the ideological struggle, and history textbooks presented the development of various types of schools and educational transformations as a result of the class struggle, using the Marxist interpretation of history (dialectical materialism and historical materialism). On the other hand, a ‘bottom-up’ vision of school is presented, from the local and regional perspective, by analysing the phenomenon of school traditions, cultivating, sometimes regardless of ideological pressure, old school patterns, restoring the memory of its teachers and pupils. In this case, the memory of subsequent generations of pupils played a greater role than the official, state-imposed version of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]