Polska mniejszość narodowa a prehistoria nauczania języków i kultur rodzimych we Francji (1919–1939)

Abstract

In 1919, France and Poland signed a Convention on emigration/immigration in order toexpedite the sending of Polish workers to France. No clause in this document providedfor the schooling of Polish children. French employers and Polish workers then set upa Polish-speaking education programme.With a view to possible and soon returning to their homeland, maintaining Polishidentity was necessary for people and entailed learning not only their native language,but also all about Poland’s history and geography. Faced with the creation of these “Polishclasses”, several government circulars were published in the 1920s to regulate theseteachings and authorise foreign instructors, thus infringing the principle of non-differentiationof children educated under the French Republican school system. When studyingthis issue of Polish lessons taught in France between 1919 and 1939, it is interestingto see how the Polish minority held a vital (and enduring) role in the establishmentof the Native Languages and Cultures education programme in France (the ELCO, stillcurrently at the heart of a debate).