Pedagogical education

Pedagogical education. A system for acquiring the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills required to teach others in an educational institution. Until the end of the 18th century there were no schools in Ukraine that provided a systematic course of pedagogy and pedagogical studies. Teachers of elementary schools of the day usually received a general education in monasteries or in parish schools and brotherhood schools; some were even self-taught precentors or itinerant tutors. Most teachers in secondary schools or institutions of higher learning were (from the late 16th century) graduates of the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood School, the Ostroh Academy, the Zamostia Academy, the Kyivan Mohyla Academy, and similar institutions, in which many of the instructors had been trained in other Slavic countries or Western Europe.

Central and eastern Ukraine to 1921. A new development in the early 19th century was the establishment of pedagogical institutes for training teachers of schools for children of the clergy, county schools, and gymnasiums at Kharkiv University (1811) and Kyiv University (1834); some instruction in the field of pedagogy was also provided by the Kyiv Theological Academy. Institutions for training teachers of general education schools were formed only in the latter 19th century, starting with the Provisional Pedagogical School in Kyiv (1862). Four-year teachers' seminaries were formed later in Korostyshiv (1869), Kherson (1872), Pereiaslav (1878), and other locations; by 1917 there were 26 such institutions in Ukraine (out of a total of 171 in the Russian Empire).

These teachers' seminaries prepared only a small portion of the total number of teachers in Ukraine. A more significant number received their training through supplementary pedagogical classes, which were added on as an eighth year of study at women’s gymnasiums in 1870 (in 1892 some schools expanded the classes to a two-year term); pedagogical classes were also added to the curriculum of eparchial schools in 1900 as a supplementary seventh year of study. Students graduated from the pedagogical classes with the right to teach in primary schools or in the junior levels of women’s gymnasiums (see Education of women). Teachers of parochial schools received training at teachers’ schools under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod, which also oversaw a two-year school program for teachers of literacy schools. Teachers could upgrade their skills at four-to-six-week summer pedagogical courses organized (from the 1860s) by zemstvos, town councils, and literacy societies.

The training of teachers for municipal schools (established in 1872 and reorganized as upper elementary schools in 1912) took place in teachers' institutes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. These schools, with a three-year course of studies, had a higher educational standard than the teachers' seminaries. The first such institute was established in 1874 in Hlukhiv, and by 1917 there were 11 of them in Ukraine (out of 47 in the Russian Empire). Advanced training for female teachers of kindergartens and the junior levels of gymnasiums was available (from 1908) at the Froebel Institute in Kyiv and through Froebel courses offered in Kharkiv. Secondary-school teachers were trained at Kyiv University, Kharkiv University, Odesa University, the Kyiv Theological Academy, the Nizhyn Lyceum, and advanced pedagogical courses offered in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa.

During the period of Ukraine’s struggle for independence (1917–20) the efforts of pedagogical institutions were supplemented by the founding of the Ukrainian Pedagogical Academy in Kyiv (1917), the establishment of new universities (with pedagogical faculties), and the organization of private and public pedagogical courses (the Ministry of Education alone sponsored 64 such courses during the summer of 1918).

Western Ukraine to 1945. Educational reform in the Austrian Empire in 1877 demanded that teachers in lower-level state (trivium) schools be graduates of six-grade normal schools (located in Lviv and Chernivtsi). The teachers of state primary schools received their training at two-year courses in teacher preparatory schools (five of these were established in Galicia). Precentors normally taught at parish schools. Only a small number, mainly those who had attended a precentors’ institute established in Peremyshl in 1823, had any formal pedagogical education. A major overhaul of the education system in 1869 centralized pedagogical education into four-year teachers' seminaries, including some in which the language of instruction was Ukrainian and Polish. The first such institution in eastern Galicia was established in Lviv in 1871, and by the end of the 19th century there were eight of them in the region (six for men, two for women). In addition four private Ukrainian teachers’ seminaries were established in 1903–12. In Bukovyna a state-run teachers' seminary was established in Chernivtsi in 1871 (a separate division for teaching women was added in 1872). The instruction there was almost totally in German until 1909, when separate instruction in Ukrainian was made available for men. Plans for Ukrainian education of women did not materialize, and consequently the Ukrainska Shkola society established a private Ukrainian teacher training seminary for women in 1910 (Ukrainian instruction for women subsequently was made available at the state teachers' seminary). Three teachers’ seminaries were located in Transcarpathia. Secondary-school teachers could obtain their training at Lviv University, Chernivtsi University, and the universities in Vienna, Budapest, or elsewhere.

During the interwar period a number of formerly bilingual Polish-Ukrainian teachers' seminaries in eastern Galicia were totally Polonized. In the Lviv school district in 1930, a total of 10 Ukrainian-Polish teachers' seminaries existed (of which 8 were privately run), in comparison with 43 in which the language of instruction was exclusively Polish. In Bukovyna, state policy aggressively pushed for the total Romanization of education and brought about the close of the private Ukrainian teachers' seminary and the end of Ukrainian-language instruction at the state school (1923–4). During the Second World War nine teachers' seminaries (each with a separate section for early childhood education training) were operating in the Western Ukrainian lands under German occupation.

Ukrainian SSR. With the establishment of Soviet rule the system of pedagogical education was overhauled, starting with the formation of institutes of people's education in 1920. These institutes were formed from a combination of university-level pedagogical courses, advanced courses for women studying education, and teachers' institutes. They prepared teachers for the upper levels of seven-year schools as well as vocational schools. Three-year pedagogical tekhnikums were also established in 1920, mainly on the basis of teachers' seminaries. They prepared teachers for primary classes and early childhood education. Underlying these efforts was the desire on the part of the Ukrainian authorities to broaden the base of literacy in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic quickly, extensively, and in the Ukrainian language, despite a chronic shortage of teachers (in 1923 approximately 45,000 teachers were available to fill an estimated 100,000 positions needed).

The Ukrainian educational structure was brought under the control of a uniform USSR-wide model starting in 1930. The institutes of people's education were reorganized that same year into specialized components, such as institutes of professional education and institutes of social education; further changes in 1933 placed the former within the structure of the university system and saw the latter reorganized into pedagogical institutes. With the advent of compulsory education measures in 1935, two-year teachers' institutes were added to the pedagogical education structure. In 1937 the pedagogical tekhnikums were restructured as pedagogical schools, with a two-year program for secondary school graduates and four-year programs for others. By 1940 there were 20 pedagogical institutes (with 15,860 students), 47 teachers' institutes (15,430 students), and 56 pedagogical schools (20,120 students); in 1950 the numbers of these institutions stood at 25, 33, and 82 respectively. Administrative changes in the early 1950s redistributed students from the teachers' institutes to the pedagogical institutes and schools. Since that time the structure has not seen major changes, although pedagogical faculties have been established in conjunction with specialized institutions (eg, polytechnical institutes, conservatories, physical culture institutes, the Kyiv Art Institute). Correspondence courses, first initiated in 1927, have also become a common feature of pedagogical education. Statistics for 1989 indicate that there were 29 pedagogical institutes, with an enrollment of approximately 146,700, and 50 pedagogical schools, with an enrollment of approximately 77,600.

Outside Ukraine. In the interwar period the number of Ukrainian schools in Transcarpathia (then under Czechoslovak rule) greatly increased, and the number of teacher training facilities grew from three to four. In addition Prague emerged as an important center of Ukrainian education, including pedagogy. A chair of Ukrainian language and literature was established at Charles University in Prague to instruct high school teachers, and the Ukrainian Free University (UVU) in Prague offered courses in pedagogical history and methodology. The Ukrainian Higher Pedagogical Institute in Prague trained teachers for elementary education, extramural education, and secondary education. Transcarpathia was annexed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after the Second World War, and its educational institutions were brought into line with Soviet ones; UVU transferred its operations to Munich, where it continued its courses on pedagogical education.

In the absence of Ukrainian school systems or an extensive network of Ukrainian general education schools in the West, Ukrainian pedagogical education there has by and large focused on developing materials and language-instruction methodologies (together with some teacher training) for community-based ridna shkola (native school [self-run]) programs, which frequently supplement the education of Ukrainian children in state-run or regulated school systems. In 1967 an attempt was made to co-ordinate such efforts under the World Social-Educational Co-ordinating Council of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians. In those countries in which Ukrainian has been integrated into the public school system or where private Ukrainian schools have been established, more systematic and substantial activity in the area of Ukrainian pedagogical education has taken place.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Zotin, M. Pedahohichna osvita na Ukraïni (Kharkiv 1926)
Siropolko, S. Istoriia osvity na Ukraïni (Lviv 1937)
Bondar, A.; et al (eds). Narodna osvita i pedahohichna nauka v Ukraïns'kii RSR (Kyiv 1967)

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]