Zamieszczone e książce teksty są wyrazem namysłu nad rzeczywistością edukacyjną. Nabiera ona konkretnych wymiarów i znaczenia dzięki prezentacji struktur oraz zasad funkcjonowania systemu szkolnictwa w Niemczech, Holandii i Stanach Zjednoczonych, a także przywołaniu wybranych odniesień do edukacji w Polsce. W centrum zainteresowania postawiono trzy kluczowe kategorie: edukację, stratyfikację społeczną i tożsamość młodzieży. Tworzą one swoiste „punkty orientacyjne” – organizujące stale obecne wątki refleksji socjologicznej i pedagogicznej, ukierunkowane na edukację uwikłaną w kontekst struktury społecznej i budowanie tożsamości.

The subject matter of studies collected in this monograph renders the current situation of education of the selected countries (Germany, Holland, the USA and Poland) and brings out aspects which determine its specificity. It is a description using the variety of prospects of viewing education but it also has a common element – namely, the context of relations between education and social stratification as well as identity of young people.Opening onto educational experiences of the selected countries and their possible interpretations taking into consideration the categories of “education”, “stratification” and “identity” made it possible to present formal education in three different political, social and cultural contexts of Germany, Holland and the USA, making an analysis of social functions of education along with its stratificational role and presenting the problem of social equality and inequality realized according to such categories as origin, ethnicity, sex and social class and, ultimately, presenting characteristics of ways and means selected by young people in the construction of their own existence and rendering a personal meaning to their own life. In them appear definite dependences between popular culture and society and the dominant types of identity of German, Dutch and American young people presented as the subject of their own educational biography (a reference to the situation of Polish young people).