Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

This study presents an internationally (cross-border) representative picture of the school environment, atmosphere and action taken by schools aiming at the involvement of students in their actions. The study was conducted within the framework of the CaSYPoT project (Capacity Building for Strategic Youth Policy and Transnational Cooperation) under the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014-2020 (Project No STHB.05.01.00-SE-0024/15). The main aim of the CaSYPot project was to encourage young people to get involved in local democracy, and to present youth as a resource in the development of society. Furthermore, for the design and implementation of the southern Baltic youth strategy, it is important to gain an insight into the current situation regarding the environment in schools. One section of this survey was addressed to the situation of youth in schools. The international survey for the CaSYPoT project was conducted among 1,593 students, in six towns in the southern Baltic region, in Sweden, Poland, Russia and Lithuania, from April to June 2017. The project partner’s towns carried out a survey on teenagers aged 16 to 19, identifying their needs and problems in school, and providing comparable data. The questionnaire contained questions addressing young people’s well-being and atmosphere of safety, the climate at school, and their experience in getting involved in the work of the school and their influence on decision making. To sum up, the study describes the current situation in schools, which is essential for the development and evaluation of future policies and actions. The survey covers a wide range of student opinions on school, and begins with a summary of the key findings drawn from an analysis of the survey, and strategic recommendations for the future.

The German occupation of Ober Ost during the First World War represented an undeniable incentive for further nation and state-building in the occupied lands. Although in the early 20th century education societies had already spread their networks, it was during the years of the German occupation that the centralisation and consolidation of the education network could take place. Regardless of the fact that some ideological divisions between education societies endured, both the limitations imposed by the occupying regime and the existence of a relief committee, the Lithuanian War Relief Committee, with the task to coordinate virtually all Lithuanian activities, functioned as means of rationalising the whole education system. Not only did the Lithuanian War Relief Committee try to overcome ideological divisions in the field of education, but its quasi-state structure also helped to create, finance and effectively direct the whole official network of Lithuanian educational institutions.

This article surveys evidence of Lithuanian social and religious life during the long fifteenth century as revealed by consistory court records from the sees of Płock, Gniezno, Lutsk and Cracow. The dynamics of church court evidence coincide with those of other aspects of Catholic life in the Grand Duchy. Building churches, chantry chapels, funding mansionary priests, selecting particular Masses to be celebrated by your chantry priest (Salve sancta Parens, the Five Wounds of Christ, the Seven Joys of Our Lady), going on pilgrimage, taking part in a procession, venerating the Blessed Sacrament, sending supplications to Rome to obtain permission to own a portable altar or choose a confessor all become much more common in the later decades of the fifteenth century. Cases before the consistory courts in Płock, Gniezno, Vilnius and Lutsk involve a wide social group and deal with a broad range of issues (not just matrimonial disputes or the hiring out of benefices between priests). What we do not find is any obsession with paganism, no use of pagan as an insult, no account of ‘pagan’ practices (or even folk customs, which later become tarred with an ideological brush). Lithuanian dioceses are clearly integrated into the Polish metropolitan sees (Gniezno and also to a lesser degree, Lwów).

This article discussed the effect of the theological thought of Duns Scotus on the outlook and activities of Lithuanian Franciscans. In Franciscan theology the Creation, the Incarnation, and the Resurrection of Our Lord are linked closely together. The idea of the Divine Omnipotence is essential for understanding Godʼs actions. After describing Scotusʼ life we examine his works and insights in theology and philosophy. His teaching was based on the spirit of the Orderʼs founder, St Francis. Scotism found disciples in Lithuania who fostered the Franciscan spirit in the country and sponsored the spread of Scotist heritage there.

Using case studies from Macedonia and Lithuania, the authors develop a three level theory of the formation and dynamics of national identity. Case study material is used to show how first order levels of identity such as common language, religion, ethnicity and history are by themselves unmotivated until they are anthropomorphized as national characteristics and capacities, usually in heroic proportion. This second level order of national identity gives life to national identity but also can emphasize differences between different groups of people; a third epistemological level is often required which, if it is effective is a way of selectively emphasizing similarities and eliding differences across these disparate groups that constitute the nation. This theoretical model integrates “top down” and “bottom up” approaches to understanding the formation of national identity and case studies are used to support and illustrate the theory.