Intercultural education as mediation between "domestic" and "foreign" Poles. Shaping the discursive image of Poles from the Czech Part of Cieszyn Silesia
Intercultural education as mediation between "domestic" and "foreign" Poles. Shaping the discursive image of Poles from the Czech Part of Cieszyn Silesia

Summary/Abstract: This article addresses the discursive construction of the Polish minority in the Czech part of Cieszyn Silesia within contemporary Polish media texts. Adopting a perspective of intercultural education, it is an attempt to answer the question how language and media shape the cognitive and emotional frameworks through which the Polish public perceives their "foreign" compatriots in the Czech borderland. Drawing on concepts such as connotation and habitus, the article demonstrates that seemingly neutral designations - such as "Zaolzie" or "Cieszyn Silesia" - carry associative images that influence how the Polish minority in the Czech Republic is perceived in contemporary Poland. Through an analysis of corpus data, the article shows that the term "Zaolzie" is either unfamiliar to the average Polish reader or associated with the fraught legacy of past border conflicts between Poland and Czechoslovakia. These historical connotations tend to obscure the reality of today's Polish minority in the Czech Republic, rendering it either invisible or ideologically burdened. In contrast, the term "the Czech part of Cieszyn Silesia" - though less widely used - avoids these associations and opens up interpretive space for more accurate and future-oriented representations. The article argues that replacing "Zaolzie" with "the Czech part of Cieszyn Silesia" in Polish public discourse offers several advantages. It restores the awareness that the region extends beyond Poland's borders, reinforces a shared historical and cultural identity among Poles on both sides of the border, and dissociates the minority's image from associations of loss or shame. This linguistic shift can support intercultural narratives that emphasize common cultural heritage. Finally, the article presents intercultural education as a pedagogical tool that ultimately serves to shape public discourse. It can function as a form of mediation between "domestic" and "foreign" Poles, fostering greater inclusivity and the symbolic visibility of Poles living on the Czech side of the border.

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