Learning and Democracy in the Workplace

Abstract

The general aim of the paper is to reflect on the relation between the neoliberal educational environment in workplaces and the possibilities to learn to act in accordance with democratic principles in this environment. Institutions or enterprises are always organized in a concrete, prevailing model, which forms the context of learning. Neoliberalism as the global and dominant ideology is present in many areas of human life. It is most deeply embedded and most strongly legitimised in the workplace, where it “serves” companies’ owners rather than the employees. Because of the design of today’s workplaces, which frequently benefits the protection or further expansion of the neoliberal doctrine, employees usually suffer from this ideology. This type of educational environment can hinder the learning of democratic attitudes. On the other hand, the social enterprise becomes the most popular example of a totally different practice compared to that encountered in traditional enterprises. Social enterprise demands acting according to democratic principles, pursuing social objectives rather than neoliberal, economic goals. It could have a positive influence on the environment for the learning of public spirit and encourage engaging in the community of practice inside the organisation. Unfortunately, social responsibility value is seen merely as a form of improving public relations between the society and the organisation in most of the companies that practice Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). At the same time, it is only a part of the market’s promotion. Nonetheless, any kind of learning takes place in social conditions. This means that we also should take into account the internal conditions of the working environment and quality of social life in organisation, which have a huge impact on the whole process of learning. The author asks at the end of the paper, how these new conditions in companies, in the context of their extensive dominant ‘culture of profit’, can support learning of active citizenship that is supposed to begin the changes in culture of organisations in this way.

English translation: Anna Moroz-Darska

Modernisation of the journal's operations and translation into the English language of articles published in Ars Educandi in 2012-2017 were financed with funds from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education as a part of the task Science Promotion Activity (pl. DUN).

The task ‘The implementation of the editorial module on the platform of Uniwersyteckie Czasopisma Naukowe – a system facilitating the editing and management of the academic journal Ars Educandi‘ was financed as a part of contract 661/P-DUN/2018 of 12.06.2018 from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for the promotion of science.

The task ‘The creation of a modern online version of the academic journal Ars Educandi through the implementation of the publication module on the platform of Uniwersyteckie Czasopisma Naukowe and the handling of international indexing databases’ was financed as a part of contract 661/P-DUN/2018 of 12.06.2018 from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for the promotion of science.

The task ‘Preparation of the English language version of the last 6 annual issues (2012-2017) of the academic journal Ars Educandi and their publication online’ was financed as a part of contract 661/P-DUN/2018 of 12.06.2018 from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for the promotion of science.