2 year training as a teacher during the MA in Literature Studies (MA In Polish Philology with the specialisation as a teacher, attached)
Courses in small class learning at the University College London
Online learning (AFM Krakow University and UCL, London)
15 years of experience in teaching in Finland (3 years), Poland (5 years), London (10 years)
Experience in supervision of BA and MA levels.
Didactic/Teaching Activities: Throughout about 15 years of my teaching experience I have taught and I teach courses in various humanistic field: in literature, history, literary history, culture and linguistics at AFM Kraków University: courses in teaching language, culture and literature and translation at University College London, and at the University of Tampere as well as I have run various seminars and additional lectures in many other academic centres. I have supervised BA dissertation and MA dissertation and play as a advisor to many PHD dissertations. Among the most important skills that I achieved during my previous work as a lecturer and teacher, I would like to mention:
Communication skills with students in an accessible, interesting and factual manner, which is often emphasized in anonymous surveys;
Ability to create web pages, including online courses for students, creating additional sources of knowledge and the possibility of expanding it. I consider my involvement in the creation of online courses and in the conceptualization of new teaching methods and ways of imparting knowledge to be one of the most important achievements in my pedagogical practice;
Skills to use various social media communication teaching (Blogs, Facebook, Twitter)
Cooperation with students in the framework of my projects and the organization of conferences and seminars, which often give my students the opportunity for practical application of their knowledge and capabilities to enrich their CV
Online Teaching/Leaning, creating Personal Online Environments I am very much aware of the importance of e-learning and independent learning as an author and co-leader of the PROeLang project, which came about from a desire to create online materials and routes to learning that would empower the postgraduate independent learner to work alone and to find personal and personable ways to meet their learning needs. My colleague, Ramona Gonczol and myself via ProeLang wanted to create a bridge between two very different languages in order to show the learners that language-learning skills are transferable to any language as long as one finds his own path to learning. Also this methodology I adopt to introduction to cultural theories classes and literary classes.
The experiential approach (Kolb:1993, Usher et al: 1997) is a popular method in language learning as it allows for self-regulated learning which is personal and relevant in unique ways to each individual learner as described in the theory of andragogy designed by Knowles (1990) and later on interpreted by Toohey (1999). The main elements in the experiential approach that draw on andragogy are self- motivation and self -direction in learning by identifying one’s own learning needs, goals and paths to achieve the goals. It generally presupposes an intense participative attitude of the learners in the learning process as well as relevance of learning as a personal experience. Smith is another influential theoretician that inspired our project as he differentiates between competence and competency as learning outcomes by pointing out that competence refers to the broad capacities of a person whilst competency refers to specific abilities gained through learning activities. For such an online independent course, we believe that acquiring certain linguistic competencies is more desirable as this would inevitably lead to competence that would, in its turn, lead to further confident self- directed learning for adults. (Smith: 2005)
I believe language teaching in our contemporary world has created a new digital learner and digital teacher, as they are defined by Kalantzis and Cope (2010) in their Learning by Design project. I believe that the new learner is engaged in their learning and owns it by connecting their identity, subjectivity and agency in their learning. The new learner brings their own voice to the learning process by taking responsibility of learning through a certain degree of autonomy and self-control. She/he is also producing knowledge through a range of resources that he is willing to share with peers. S/he continues to learn outside formal classroom settings using multimodal social media anywhere anytime. He can critically self-assess and improve their learning in recursive feedback loops by involving peers and online peers.
In the lights of the course of developing new methodology I am now cooperating with the artist from London, with Małgorzata Dawidek, with whom we try to investigate new ways of teaching about the equality, non-normative bodies in the light of medical humanities and queer studies. Our project offers an innovative model for interdisciplinary cooperation that includes various methods and disciplines and shows the new walks of both teaching and academic/art practicing. The new methodology is based on developing the close dialogue between the artistic performance and the academic essay, creating the new way of communicating. Both, participation in the performance (active reading/listening/learning) and listening to the paper (traditional knowledge exchange) are here challenged. (during the symposium in Brussel, October 24-25, 2019, here the link to my article on Reparative Academy: https://argument.up.krakow.pl/article/view/7054/6503 )
International Cooperation/Networking. Ways of Popularizing Research and Science : I have been able to develop extensive experience of cooperating with various international institutions. I often go to conferences abroad, which I document in the Appendix devoted to my achievements, which include several conferences, which I organised personally.
Especially useful, when it comes to international partnerships, has been my participation in international projects, especially that in the project based at the University of Tampere, sponsored by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation, titled Polish and Russian Women’s Writing in Transformation: Generation, National Identity and the Body (www.womenswriting.fi). Thanks to this platform, I was able to develop an extensive network of contacts and had the opportunity to travel to several international conferences (UK, USA, Finland). In terms of this project, we set up two international conferences which I co-organized and two publications, which brought together articles written by authors from Russia, Poland, Sweden, the UK, Finland and Germany. The international project eMigrating Landscapes, described earlier, as well as ProeLang, are also an opportunity for close, long-term collaboration with various centres of study and research abroad. My engagement in these global networks is also apparent in my frequent participation in international conferences, as well as my involvement in their organisation, which is documented in the Annex dedicated to my academic achievements.
Popularising learning and disseminating research results: As I have already mentioned earlier, I am certain that the didactic and popularising work done by contemporary tutors and researchers does not end with lecture halls or seminar rooms, but demands we also try to reach a wider audience. I often take part in discussions, which popularise academic research, be these interviews on the radio or television (such as the interview relating to the Academy of Polish film which I organised at the Krakow Academy im. AFM, http://www.ktvi.pl/film,551,15,0,od_slowa_do_slowa_-_akademia_polskiego_filmu.html)
In terms of activities, which promote and popularise learning and disseminate the research I would like to list:
organising discussions and popular learning seminars (I list these in the Annexe related to Academic achievements), which include 13 meetings with leading figures in Polish culture as part of the eMigrating Landscapes project, e.g. Joanna Rajkowska, Ewa Lipska, Irit Amiel, Grzegorz Wróblewski. Most of the meetings are available for download as podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOq5PMJK72YWEpqSW8Kyo_oGuER3XNHps);
organising meetings with Polish artists and academics as part of international festivals: LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2011, Crossing Borders: (cooperation and co-hosting meetings). UCL Art Festival 2013 and 2014; Literary Festival in Southend in 2012;
partnerships with publishers and organisations promoting Polish literature and sciences, e.g. OFF_PRESS, the Polish Cultural Institute in London, the Polish Film Academy;
Taking part in interviews which popularise learning, including Polish thought: Zamienić niemoc w moc. Rozmowa Wioletty Grzegorzewskiej i Urszuli Chowaniec z poetką Irit Amiel. 2014. Zadra no. 1-2, pp. 98-100 or the online interviews:
Numerous reviews and articles on popular research, such as: Na początek — Apokalipsa, Czyli o Duchach i duszach Marka Wojdyły, Konspekt: Pismo Akademii Pedagogicznej w Krakowie, 2007, no. 3 http://www.up.krakow.pl/konspekt/30/index.php?i=053 ; Oda do Sprzątaczki. 2008. Zadra no 3-4, pp. 95-97.; Obywatelki? 2010. Zadra no. 3-4, pp. 15-18; Smutek jest podszewką świata. 2012. Zadra no. 3-4, pp. 88-90; Nieśmiertelna poezja: O pogrzebie Czesława Miłosza (2004) In: Dziennik Polski, 31 August 2014
Online courses: I am a big fun of online teaching and preparing a hight quality material for students to help them in learning: The examples of the online courses I have created for the students: Selected list of website created by Urszula Chowaniec as the teaching auxiliary tool (alphabetical order):
Bibliograhy: Kalantzis, M and Cope B (2010) The Teacher as Designer: pedagogy in the new media age in E–Learning and Digital Media Volume 7 Number 3 2010 www.wwwords.co.uk/ELEA. Kolb, David, (1993) "The Processes of Experimental Learning" from Thorpe, M, Edwards, R and Hanson, A (eds), Culture and processes of adult learning pp.138-156, London: Routledge. Knowles, M. S. (1990) The Adult Learner. A neglected species , Houston: Gulf Publishing. Smith, M.K. (2005) Competence and competencies, The Encyclopaedia of informal education on www.infed.org. Toohey, S. (1999) Designing courses for higher education, London: Open University Press Usher, R Bryant I Johnston R (1997) Reconfiguring the ‘other’: self and experience in adult learning in Adult education and the postmodern challenge, chapter5, pp. 93-121 London: Routledge