Contemporary Polish and Ukrainian academic youth: a portrait without ornaments : a comparative analysis

Abstract

In the philosophical-pedagogical analysis of the undertaken issues, some theoretical and methodological conceptualizations have been applied that refer to Paweł Boski’s theory of the cultural identity based on values and practices in bi-or multicultural socialization and Harold J. Noah’s model of the comparison of academic education. The assumption was also made that the research into the quality of life of Polish and Ukrainian university students enables one to learn the way(s) in which students understand themselves, the others and the world – the way(s) anchored in their own experience and culture. The undertaken studies also address the important problem of forming students’ identity in the stage of the so called emerging adulthood. It occurs in the countries where a knowledge-based economy dominates and where the intensive changes both decrease the young’s motivation to engage in adult roles and make the young postpone them.