Bogdan Stańkowski – “Giovanni Bosco and young people in the master-apprentice relationship perspective. Upbringing implications in view of work with socially maladjusted youth” in “Journal of Salesian Studies”

The author of this article wants to explore the phenomenology of Giovanni Bosco’s encounter with his pupils. We would like to explain two explorative issues, that is, a) what are the characteristic features of Giovanni Bosco’s relations with his students and what are the resulting implications; and b) how socially maladjusted youth perceive their educator and how such teacher-student relations fit into the category of the master-apprentice dialogue?

The elaborations in the first part of this contribution, are theoretical and have been conducted on the basis of the available literature on the subject-matter. In the second part, we will present the results of our studies, conducted among socially maladjusted boys in the Salesian Youth Education Centre in Trzciniec (Poland).

Contents:

• Introduction
• Phenomenology of Giovanni Bosco’s encounter with his pupils – Educational Implications
  • Giovanni Bosco comes into pupils’ everyday life
  • Encounters characterised by a readiness to “experience” another person
  • A dialogue between a master and an apprentice in terms of “becoming” a more mature human being
  • Encounters with Giovanni Bosco orienting towards true values
  • The role of authority in the master-apprentice relationship vs. optimal personal development of pupils
• Some clarifications on methodology of author’s own studies
• Perceiving adult tutor by socially maladjusted boys – study results

Reference time period: 2014

Reference institution:
Institute of Salesian Studies