Institute of Education
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Gdańsk
Bażyńskiego 4
80-309 Gdańsk POLAND
- Head of the Division of Social Pedagogy at Institute of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Gdansk
- Chair of the Section of Social Work at the Programme/Curricula Board of the Institute of Education, UG
- Chair of the European Research Network About Parents in Education (ERNAPE)
She is involved in the European Research Network About Parents in Education (ERNAPE), working as its Chair (2003-2005, 2019-2021) and member of the Steering Committee since 1999. She is editor of The Gdansk Yearbook, published by The Gdansk Scientific Society since 1927, consulting editor of the European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults (RELA), and member of editorial boards of the International Journal About Parents in Education (IJPE), Papers on Social Pedagogy, Pedagogika Spoleczna/Social Pedagogy, Praca Socjalna/Social Work; member of Editorial Advisory Board of the Bloomsburry Critical Education Series, and of the Contemporary Educational Leadership journal. She has held visiting research scholarship at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, US, and several short visiting professorships in Sweden, Portugal, and Germany. She also worked for international exchange, co-organizing co-operation in higher education and teaching at many ERASMUS, ERASMUS+ projects (e.g.: “Education for Change” focused on sustainable development, “Good ID” about multicultural parental involvement, “EDUPRO” on recognition of prior learning at the universities) and the Summer Schools, such as the Baltic Summer Schools (2017-2018) or the International On-line Summer School on Human Services in the time of pandemic (2020).
Mendel’s work focuses on social pedagogy and sociology of education, particularly on the relations between subjectivity, memory and space, which is important in light of the current fractures between subjective lives and political space. One way of addressing this relation is by investigating cities, schools and universities as places. She has conducted research on place-conscious educa¬tion and citizenships, memory-place and identity, adult education and lifelong learning, and parental engagement in schools. Her publication record comprises over 300 writings, including 34 authored, co-authored and edited books. Maria Mendel participated in many research pro¬jects conducted on national and international level; she was the lead applicant in some of them and co-applicant in others. In 2015, her project City as a Shared Room: Urban modi co-vivendi obtained The Best Research Project Award from The Gdansk Friends of Art Society (est.1922), and in 2018 she was awarded the Animator of Everyday Solidarity prize by the Institute of Helena Radlinska and the European Solidarity Centre, Poland, for action research on democratic spaces and civic education. For her contribution for improvement of Polish education and Higher Education she was awarded the Medal of Commission of National Education (2000), Rector of the University of Gdansk’s Awards (2001, 2008-2012, 2018).
- Social Pedagogy
- Sociology of Education
- Pedagogy of Place
- Democracy, Citizenship and Education
- Parents and Education
- Place, Memory and Collective Identity
- Spatial Democracy and Spatial Ways Citizenship Works
- Social justice from spatial and educational perspective
- Educational hauntology
- Urban studies (educational, pedagogy of place perspective)
Mendel M. (2020): Education is Power and Parents are Force. Foreword. International Journal about Parents in Education, Vol. 12, No. 1, I-VII. http://www.ernape.net/ejournal/index.php/IJPE/article/view/367/275
Maria Mendel (2019). Radically engaged social pedagogy. On the currency of the work of Teodora and Izydor Gulgowski. Pedagogika Społeczna / Social Pedagogy, Vol. 73, Issue 3, 2019. http://pedagogikaspoleczna.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/PS32019-35-46.pdf
Mendel M. (2019): The spatial ways democracy works: On the pedagogy of common places. Why, why now? Research in Education, Vol.103, Issue 1, 2019. To link to this article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0034523719839743
Mendel M. (2019): Socialized school: between de-socialization and re-socialization Perspective of the pedagogy of the common place, Social Pedagogy, vol. 1 (71): 29-46 http://pedagogikaspoleczna.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/PS12019-29-46.pdf
67-80.
Mendel M.(2018): Parental identity, governmentality and retroactive empowerment: towards a democratic school space, International Journal about Parents in Education, Vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 103-110. http://www.ernape.net/ejournal/index.php/IJPE/article/view/348
Mendel M. (2016): Parental Identity, Lifelong Learning and School, Malta Review of Educational Research, Vol. 10 no. 1, pp. 145-168 (http://www.mreronline.org/issues/issue-1-june-2016 )
Mendel M., Theiss W. (2016): Memory and place in potential: on the complete city, Social Pedagogy, vol. 1(59): 53-66 http://pedagogikaspoleczna.com/wp-content/content/abstrakt/SP%201%20(2016)%2053-66.pdf
Mendel M. (Ed.) (2019): Parent Engagement as Power: Selected Writings. Gdansk: University of Gdansk Press & Wolters Kluwer
Mendel M., Theiss W. (Eds.) (2019): Pamiec i miejsce. Perspektywa spoleczno-edukacyjna [Memory and Place: The Socio-educational perspective], Gdansk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego
Balcewicz J., Mendel M. (Eds.) (2018): Miasto (dla) sztuki, sztuka (dla) miasta [City (for) art, city (for) city], Gdansk: University of Gdansk Press
Mendel M. (2017): Pedagogika miejsca wspolnego. Miasto i szkola [Pedagogy of Common Places: the City and the School], Gdansk: KATEDRA
Mendel M. (with Boryczko M., Frysztacki K., Kotlarska-Michalska A.) (2016): Solidarnie przeciw biedzie. Socjologiczno-pedagogiczny przyczynek do nowych rozwiązań starego problemu [Solidarity against poverty. A sociological and pedagogical contribution to new solutions to the old problem], Gdansk: Europejskie Centrum Solidarności (European Solidarity Centre) https://www.ecs.gda.pl/library/File/nauka/do_pobrania/ECS_Solidarnie_przeciw_biedzie.pdf
Other publications: https://scholar.google.pl/citations?user=1PeHYNwAAAAJ&hl=pl&oi=ao