Holistic leisure education through the Czech Rapid Arrows comics

This paper focuses on a topic interconnecting the potential use of comics in education processes. While previous research demonstrates such a link in formal education, from pre-school institutions up to the middle grades, particularly with regard to the development of arts and literacy, the educational impact in informal education has been neglected. The text analyses the main aspects of the content of the comics series on the example of the Czech Rapid Arrows comic and its author Jaroslav Foglar, the values of which are physical activity and health, a romantic landscape and dwelling in nature, the ethical aspects of morality and goodness, selfless work and helping others, a holistic framework of activity, the importance of romance, adventure and challenges. The stories are, therefore, ‘everyday adventures’, inspiring to the reader to experience his own adventures without needing a fantasy stage. The text also points out previous reflections, not only in the dialogue of papers on comics, but also in the fields of literary science, pedagogy and religious studies. Therefore, the article emphasises that comics can be used in informal leisure education, with the holistic development of the entire personality in various aspects of human existence. © 2020, © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Spiritual literacy: non-religious reconceptualisation for education in a secular environment

This article aims to facilitate the transition from a religious definition of spiritual literacy to a non-religious, secular one. Philosophical anthropology emphasises the spiritual dimension as an anthropological constant. However, research in various fields frequently considers its intersection with religiousness. Non-religious spirituality cultivates experiences of transcendence but does not enter into the processes of hierophany (the sacred, the holy). The term ‘spiritual literacy’, which emphasises that the given mode of human experience is not constant but can be intentionally cultivated, proves optimal for education even in secular environment of public schools. A spiritually literate (cultivated) personality is an individual who reflects and cultivates skills of self-reflection, who can act in relation to other people in a mode characterised by prosocial orientation and altruism, who can experience environmental sensitivity and kinship with nature, and who is capable of astonishment and amazement at experiencing transcendence in relation to the wholeness. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Czech primary school teachers' experience with the Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach

The study presents the basic features of the Philosophy for Children (P4C) pedagogical approach and asks about the experiences of Czech primary school teachers in using it. The empirical investigation of qualitative design is based on interviews (n = 4) and their analysis using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method. The results point to the benefits of incorporating P4C into the primary school curriculum, especially in the development of children's thinking, communication and social skills, in the transformation of the teacher's role into a facilitator and in the deepening of teacher-student relationships into a partnership

The phenomenon of the teaching profession in kindergarten in the visual representations of (studying) teachers

A deeper understanding of the kindergarten teacher's profession allows for the use of visual methodology and symbol analysis of visual representations in pedagogical research. The study seeks to gain a deeper understanding of verbally difficult to convey meanings through quantification of thematic motifs of drawings by student kindergarten teachers (n = 76) and a detailed qualitative analysis of selected images of 5 of them, based on a team-based free association method and subsequent symbolic interpretation of the images. In the results of the quantitative analysis, the kindergarten teacher's profession is based on the visualization of the relationships and interaction between adults (usually women) and children, most often in free play or learning, with the support of a set agenda and against the background of a positively attuned situation. However, the interpretation of the expressive symbolism of the 5 drawings also offers previously unnoticed contradictions that disrupt this schema. In them, other aspects of the profession emerge, such as overload, elements of unreasonable attachment, dependence or the sad transience of all their efforts and activities, resonating also the weakening of the profession's importance at the expense of external pressures. © 2021 Charles University in Prague - Karolinum Press. All rights reserved

Informal education for boys only? The theme of gender in the work of Jaroslav Foglar

The paper deals with the work of the Czech children's author Jaroslav Foglar from a gender perspective, reflecting on two themes in particular: the absence of heroines; and his understanding of boys' reciprocity and friendship with the adoration of physicality. The impetus for this analysis was data from a questionnaire survey, the aim of which was to determine which aspects of Jaroslav Foglar's work are most appreciated by readers and which they think apply to real life. The quantitative analysis of the data (n=1174) did not reveal any statistically significant differences in the men's and women's responses; however, the qualitative analysis of the open - ended statements is illustrative of the underrepresentation of girls among literary heroes. The diverse ways in which Foglar's work captures friendships between boys allow even today's readers to expand their perceptions of masculinity beyond traditionally defined boundaries

Readjusting Our Sporting Sites/Sight: Sportification and the Theatricality of Social Life

This paper points out the potential of using sport for the analysis of society. Cultivated human movement is a specific social and cultural subsystem (involving sport, movement culture and physical culture), yet it becomes a part of wider social discourses by extending some of its characteristics into various other spheres. This process, theorised as sportification, provides as useful concept to examine the permeation of certain phenomena from the area of sport into the social reality outside of sport. In this paper, we investigate the phenomena of sportification which we parallel with visual culture and spectatorship practices in the Renaissance era. The emphasis in our investigation is on theatricality and performativity; particularly, the superficial spectator engagement with modern sport and sporting spectacles. Unlike the significance afforded to visualisation and deeper symbolic interpretation in Renaissance art, contemporary cultural shifts have changed and challenged the ways in which the active and interacting body is positioned, politicised, symbolised and ultimately understood. We suggest here that the ways in which we view sport and sporting bodies within a (post)modern context (particularly with the confounding amalgamations of signs and symbols and emphasis on hyper-realities) has invariably become detached from sports' profound metaphysical meanings and resonance. Subsequently, by emphasising the associations between social theatrics and the sporting complex, this paper aims to remind readers of ways that sport—as a nuanced phenomenon—can be operationalised to help us to contemplate questions about nature, society, ourselves and the complex worlds in which we live