How does student life impact the making and unmaking of democratic societies?

Published by BERA, the ‘Rehearsals for democracy’ report explores the social and political dimensions of university student life in Central and Eastern Europe from 1919 to 1923, the aftermath of the First World War. 

It delves into the ways universities act as arenas for broader social, cultural and ideological tensions to play out, existing as spaces for young adults to engage in debate and encounter different views. 

Building off previous research on student activism in Britain, it looks at how changes in the national and international political climate post-WWI affected student life and its potential role in fostering – or hindering – the development of a democratic culture. 

The project was supported by a Brian Simon fellowship grant from the British Educational Research Association (BERA), which supports research on education and democracy, and the history of education. 

The report focuses on a case study of interwar Poland – which saw the creation of the Second Polish Republic in the aftermath of the dissolution of empires. Legacies of the First World War complicated its memorialisation as Polish students fought in different armies.  

The report highlights the intense antagonisms that shaped Polish student activism in the interwar years, where significant parts of the student body promoted anti-democratic ideas and sought to exclude fellow students on the grounds of culture, ethnicity or ‘race’. 

Some student organisations came to be dominated by an aggressive ethnic nationalism, though competing ideologies within the student body manifested itself in a diverse student press – reflecting the country’s own political polarisation. 

However, there were challenges to coexistence, particularly for national minorities. Violence and antisemitism against Jewish students rose, including institutional segregation from the mid-1930s onwards. This educational discrimination also extended to Ukrainian students. 

The Polish case study illuminates the polarisation of the higher education student body in the interwar years, thereby challenging the widely held perception of student activism as a predominantly ‘progressive’ movement. 

Future research will aim to investigate similar case studies of student movements and its impact on democracy for comparison.

Links

• Read the report: Rehearsals for democracy
• More about Generation UCL: 200 Years of Student Life in London
• Professor Georgina Brewis’ UCL profile
• Dr Daniel Laqua’s BERA profile
• Department of Education, Practice and Society

Image

Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (National Digital Archives Poland) via Wikimedia Commons.