Scrutinising Elites and Schooling in Post-Communist Poland

This book offers new insights and methodological tools to improve our understandings of how prestigious schools in Poland navigate the major political, social and cultural crosscurrents.

The range of choice for elite schooling in Poland has expanded during its post-communist transformation.?However, while elite education in countries such as the US, Australia, the UK, France, and Switzerland has been extensively studied, post-communist countries have been largely neglected. This book explores the emergence of such schools within a context influenced by a range of different and often conflicting social forces.?In doing so, the study elucidates how the socio-historical processes since 1989 diversified Poland?s egalitarian education system and facilitated the emergence of schools for elites. The book demonstrates that social and political changes in Poland triggered the emergence of new elites with different political and social outlooks, leading to a variety of types of elite schools that reflect and reproduce the elites? positions and idiosyncrasies. A bespoke theoretical arrangement scrutinises extant and generated data from elite schools? websites, online readers? forums, and interviews with elite school principals.?

The book contributes new insights into elite schools in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, enriching the existing body of knowledge on elites and elite schools around the world. It will be of interest to researchers and postgraduate students investigating elite education, sociology of education, education policy, and education and international development.

"One of a very few academic publications considering the development of Poland's elites, and possibly the only current publication doing so in the context of elite schooling. It carefully dissects the significant crosscurrents of history, culture, national values and national identity and their impact on the emergence of a wide range of elite education in Poland. Recommended reading for students, academics and anyone interested in the impact of social transformations in Central and Eastern Europe."

"Alexandra Dunwill?s Scrutinising elites and schooling in post-communist Poland makes an original contribution to the burgeoning domain of elite studies in sociology and to research on elite schools in the sociology of education with its focus on a post-communist society. Her granular analyses link political transformations with the emergence of diversified elites and of elite schools, framed by the four lenses of globalisation, European integration, the socialist heritage and tradition."

"Dunwill's book adds a new focus to the literature on elite schooling - post-communist Poland - with a mind to the past and future of Central and Eastern Europe. Her work demonstrates, with theoretical?innovation, how since 1989 a relatively equal school system was transformed by the all too common competition for status and prestige."