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perspectives (Rudnicki, 2016, p. 51). Z. Kwieciński (2012, p. 9) devoted a lot of space and attention to the definition and categorisation of the concept of alternative (Polish: odlotowe) pedagogies. He presents pedagogy as "area of thinking about upbringing and educational practice". The content and scope of pedagogy are both metatheoretical and self-critical reflection on education, or research into the conditions, processes, activities, and effects of education, as well as all educational practices and at the level of the educational system in school and outside professional education and school. He also notes (2011, p. 20) that "pedagogy is a relatively coherent and permanent set of educational practices that are reconstructable by reflective practitioners, participants in these practices, willing to talk and write about them, to formulate algorithms of these permanent behaviours and minor innovations in them, not affecting their essence". Pedagogy, as it were, naturally links practical activities with theoretical aspects of a science of pedagogy and plays an important role in shaping and developing pedagogical theory (Przyborowska, 2012, p. 13).
3.2.2 Distinguishing between conceptual categories – the European tradition
In the European tradition, a science of pedagogy (theory of education) (Polish: pedagogika) is distinguished from didactics (theory of teaching). Didactics is defined as the theory of teaching and learning (Heilpern, 1919, p. 3). B. Nawroczynski (1930) sees didactics as a theory of educative teaching. In this perspective, didactics includes not so much the transfer of knowledge and skills, but education and upbringing, because teaching can contribute to the formation of moral characters and personality. According to W. Okoń (1987), didactics is the science of education, its aims and methods, means and organisation, regardless of whether it takes place at school or outside. Cognition also includes self- education. The main aim of a science of pedagogy, however, is the search for relations conditioning didactic activity. W. Okoń divided didactics into general and detailed – general didactics studies the basic problems, and detailed didactics, also called subject didactics, studies issues specific to a particular type of teaching, to a selected subject of teaching84. Okoń thus established the superiority and inferiority of object-oriented didactics to general didactics in Poland, and consequently, object- oriented didactics is treated as methods of teaching (Polish: metodyka) school subjects, which diminishes its importance and reduce sits status in all areas, disciplines, and scientific fields (Śliwerski, 2017)85. The same mechanism has affected language education in Poland, which has been reduced to subject didactics and methods, instrumental language education. This problem is visible, for example, in the works of K. Denk (2009) and S. Palka (2011) and the attempt to reconstruct didactics, or perhaps a certain fusion with a science of pedagogy. Learning and education should develop and function together, creating intentional conditions for learning (Klus-Stańska, 2018, p. 21).
Nevertheless, a gap between educational theory and practice has long been evident, including in language education. J. Kowalikowa (2006, pp. 149–150) sees the reason for this state of affairs in a phenomenon she calls "the failure of education to keep up with science". She claims that the theoretical anchoring of the practice of language education should be modified and enriched depending on the state of research, and in order to bring linguistics and school language education closer together, theoretical pluralism, compromise and agreement to eclecticism are needed (Kowalikowa, 2006, pp. 151–152). Thus, in the case of building didactic knowledge, one should aim at both scientific usefulness and practical usefulness, serving to improve the practice of the didactic
84 Okoń, 2004. 85Śliwerski, 2017.
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