A description of the Polish school-system and current educational research at the University of Gdansk (Poland) are included in this document. Articles included focus on two perspectives: (1) the social context in which schooling takes place; and (2) a historical outlook of the Polish system of education. Articles in this volume include: "Basic and Higher Education in Poland" (Wit J. Wojtowicz); "The School System and Youth Welfare in Poland" in Polish (Gerard Lubinski); "Problems and Dilemmas of Early Schooling" (Marian Grochocinski); "Education as a Dialogue without Arbiter" (Joanna Rutkowiak); "Towards an Examination over Workings of Self-management in Special Schools" in Polish (Elzbieta Garlej-Drzewiecka); "Conflicts among Retarded Children" (Roza Pawlowska); "School Achievement and the Cognitive Aspirations of Children Brought up in Orphanages and in Families" (Maria Szczepska-Pustkowska); "The Relation between Extroversion-introversion and the Success in Marriage" (Rosa Pawlowska); "Social-cultural Animation as a New Concept in the Propagation of Culture and Education" (Jan Zebrowski); "The Compulsory Education in Poland (XVI-XX c.)" (Lech Mokrzecki); "The School and Integration Problem of Pomeranian Youth in the 16th through 19th Centuries" in Polish (Lidia Burzynska; Lech Mokrzecki Kazimierz Puchowski); "The Protestant School Character in Poland in the 18th Century" in Polish (Lech Mokrzecki); and "The Social Status of Teachers in Poland to the End of the 19th Century" (Lech Mokrzecki; Henryk Rostek). (DB)