The diagnoses and empirical analyses described in the article were linked by a common research problem expressed in the question about the experiences of academic entities in the field of remote education in the situation of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. The international research reported in the text, however, was conducted in an extra-coordinated situation (to a large extent during the lockdown period), applying two methodological approaches in complementary quantitative and qualitative procedures. Elements of a diagnostic survey (in Polish studies) and an analysis of the content of documents (in Italian studies) were used. The application of the indicated procedures allowed to obtain a complementary image of the experiences of higher education entities in the research situation outlined. The empirical analyses presented in the text allow for the formulation of certain common conclusions resulting from the reported international research. The international and global experience is a novelty of the epidemic situation in which remote education was implemented. The necessity arose to focus on the new conditions of relations between entities in academic education, which differ from traditional direct contact, as already indicated to us by Socrates and Plato. The lockdown changed these relationships. The everyday life of universities has been disrupted, which requires new solutions for the organisation of the educational process.

The narrative of this text focuses on the description of impressions, experiences and reflections coming from reading the book Czuły narrator by Olga Tokarczuk. This book is not an ordinary literary text, it is a specific record of the writer’s artistic credo, and at the same time a manifesto proclaiming certain necessary and revolutionary ideas, prompting not only to reflect more deeply on the fate of man and the world, but also to provoke actions to make them come true. Hence, the text does not take the form of a classic review but is rather a story about a meeting of a sensitive recipient with a sensitive narrative led by the author of the book. In the description of the report from this meeting, the topics that are closest to me (selected and the most important) were taken up, which still resonate with me as a committed reader.

Contemporary youth is growing up in a reality shaped by noise, excess, and acceleration – both technologically and culturally. This noise is not confined to the acoustic dimension; it encompasses informational, emotional, and social overload that leads to disorientation, fatigue, and a diminished capacity for reflection and mindfulness. Drawing on Byung-Chul Han’s (2022) conceptual framework, this article explores the conditions of youth within the paradigms of the society of exposure, control, dopamine, and intimacy – contexts in which young people are subjected to constant pressure to remain visible, reactive, and permanently present. Particular emphasis is placed on analyzing noise as a phenomenon that transcends sound, manifesting also as informational, emotional, and existential disturbance. Such pervasive noise destabilizes identity development and weakens the ability to engage in self-reflection. In this context, silence is proposed as both a pedagogical and existential alternative – a space that not only offers respite from overstimulation but also enables profound experiences of presence, relationality, and meaning. The text presents silence as a developmental resource that can serve regulatory, supportive, and transformative functions – psychologically as well as educationally. Drawing on contemporary pedagogical theories and a psychosocial-cultural framework, the article highlights silence’s potential in cultivating resilience, grounded subjectivity, and emotional robustness. Silence is depicted as a space for pause, internal organization, and contact with personal experience – thereby supporting the development of reflectivity, agency, and emotional competence. Practices of silence are described as a tool for educational mental health prevention, not only at the individual level but also within communal dimensions. From a pedagogical standpoint, silence is not a lack of action but rather an intentional educational environment which – within a world of incessant noise, excess, and digital stimulation – facilitates cognitive, emotional, and existential processes. It enables deeper learning, the development of self-awareness, and the creation of spaces for encountering the Other without the violence of words or the pressure of constant communication. The article advocates for recognizing silence as an integral element of educational practice, particularly within the context of youth mental health promotion. It argues for the implementation of silence not only as a concrete pedagogical strategy but also as a shift in educational paradigm – towards greater attentiveness, presence, and humanistic care.

For decades, critics of higher education have been asserting that competencies students can demonstrate upon course completion are much better predictors of what students know and can do than time spent in courses or grades. However, assessment of student learning has not been adopted by faculty and their leaders, and the effort is normally addressed as a bureaucratic demand. The objective was to identify topics that could help shape the discourse regarding the assessment of student learning. The study revealed that the universities in Poland are ready to ensure graduating students competencies demanded by the contemporary world.

For decades, critics of higher education have been asserting that competencies students can demonstrate upon course completion are much better predictors of what students know and can do than time spent in courses or grades. However, assessment of student learning has not been adopted by faculty and their leaders, and the effort is normally addressed as a bureaucratic demand. The objective was to identify topics that could help shape the discourse regarding the assessment of student learning. The study revealed that the universities in Poland are ready to ensure graduating students competencies demanded by the contemporary world.

Street art increasingly reshapes aesthetic hierarchies by introducing previously marginalised media into the public sphere. A compelling example is the artistic practice of the Polish artist NeSpoon (Elżbieta Dymna), whose work merges the visual language of traditional lace with the communicative strategies of contemporary urban art. Active since the late 2000s, NeSpoon combines stencils, ceramic lace imprints, and large-scale murals to translate the intimacy of handcraft into the visibility of public space. Her works function as both aesthetic interventions and acts of civic pedagogy. This study employs a qualitative visual research design combining multi-site digital inquiry, iconological and semiotic analysis, and mini focus group (N = 22). Three purposefully selected cases: Łódź, Belorado, and Fundão, were examined to capture the site-specific and cultural variability of lace murals across Europe. The analysis demonstrates that lace functions as an agent of cultural negotiation and a medium of heritage literacy, understood here as embodied and place-based learning. In Łódź, it monumentalises textile memory and women’s labour embedded in the city’s industrial palimpsest. In Belorado, micro-scale responsiveness operates, strengthening the local semiosphere. In Fundão, lace enters an intermedial dialogue with azulejos, negotiating the boundary between craft and art while expanding local visual grammars. The study introduces the conceptualisation of the monumentalisation of intimacy in public art and frames heritage literacy as an embodied, dialogic, and community-oriented educational practice. Its implications extend to feminist art history, place-based pedagogy, urban cultural policy, and the preventive conservation of murals. The research elucidates how domestic craft once confined to the private interior operates in public space as a medium of memory, care, and inclusive aesthetics.