Janez Kolenc was a man who wanted to understand
Darko Strajn
It just happened! Suddenly, literally overnight, Janez Kolenc was gone. Just a little bit was missing to complete the special edition of School Field, which was prepared jointly with colleagues from the University of Lodz. Almost all of the editing work for this special issue had already been done by Janez. Therefore, he will reach across the invisible dividing line that separates life from death. At the same time, this edition will remain as evidence of the fact that Janez died amidst his work and his plans for the future. In his case, this is really not a cliché, such as it is commonly found in farewell writings and speeches. His work on a project about the importance of non-formal education had only just begun. At the Educational Research Institute, Janez always held a special place simply because of the range of his experience and knowledge of social sciences. Before his almost 25 years employment at the Institute, he had also worked for the Revoz company and then in the library. However, in his life, the priority was research and discovery, which was created through his tendency to understand social phenomena. From such questions as to what may be the subject of social science, which he had found in anthropology and sociology, he moved to questions about how we know and so he became concerned with questions of research methodology. At the Educational Research Institute, he tried, on the basis of such knowledge, to understand the processes of education and learning and to define the social framework of these activities. Central concept, which was analysed, explained and applied and which is most visibly associated with his name, was the notion of political culture. This concept also provided the theme of his scholarly works, master degree and doctorate. He enriched Slovenian social sciences with many contributions on this theme in the form of scientific papers and also with two monographs. Now his work has been interrupted, it is over and, unfortunately, not yet finished. His work, as much as was
done, was performed diligently and consistently, but it was also so good that it will not be forgotten. Janez was a researcher who wanted to understand the world and he did not only understand it well, but he also explained many aspects of it too.