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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB) has been organising its Erasmus
Week since 2004. It is held yearly in May, normally during the second week of
May. The Erasmus week’s main purposes are three-fold. First, the IPB aims at
enforcing closer, more dynamic and more efficient institutional relations amongst
the European Higher Education Institutions. Lectures are then organised and
introduced in both undergraduate and master classes in accordance with the area
of interest. Meetings with directors of the 5 IPB schools and Erasmus coordinators
are also scheduled. The second and third goals, which naturally derive from
the first, are to facilitate familiarity with the IPB campus, its schools and with the
cities of Bragança and Mirandela, where the IPB schools are settled, and with the
surrounding area, namely the Montesinho Natural Park and the Alto Douro Wine
Region (UNESCO World Heritage). This information can be found on the IPB International
Relations Office website. Overall, all these three goals lie behind what is
considered an umbrella goal which is to promote the IPB in its numerous valences
and strengthen the mobility ties with the different European Higher Institutions
which have established cooperation agreements with the IPB. This has revealed
fruitful and far-reaching as more than 20 partner countries visit us every year. If
one takes into account the two last editions’ numbers, Poland is the country with a
higher percentage of participants (37.1% and 29%), followed by Spain (11.4% and
15.9%), France, Romania and Czech Republic1. Regarding the lectures delivered during this week, teachers show a high level of
satisfaction and find it rather rewarding according to the evaluation results obtained
every year. One of the most visible results of these lectures is the publication of
Teaching Crossroads. It started being published aiming ultimately at the dissemination
of the research work that was presented at the IPB. We then extended it to
all activities related to Teachers Erasmus+ mobility and international projects. The
idea was not only to disseminate studies from other European researchers but also
to give to the IPB teaching staff the opportunity to publish their research work and
what they presented during their mobility. So far, the adhesion to this project has
been rather steady and compliant with the publication’s main goal.
In hindsight, this project, which started in 2011, continues to persevere in its
academic path, making thus available to students and teachers the most valuable
research studies and relevant data in regard to a myriad of study areas which
underlie the spirit of Higher Education, multifaceted, multilayered and plural. In
Higher Education we hope never to be at a crossroads, but we dare to constantly
thrive when faced with obstacles and embrace the challenges of knowledge. All
areas of study are important and meaningful and must be continually promoted.
This has been the leading motto of Teaching Crossroads since its very beginning.
This would have never been possible without the valuable help of regular
contributors to whom we are very grateful, from the authors, the reviewers, the
designer to the IPB Image Services. A thanking note must also go to the IPB which
has embraced this project by agreeing to publish it.
As a result of the close cooperation work with the researchers who submitted their
proposals to blind review, we selected five texts from diverse areas but nonetheless
complementary. As such, this year, areas of study vary from comparative literature,
education, social education and sociology, finance to business and entrepreneurship.
A brief summary of each is presented next. María Antonia Mezquita Fernández, whose research has been focusing on
the modern subject of ecocriticism bearing in mind the new approach to the close
relationship between environmental issues and literature, a concern that always
permeated literature, discusses the ecocritical identity in the light of literary figures
and their poetical messages regarding nature. By highlighting and comparing
two British poets, William Wordsworth and Dylan Thomas, and a Spanish poet,
Claudio Rodríguez, the author introduces an ecocritical stance to the analysis of
the poems under discussion. Sharing the common ground of nature, the poems
are worth reading due to the powerful messages they convey, not only bearing in
mind the period when they were written but because the topics explored resonate
with the environmental defenders’ main principles. What the author brings to the
fore of discussion is a thought-provocative, challenging and relevant essay which
found in literature its main driving force to call the attention to the importance of the defence of nature in a time where environmental issues, such as global warming
and the melting of glaciers, are at the centre of the world’s political agenda, despite
the constant scepticism that still persists to endure.
Beata Sufa & Anna Szkolak-Stępień delve into the idea of creativity fostered
within the teaching context, by both teachers and students. In their article entitled
“Creative Teacher-Creative Pupil – a Study Report”, the authors argue that, having
in mind all the technological advances and (advanced) use of learning technology,
the new conditions of school and learning context require new challenges to the
way the teaching-learning process is dealt with. The teacher’s creative attitude will
thus become paramount for children’s development of creativity which will help
them to improve communication skills.
Kazimiera Król studies the phenomenon of begging in Poland, analyzing the
spatial and social framework of such reality which results from many factors and
underlies consequences to the places chosen for begging and to the beggars themselves.
The author puts forth an empirical study bearing in mind the age, gender,
civil status and nationality of mendicants, presenting thus in-depth data which allow
her to reach interesting and relevant conclusions regarding the whole phenomenon
of begging in nowadays Poland.
Eliza Komierzyńska-Orlińska sheds some light on a common unknown part of
the financial system to the majority of people, which is the security of the banking
system. When one deposits or withdraws money one is never aware of (or simply
does not care about) how our money is held safe or how the banks protect their
assets. The article “Security of the Banking System in Poland. Fundamental Assumptions”
deals precisely with security issues within the Polish banking system
highlighting the crucial role of the central bank in the whole process of surveillance
and regulation. Legal issues are therefore discussed. By using simple and straightforward
language, the author is able to reach a non-specialist audience who will
become more informed about this issue in a rather clear way.
Erik Kubička focuses on organizational culture explaining how well-succeeded,
renowned, top companies in the technology sector foster effectiveness in the work
environment. In this regard, the author describes several technological companies,
such as Google, Apple and IBM, just to name a few. Innovation, informal leadership,
less red tape and closer contact with the workers are features that are common to
all these companies which represent the key to their success.
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Citation
Silva, Elisabete; Pais, Clarisse; Pais, L.S. Eds. (2018). Teaching Crossroads: 13th and 14th IPB Erasmus Weeks. Bragança: Instituto Politécnico. ISBN 978-972-745-254-5