Abstract
This article is an attempt to apply the conceptual framework of social stigma and some
specific strategies of coping with stigma, for the interpretations of interviews with young
Jehovah’s Witnesses, representing high schools from Bialystok. According to several studies,
the followers of the Watchtower Society – compared to members of other churches and religious
– are faced with the most negative reactions of social audience, not only in Poland but also in other countries
around the world. The presence of religion class in Polish schools produces specific conditions,
in which the student religious identity becomes visible. Therefore, everyday classroom
experiences of such students can be – compared to catholic majority and other religious
minorities – much more difficult, involving not only potential negative stereotyping, but also the problem
of how to deal with the school structural conditions, sometimes clearly being in conflict with the requirements
of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion.
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