Congratulations to the new PhD Juozapas Labokas on the successful defence of his doctoral dissertation “Relationship Formation(s) in a Lithuanian General Education School: between Dialogue and Alienation” ((S 007) Education Sciences)”  and  acquiring a PhD degree of Social Sciences in the field of Education. Scientific supervisor  – prof. Lidija Duoblienė (Vilnius University, Social Sciences, S 007).

The dissertation is available in the libraries of Vilnius University, Klaipėda University and Mykolas Romeris University.

The dissertation is available at:

https://is.vu.lt/pls/pub/ivykiai.ivykiai_prd?p_name=44F6901C55C6CF67258A9BE3FE0D5D17/LA…

A brief annotation of  the dissertation is presented below.

Relationship is a topic of existential importance in human life and education. However, when analysing the field of relationship in educational activities, there is a general sense of disengagement, meaninglessness, helplessness and frustration with education. This is referred to in the research literature as alienation at school, which includes negative attitudes towards school and can be expressed in the areas of relationships with teachers, classmates or learning activities. This raises the question of how we might describe the specificity of the alienation relationship at school, i.e. what characterises this relationship? Who creates such a relationship and how? On the other hand, what is the counterpart to alienation that could be a fruitful alternative for the improvement of education today? In this context, a study is being organised to analyse, from the theoretical perspective of Martin Buber and relational pedagogy, the specificity of the student’s relationship with his/her classmates, teachers, and learning activities in cases of (non-)alienation. Moving away from the negative problem of alienation at school, it seeks definitions of the opposite, i.e. a non-alienated or dialogical relationship at school. The study reveals a wide range of relational experiences at school and shows the multiplicity of the relational field. Alienation emerges as a negative, multidimensional and individual phenomenon, while a dialogic relationship is revealed as the mutual ability and willingness of the pupil, the classmates and the teacher to participate in the act of building an interpersonal relationship.

Dissertation Defence Board:

Chairperson – prof. dr. Liudmila Rupšienė (Klaipėda University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
assoc. prof. dr. Danutė Bacevičiūtė (Vilnius University, Humanities, Philosophy – H 001);
assoc. prof. dr. Sandra Kairė (Vilnius University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
Prof. Arie Kizel (University of Haifa, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
Prof. dr. Romas Prakapas (Mykolas Romeris University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007).