On the occasion of the centenary of the Academy of Special Education in Warsaw, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland established 2022 as the Year of Maria Grzegorzewska. She pioneered systematic research on pedagogy directed at the disabled and established its grounds. Believing a human being to be a psycho-physical unity, she put forward a claim for a global approach towards any aberration from the norm. She is the patron of Maria Grzegorzewska University which invites to the International Conference of the PERSON series on December 15. It commemorates the 100th anniversary of the University.
Maria Grzegorzewska developed the aspect of compensation in the revalidation of the disabled (the dynamic structural system theory). Her deeper interest lay with pedagogy and psychology of the Blind and Visually Impaired as well as with deafblind people. The results of her activity encouraged some of the first attempts at creating a complete outline of the theory and practice of working with disabled people.
She was the founder and a longtime director of the oldest university of the pedagogical profile in Poland – the Academy of Special Education. She initiated the development of a network of special schools, developed an original concept of teacher education, and created a Polish school of special education.
The conference is a reference to the scientific meetings inaugurated in 2003, which the Council of the European Union designated as the European Year of People with Disabilities. At that time, the Academy in Warsaw started the organization of international conferences in the PERSON cycle. In 2022, the Academy of Special Education in Warsaw outlined three areas of the conference: acceptance, participation, and social solidarity.
Acceptance – the identity of the Another, quality of life, triggering potential, autonomy
Participation – normalization, inclusion, cooperation, self-actualization
Social Solidarity – human rights, responsibility, safety, social belonging
We sincerely invite the representatives of various academic disciplines and practitioners to participate in the Conference. These individuals, by means of created concepts, research and direct professional and social involvement, participate in implementing the humanistic ideas that proclaim that differences give meaning to being together. They also reinforce the endeavors expressed in concern for sustainable development, in which social inclusion is a unique link in achieving the well-being of specific people and entire societies. Ultimately, they lead to reduce social inequality and build a just, inclusive society.
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