Tomasz Leszniewski (rev.): Ewa Narkie-wicz-Niedbalec, Socjalizacja poznawcza uczącej się młodzieży [Cognitive Socialisa-tion of the Studying Youth], Zielona Góra, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Zielonogór-skiego 2006, pp. 283.
In the times of prominent changes in social life (transformation, globalisation) in the heads of the people rooted in this reality, nu-merous important questions appear. Th e dy-namics of the changes destabilise the world as we know it, and outdate a number of com-petences that allowed humans to function eff ectively in their environment. Th erefore, the questions will refer to the direction the modern world is heading in, the skills that can secure adaptation to the newly forming conditions, and the the actions that aim at preparing the young generation to life in such recognised reality. Such questions are also asked by researchers of the social world that represent various scientifi c disciplines or sub-disciplines. It also refers to the sociology of education, which is clearly marked by the work of Ewa Narkiewicz-Niedbalec Cogni-tive Socialisation of the Studying Youth.
Th e author, out of the numerous features characteristic for modern society, chooses knowledge to take the fi rst place, as a sig-nificant resource for social development and for the development of individual com-petence, which should result in such assets as the held economic position. A knowledge society will therefore constitute the context of considerations devoted to the problems of socialisation of the young generation. Th e cognitive aspect, underlined in the title
of the work, of this process is a consequence of the preliminary assumptions referring to the meaning of knowledge in today’s world. And thus, it defi nes the problem which is knowledge achieved by people at various levels of development and education, the conditions of its acquisition and of con-structing mental structures and schemes used by individuals (p. 7).
Th e book by Narkiewicz-Niedbalec con-sists of eight chapters. Th is construction can be conventionally divided into two basic parts. Th e fi rst part are chapters that aim at a theoretical specifi cation of the context of the author’s analysis of the process of cogni-tive socialisation. Th e fi rst chapter, Assump-tions of sociological theories of socialisation and their relations with the suggested model of cognitive socialisation, presents the mul-tiplicity and variety of approaches to the process of socialisation in the area of social sciences. Th e author, in this part referring to the concept of Klaus Hurrelmann concern-ing the general idea of socialisation, and to Klaus J. Tillmann an Adam Bartoszek (work paradigm), presents a synthetic model of the process of socialisation used in her own research. It is based on the assumption that the basic meaning for the process of social-isation lies in: the biological characteristics of an organism, the quality of relations be-tween a family environment and education-al institutions, the auto-concept of an indi-vidual, the personal activity of a person, the achievement of knowledge, especially of knowledge about relationships and the abil-ity to use it in practice. An additional as-sumption is placing the process of
socialisa-tion “[…] in a hierarchic scheme of the conditions of this process, starting from so-ciety, through institutions, interactions to personality” (p. 21). the second chapter, Cognitive psychology and its contribution to the theory of cognitive socialisation (Piaget, Wygotski, Bruner), is a presentation of re-search over cognitive processes and cogni-tive development of a human. Th e presented attitudes are refl ections of adaptation, syn-thesis, and development of the concepts of the enumerated in the title of the chapter researchers, which aims at revealing the complexity and the numerous layers of cog-nitive processes which are responsible for the form and content of the knowledge ac-quired in the process of socialisation. Whereas the third chapter is a refl ection of the author on the cultural and social condi-tioning of socialisation and on the contribu-tion of socialisacontribu-tional institucontribu-tions to the de-velopment of a human. She presents various dimensions of cultural diff erentiation (dis-tance towards the authorities, individual-ism, collectivindividual-ism, femininity-masculinity, avoiding uncertainty), which exert infl u-ence on the shape of the forming social per-sonalities of next generations. Th e research-er also draws attention to meaning in the process of socialisation of cultural capital (Pierre Bourdieu) and of language compe-tence (language codes of Basil Bernstein), which are signifi cant factors in the process of restoring social order and structure. Th is chapter fi nishes with a presentation and an analysis of the results of the PISA (Pro-gramme for International Student Assess-ment) research. Th ey show “[…] that Polish
students fall below the average results of all the examined […]” (p. 142), which provides another argument for Narkiewicz-Niedba-lec to analyse the process of cognitive so-cialisation performed in the area of Polish educational system.
Th e conventionally defi ned second part of the book is a presentation of the research project of the author. Chapter four, initiat-ing this part, is concentrated on the meth-odological assumptions of the researcher,the stages of the research and on the character-istic of the used research tools. Th e remain-ing four chapters (the fi ft h, sixth, seventh and eighth) present analyses of the results of the author’s own research concerned with the eff ects of cognitive socialisation depend-ing on the cultural, personal and structural conditioning, on the features connected with a university and on the types of knowledge of university students and high school sen-iors. Th ey constitute an empirical exempli-fi cation of the complexity of the process of (cognitive) socialisation, which is of interest for the author especially taking into consid-eration the knowledge of relationships and the abilities of its practical usage. Th e re-searcher tries to verify the hypotheses de-rived from extensive research undertaken as part of education sociology, which should ultimately lead to answers to important questions (asked in the introduction to the work), referring to the current problems of the system of education in Poland. Th e book ends with a short conclusion, which sum-marises in a concise form the content of the book and the conclusions drawn from the results of the research.
Th e book by Ewa Narkiewicz-Niedbalec, Cognitive Socialisation of the Studying Youth, on the one hand includes a number of valid questions concerning socialisation of young generations in the context of the transform-ing society, but on the other hand, its con-tent itself evokes numerous questions and doubts in the reader. I would like to draw attention to three essential areas for discus-sion. Th e fi rst one is connected with the is-sue of the basic assumptions of the author, which organise the whole structure of the work and the direction of the intellectual considerations of the discussed issues. A question should be asked here, can such an important for the functioning of society process of socialisation be reduced only to the aspect of knowledge, and is the defi ni-tion of society as a society of knowledge a suffi cient argument that legitimises such a narrowing of refl ection? Th e author herself, in chapter one, claims that socialisation is a process that aims at socialising an individ-ual. It denotes interactions social in charac-ter, which lead to the development of a hu-man personality. Th erefore, the core of this process is rendering an individual capable of adaptation in the scope of his or her own environment, which is performed basing on the ability of cooperation with others to re-alise the accepted cultural goals and on the readiness to respect the abiding social norms. All the constituent “elements” of a social personality of a human cross the lim-its of the knowledge transferred in the proc-ess of education, especially when it comes to knowledge about relationships and the ability to use it in practice. Therefore, it
seems that the problem that lies in the cen-tre of the researcher’s interest is fi rst of all the eff ectiveness of the educational process, additionally in its narrow understanding of logical thinking. Th is, in turn, evokes the question of why it is this kind of compe-tence that should constitute the most im-portant ability, necessary for effi cient func-tioning of an individual in the modern world? Jerome Bruner, referred to by the author, who defi nes two ways of organising knowledge about the world, a logically-sci-entifi c one and a narrative one, believes that the other one is just as important. In his opinion, “[a]n educational system must help individuals that grow in a culture to fi nd their identity there. Without it they will get stuck in their eff orts to look for meanings. Only in the narrative mode [bold type by T.L] can we construct our own identity and fi nd our place in our own culture”1. Addi-tionally, he believes that the problems con-nected with spreading knowledge about nature result from separating it from the narration of culture. Any shortages in nar-rative thinking, which are expressed in a limited ability of a man to structure a direct experience, in social life can be exemplifi ed by estrangement, rebellion, or practical in-competence (see ibidem). It means that for effi cient functioning of an individual it is necessary to use both forms of ordering knowledge.
Another doubt appears in the context of the words of the author that cognitive
so-1 J. Bruner, Kultura edukacji, Kraków 2006,
cialisation can be considered complete in the moment of graduating from university, and in case of people not studying at uni-versity, in the moment of finishing their education on a lower level (p. 146). It would denote that only an institutionalised process of education is able to guarantee the achievement of cognitive competence that predestines to performing formal opera-tions (Piaget), as well as eliminating from the area of interest of Narkiewicz-Niedbalec such issues as the ones connected with the expansion of the scope and the content of an individual’s knowledge. It constitutes a clear indication that the author considers as the central problem of her work the achieve-ment by a young person (“the studying youth” - in the title) of a specifi c level of de-velopment of cognitive abilities, which seems to be a characteristic problem for psychological, not sociological considera-tions. However, the cognitive development of a person takes place in the context of re-lation between an individual and his or her surroundings, as a part of which, a person meets numerous problems that stimulate him or her to reconstruction of the way of perceiving this reality. It serves a secure ad-aptation to the newly formed circumstances. It means that the process of human devel-opment can take place in various social con-texts, not only in the world of a university level or lower school. It is even more obvi-ous that the cognitive competences that make it possible to perform formal opera-tions (deductive conclusion) do not have to be shaped during education in logic. Addi-tionally, in another fragment, the author
admits herself that she shares the view that “[…] cognitive development is a process that lasts the whole life […]” (p. 65), which results in a confusing image of the assump-tions of the researcher.
Another issue that unfolds during the reading of the book by Narkiewicz-Niedba-lec is quite a static approach to the problem of socialisation2, here cognitive one. Name-ly, socialisation, as the author herself de-fi nes, is “[…] a process [bold type by T.L] of formation of cognitive competence […]” (p. 7). Th erefore, it is a sort of a chain of events, changes that take place in a specifi c time span. Th e changes concern the cognitive abilities of an individual (what is the proc-ess of this competence development?), as well as the social environment (what is the process of this education?, what are the ac-tions undertaken for that reason?). Whereas the eff ect of the researcher’s work will be an answer to the basic question about the eff ect of cognitive socialisation among the youth. It limits the possibility of achieving knowl-edge on the quality of this process (its strong and weak points), which could constitute a precious input enabling the introduction of considerable changes in the process of edu-cation in Poland. Th e information acquired by the author do not contribute much more to the knowledge on the eff ects of education than the research presented in the text that was performed as a part of the Programme for International Student Assessment.
2 Refers to the empirical analyses of the
Th e second area of discussion around the content of the book Cognitive Socialisa-tion of the Studying Youth is concerned with the empirical part. Namely, aft er reading the book, doubts appear that refer to the choice of the trial sample. Th e author points at the multi-stage selection of the individuals sub-mitted to the survey due to new independ-ent variables, which could have a signifi cant infl uence on the explanation of the given problem. Th e hypotheses connected with such variables as: the intellectual ability of the surveyed, the number of hours of logic courses they attended and the diff erent cul-tural “programming” of the mind (pp 155– 156) expanded the scope of the author’s interest on a group of senior year students from “a good high school”, on students of philosophy at WSP TK [Tadeusz Kotarbiński Pedagogical University], and on two groups of students from German schools (from the University in Münster and Fachhochschule in Neubrandenburg). However, to be able to compare such consciously selected groups, they should be fi rst clearly diff erentiated as to one and only feature, a variety analysed in the research. Th erefore, in the fi rst case, it should be expected that the chosen peda-gogy students will diff er from the senior year students from “a good high school” only in the level of intellectual ability, from the students of philosophy – only in the number of the logic course, and from the German students – only in the culture that shaped their way of thinking. However, nothing of the sort can be concluded from the presented procedure of the trial sample selection selection. Th ere are no additional
characteristics of these studied groups, apart from one emphasised variable, important for the researcher (diff erent for every com-parative group). Such a scientific action evokes doubts as to the correctness and le-gality of the conclusions that can be drawn from these empirical work. Th e uncertainty concerning gthe quality of these results can be multiplied by the lack of confi rmation of the reliability of the used research tool, which the author herself notices (p. 187).
It is also diffi cult to recognises the rea-sonableness of all the hypotheses presented by Narkiewicz-Niedbalec. Namely, limiting the process of cognitive socialisation to the ability to recognise connections among events, states of the matter, or specifi c qual-ities, and to use this knowledge in practice, seems to correspond with some of the defi -nitions of intelligence. To illustrate, the defi nition by Spearman provided by the au-thor refers to three cognitive activities: ac-quiring experience, concluding on relations and concluding on inter-dependencies (p. 188), where on the basis of the second activ-ity Raven’s test is constructed, used in the author’s own research. It means that the hy-pothesis suggesting the connection of the level of intelligence with the level of cogni-tive abilities of the surveyed people is tauto-logical in character. Additionally, the collec-tion of hypotheses presented by the author (p. 158) reveals the endeavour to specify the connections between the social-cultural conditions of an individual’s life and the in-dividual’s cognitive abilities, which does not entirely cover the subject of the book. Th e author also neglects in her scope of interest
the assumed goal, the analysis of the quality of teaching cognitive competences (p. 7), since taking into consideration the above hypotheses, it is impossible to draw any conclusion on the effi ciency (or its lack) of deliberate actions that aim at developing cognitive abilities.
Th e last topic introduces us to the third area of discussion over the book Cognitive Socialisation of the Studying Youth. Namely, it refers to the conclusions that can be drawn having read this work. It is necessary to em-phasise the fact that a few salient questions can be formed here from the point of view of Polish educational system. What is the knowledge and skills that Polish school should spread? What is the specifi city of functioning of the educational system to-day? What is the role of a lecturer in today’s society, and how should he or she realise their role? In the head of the reader, a ques-tion could also appear which cannot be found in the book, namely, what is the rela-tion of the researcher’s assumprela-tions on the meaning of logic in the process of expand-ing cognitive competences with the current standards of education on the university level, according to which the Logic subject is included in the programme of second de-gree studies (post-Bachelor dede-gree)?
Unfortunately, the work of Narkiewicz-Niedbalec lacks the answers to the impor-tant questions. Th e author’s own research does not expand the scope of today’s knowl-edge on the problems of socialisation in its cognitive dimension. It is merely another endeavour to empirically verify of the theo-retical assumptions of Bourdieu, Bernstein,
Piaget, Wygotski, Bruner, etc. Despite the fact that most of the hypotheses created by the author have not been confi rmed3, still there are no constructive conclusions that would explain the discrepancies. Th e expla-nations provided by the author are in the form of a short report that presents various types of statistical dependencies among the analysed variables. However, there are no general conclusions that would constitute a signifi cant contribution to the theory of so-cialisation. The chapters “theoretical” in character (149 pp.), which delimit the con-text of the researcher’s considerations, do not serve as an object of confrontation with the accomplished results of the research.
To conclude, it is possible to say that the book by Ewa Narkiewicz-Niedbalec Cogni-tive Socialisation of the Studying Youth can encourage the reader to individual refl ec-tion and further search for the answers to such salient questions referring to the func-tioning of the Polish educational system. Whereas, from the point of view of the de-velopment of Polish education sociology, it might be said that the work is a kind of ef-fort to look for adequacy between the changing reality and the problems that re-main in the circle of interest of this sub-discipline of sociology.
Tomasz Leszniewski
3 I mean the confi rmation of the hypotheses
in all the cognitive competence dimensions ana-lysed in the research.
