Edukácia, roč. 6, č. 2/2023

E-book

Marián Bednár

The scientific monograph The Value of Human Life in the Connotations of Postmodernism presents a current issue of reflections on the value of human life. It sees in the broader connotations of postmodern society, where the approaches of applied ethics (bioethics), philosophy and Christian theology intersect. This issue is embedded in the historical, philosophical, sociological and cultural-social Postmodernism.

The monograph analyses the postmodern value system, the dominant postmodern anthropological concept, secular bioethics and civil law in relation to human life and its value. The key is the confrontation of the postmodern anti-life mentality and life in the most discussed bioethical issues: contraception, artificial insemination techniques, genetic manipulation, abortion, sterilization, (bio) technology, euthanasia. An alternative approach is offered by the theological vision of human and life presented in the Judeo-Christian context. In the light of modern theological disciplines, the personnel concept is enriched by theological anthropology culminating in an eschatological vision.

In this sense, the issue of the value of human life culminates, which is also inspired by one of the most important encyclicals of Pope John Paul II. Evangelium vitae (25th anniversary of its writing). It is she who calls for the acceptance and respect of every human life and for the practical development of a new culture of life.

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E-publication

Lucia Tóthová

The monograph offers a comprehensive perspective on the theoretical, methodological, and empirical dimensions of participatory visual research within the field of social work. It is grounded in the understanding that social work plays a crucial role in amplifying the voices of vulnerable groups and promoting social justice, with particular attention paid to persons with disabilities who frequently encounter limited opportunities for participation as well as persistent social, communicative, and environmental barriers. The author analyses the concept of participation in alignment with the principle of “Nothing about us without us” and presents the PhotoVoice method as an interdisciplinary tool that integrates participatory action research, critical pedagogy, feminist epistemologies, and documentary photography. The method is understood not only as a research technique but also as a form of visual advocacy, enabling participants to articulate their experiences, needs, and perspectives in ways accessible to both professional audiences and the wider public. The monograph reflects on the development of PhotoVoice in international scholarship and highlights its potential to transcend traditional academic boundaries toward participatory and transformative practice in social work. The empirical section comprises three projects conducted by the author in the Slovak context, focusing on diverse groups of persons with disabilities and their families, who face specific social needs and everyday barriers. The findings demonstrate the potential of PhotoVoice to strengthen participation through accessible and meaningful visual tools. The monograph also addresses methodological, ethical, and terminological considerations and adopts an inclusive understanding of disability consistent with contemporary approaches in social work.

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E-book

Dana Kušnírová - Peter Pavonič

Collection of Contributions from the Scientific Conference. Košice, November 18-19, 2020

The collection titled Borders in Space and Time consists of twelve contributions presented at the tenth edition of the doctoral conference Meeting of Young Historians, which is organized annually by the Department of History at the Faculty of Arts, UPJŠ in Košice. In 2020, we commemorated the centenary of the signing of the Trianon Peace Treaty, which definitively established the borders of Hungary, including those with Czechoslovakia, after World War I; therefore, the theme of the conference was chosen to be the history of borders. The individual contributions focus on the development of borders in the 20th century, borders in thought and education, and borders in earlier historical periods.

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E-book

Vladimír Lichner - Dušan Šlosár

The scientific monograph focuses on the issue of adolescent risk behaviors on the internet in the form of its problematic use in the context of valid theories and practices of a social work. Text of the monograph is divided into four parts.

The first part focuses on the multidisciplinary definition of a risk behavior on the internet. It offers an up-to-date literary overview of the issue through the latest, especially foreign, theoretical knowledge.

The second part focuses on the problematic use of the internet in contexts of valid origins of the social work. The third part focuses on the presentation of the most important psychosocial factors correlating with the problematic internet use in the adolescent´s group. The theoretical knowledge is supplemented by the authors research into the present factors.

The final part is application-oriented and focuses on the possibilities that the social work offers at the praxis level to prevent and solve the presented problems.

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E-book

Peter Borza

Eastern Christianity, represented in Slovakia by the Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches, has influenced the development of Slovak society over the centuries. Both the common history and the coexistence of the two churches in one geographical area have brought diverse experiences that both churches keep in mind.

The university textbook, which deals with their history, contains basic materials for study and focuses on important milestones in their history. It contains general information about the origin of Eastern Christianity and presents in chronological order knowledge of the history of the churches that represent it in Slovakia from the 9th to the 21st century.

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E-publication

Štefan Jusko

This monograph aims at following the study of P. S. Loeb in which he presented a significant turning point in the issue of the interpretation of Nietzsche's idea of the eternal return of the same. What was that reversal? Despite prominent scholars of Nietzsche's philosophy of the 20th century who rejected the idea of eternal return because of its logical incoherence, Loeb eruditely proved the temporal identity of eternal return of the same, thus verifying the logical connection of the idea concerned.

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E-book

Magdaléna Hovanová

The university textbook offers a view of the family in social contexts. It deals with the basic characteristics of the family, the life cycle of the family from the choice of partner, through the arrival of children in the family to the end of the family. During its duration, the family performs various functions. A functional family is ideal for a harmonious relationship between partners and a suitable environment for raising children.

However, a number of factors enter the life of the family, which directly or indirectly affect the performance of these functions and can cause various disorders. It is here that the task of social work is to offer help to families to cope with their big and small problems. A specific feature of social work is the focus on the whole and a comprehensive assessment of the family, where it is necessary to take into account both the client's point of view and the aspect of the environment in which he lives and which constantly affects him. Therefore, the university textbook offers procedures for social work with the family, from the assessment of the life situation, through the plan of work with the family to social intervention.

The university textbook is intended for students of social work, who have the opportunity to practice complex issues within the assessment of the case through the enclosed case studies.

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SLOVAK IN DIALOGUES FOR BEGINNERS – INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL STUDENTS - Workbook

E-book

Ingrid Madárová - Veronika Pálová - Lucia Tóthová

Audio attachments - format RAR

The audio-exercise workbook “Pán doktor, rozumiete po slovensky?”is a follow-up to the textbook “Pán doktor, hovoríte po slovensky?” (Madárová et al.)and is intended for international students of Slovak as a foreign language in the medical environment.

This workbook provides the students with an opportunity to practise and enhance mostly their listening skills and pronunciation through various short dialogues between doctors and patients in the Slovak language. Dialogues contain the vocabulary used in the textbook Pán doktor, hovoríte po slovensky?.  Students are encouraged to build their confidence in speaking Slovak by practising these dialogues in the new workbook.

The audio-exercise workbook is comprised of 16 units. Each unit offers short dialogues and recordings

A number of dialogues enable its wide use for self-studying while the most frequent phrases related primarily to body parts, signs and symptoms of illnesses, diseases or various medical conditions are practised in different contexts in a variety of exercises.

Original illustrations enable students to understand dialogues more easily and the correct answers of the exercises and the scripts of the recordings can be found in the Answer key at the end of the workbook.

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E-book

Ján Juščák - Milan Darák

The aim of the monograph was to analyze the pedagogical possibilities of educational systems within children's and youth organizations, with an emphasis on those targeting the age group of children up to 15 years.

The starting point was an analysis of the current state of theory and practice in children's and youth organizations, with the intention of describing prevailing trends in their development and activities. This publication closely follows the previous monograph (Juščák, J. – Darák, M.: 2015), in which we processed, according to a unified methodology and using generally accepted pedagogical terminology, the collected available materials on the educational systems of selected (most representative) children's and youth organizations in Slovakia. Through a subsequent comparison of the obtained empirical data on educational systems, we aimed to identify their similar (identical) as well as specific (distinct) elements as a basis for establishing categorization criteria for their classification.

The culmination of our efforts was an attempt to characterize a children's organization as an educational institution, describing its characteristic features, functions, aims, content, principles, and educational methodology.

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E-journal

Renáta Orosová (executive editor)

The scientific-professional journal Edukácia focuses on issues of education and upbringing in the fields of primary, secondary, and higher education. It emphasizes the current state and perspectives of educational practice, contemporary aspects of pre-service teacher training, social pedagogy, special pedagogy, as well as pedagogical and psychological aspects of upbringing in basic educational institutions from the perspective of the broader educational community.

It is intended for researchers, young university lecturers, doctoral students, and professional and pedagogical staff, with the aim of presenting trends in education and stimulating discussion on current issues in the presented areas of upbringing and education.

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E-book

Lívia Barnišinová

The scientific monograph "Spirituality in Slovak Realist and Modernist Literature" reevaluates interpretative approaches to the spiritual dimension in prose texts of Slovak literature from the realist and modernist periods. The author transcends stereotypical views on spirituality, often confined to religious themes, and advocates for an interdisciplinary approach and new methodological approaches in literary-critical research. The monograph focuses on literary characters and their spiritual dimension in connection with other compositional and semantic elements of literary texts. It does not offer a definitive view on the topic but aims to open discussion and highlight the need for a reassessment of the literary canon and the openness of artistic literature to multiple interpretations. The analysis of texts from Slovak realism and literary modernism demonstrated a differentiated spirituality and its artistic portrayal. The phenomenon of spirituality is present in the texts along the axis of explicitness - implicitness - latency and has its specific manifestation in shaping literary characters through psychologization, introspection, and spiritual depth.

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E-book

Ján Juščák - Renáta Orosová - Zuzana Nováková

Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference February 5 -február 2014 6, 2014

Conference proceedings of abstracts is one of the outputs of the international scientific conference entitled Education 2014: Contexts of education in the current perspective held 5 to 6 Feb 2014 at University of Pavol Jozef Šafárika in Kosice. This conference focused on the issues of education and emphasizes the current state and prospects of educational practice, topical aspects of undergraduate teacher training, health psychology in educational practice, as well as pedagogical and psychological aspects of education in primary educational institutions in view of the broad educational community. It was aimed for scientists, young university teachers, PhD students as well as experts and teachers, to present trends in education and to stimulate discussion on topical issues presented in the field of education.

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E-book

Božena Velebná

The following material has been created during the two years of teaching English for Chemists at the Faculty of Science of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University and is therefore designed to meet the needs of this course. The main motivation was the lack of appropriate materials, especially as the groups generally comprise students with a very diverse level of English. This diversity therefore became the main criterion determining both the form and the content of this text.

In the ten units that provide material for a one semester course, the emphasis is put on teaching the students vocabulary and terminology, which is introduced via authentic texts, depending on the topic of each unit. Students are encouraged to learn the meaning of new words in context. Grammar is included too, with the aim of demonstrating and explaining grammatical rules by means of examples taken directly from the texts. For the more advanced students, grammatical exercises in this material can serve for revision while the beginners might need more supplementary materials.

I hope that this material, the preparation of which has been a challenging as well as enjoyable experience will be useful for future teachers and the students of this course.

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E-book

Ján Kahan - Eva Žiaková

The monograph focuses on the issue of loneliness among substance-addicted people in the context of abstinence prospects and re/lapse prevention. In the monograph these phenomena, several theories were integrated and applied in the context of the ecosystem meta-framework of social work and practical contexts. The ecosystem meta-theory serves as a meta-construct with the ability to encompass the complexity of social phenomena as well as that of human beings within the structure of their living and social environment, formal and informal networks, and close intimate relationships.

In this monograph are presented research sample consisted of 235 respondents – hospitalised addicts undergoing urgent treatment, abstaining A-club members as well as members of psychotherapy and self-help groups. The research showed that abstainers were statistically less lonely than the hospitalised respondents. Quantitative data of research are complemented by qualitative data collected in four case studies; two of them focused on two long-term abstainers from alcohol and drugs, while the other two case studies dealt with two respondents in post-hoc treatment undergoing the resocialization process. The research also showed that respondents who broke abstinence felt lonelier than their successfully abstaining counterparts.

The results were supported also by the fact that a statistically significant inversely proportional relationship was identified between the duration of abstinence and loneliness rate. Gender differences were found between the hospitalised addicts in all loneliness dimensions. Naturally, the combined research was limited in certain aspects, mainly in terms of the size and proportional distribution of the research sample and its subgroups, test battery extent, and general nature of the population studied. Triangulation among quantitative and qualitative with the theoretical starting points confirmed the existence of a relationship among loneliness, addiction, and prospect of abstinence.

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E-book

Róbert Stojka

The aim of the presented monograph is primarily to introduce Patočka's concept of the philosophy of history as comprehensively as possible, although I am aware that this is by no means an easy task. This difficulty arises not only because, as already mentioned, there is currently no extensive and exhaustive work on this topic.

While there is a relatively large number of studies devoted to Patočka's concept of the philosophy of history, none of them, however, examine this concept from a comprehensive perspective as a unified whole – most focus on specific partial issues (and there are many) stemming from this concept. This fact, incidentally, serves as clear evidence to me that this is undoubtedly a highly demanding topic.

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E-book

Marcela Gbúrová - Daniel Dobiaš - Jana Šutajová - Gabriel Eštok - Ján Ruman - Tomáš Dvorský

Research Into Correlations Between Deformations of Political Awareness and the Increase of Political Extremism Among Secondary School Students in the Košice Self-governing Region and the Prešov.

Self-governing Region The issue of political extremism has a relatively long research period, and it should be emphasised that, especially in the recent period, it has received increased attention in the political science community not just in Slovakia but also abroad. Given the specifics of this anti-democratic form of political discourse, which has not only explicit forms, but also highly sophisticated manifestations against democracy (extremism of the centre, or centrist extremism), it is also addressed by experts of other humanities and social disciplines: history, psychology, anthropology, sociology, etc.

The common interest of this professional community is both to analyse different forms of extremist discourses and narratives, to search for national specificities of extremism that are anchored in their historical, social and cultural contexts, but at the same time to reveal transnational extremist influences within a globalizing world and to propose evidence-based strategies to counter extremist discourses.

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