Pedagogical periodicals

Pedagogical periodicals. Publications addressing questions and issues of upbringing and education. Because of the political, social, and national implications of education, pedagogical periodicals have often played a role in the larger historical struggles of Ukraine and have always been affected by their outcome.

The first Ukrainian-language pedagogical journal to be published was the quarterly Dom i shkola, edited by Ivan Hushalevych. Published in Lviv in 1864–5, the journal advocated co-operation between school and church and discussed contemporary social, cultural, and economic issues in addition to purely pedagogical and religious topics. The same range of subjects was covered in the Lviv weekly Uchytel’ (1869–74), edited by M. Klemertovych (1869–74, 1880). Educational topics were covered extensively in the newspaper Pys’mo do hromady. Other fortnightly pedagogical journals in Galicia included Hazeta shkol’na (Lviv 1875–9), which advocated the use of Ukrainian in schools and was edited by Omelian Partytsky, Shkol’na chasopys’ (Lviv 1880–9), edited by Hryhorii Vretsona, and Narodna shkola (Kolomyia 1875).

The first Ukrainian pedagogical periodical in Transcarpathia was the weekly Uchytel’ (1867) (Uzhhorod 1867), edited by Andrii Ripai. From 1868 to 1873 the Hungarian Ministry of Education published the weekly Hazeta dlia narodnykh uchytelei. Both newspapers addressed national, political, economic, and cultural questions as well as strictly educational issues.

Two issues of a pedagogical journal edited by Stepan Smal-Stotsky and published by the Ruska Shkola society appeared in Chernivtsi in 1888 and 1891.

The fortnightly journal Uchytel’, which succeeded Shkol’na chasopys’, was published by the Ruthenian Pedagogical Society in Lviv in 1889–1914. It became the leading journal of its kind and played an important role in the later development of the pedagogical press. The Ukrainian Teachers' Mutal Aid Society published the journal Uchytel’s’ke slovo in 1912–39. Other pedagogical journals published in the first two decades of the 20th century included the following: in Bukovyna, the fortnightlies Promin’ (1904–7) and Kameniari (Chernivtsi) (1908–14); in Lviv, two short-lived periodicals, Luna, a semiofficial organ of the Ukrainian Teachers' Mutual Aid Society, edited by Yu. Lovytsky in the first half of 1907, and Nashe slovo, which appeared in the latter half of 1907, edited by P. Kyrchiv and O. Vlasiichuk; Prapor (Kolomyia) (1908–12), published in Lviv and then Kolomyia; and Ukraïns’kyi uchytel’ with the insert Ridna shkola, published in 1911 in Stanyslaviv, under the editorship of I. Butsmaniuk. Nasha shkola was a scholarly journal published quarterly in Lviv by the Teachers' Hromada in Galicia in cooperation with teachers' societies from Bukovyna: the Skovoroda Society of Higher School Teachers, and later, Ukrainska Shkola.

The first pedagogical journals in Russian-ruled Ukraine— Pedagogicheskii vestnik (Yelysavethrad 1881–3) and Shkolnoe obrazovanie (Odesa 1889–92)—appeared in Russian. The first Ukrainian-language pedagogical journal was Svitlo (Kyiv), published in Kyiv (1910–14) by the Ukrainskyi Uchytel Publishing House under the editorship of Hryhorii Sherstiuk and then Viacheslav Prokopovych. The nationally conscious teachers who gravitated toward Svitlo, which advocated the use of Ukrainian in schools, formed the All-Ukrainian Teachers' Union in 1917. This group published Vil’na ukraïns’ka shkola in 1917–19. Other pedagogical journals in eastern Ukraine were Nova shkola (Poltava, 1917–18) and Osvita (Kamianets-Podilskyi, 1919).

In Western Ukraine two journals were published irregularly by teachers' societies in 1919, Nova shkola, in Drohobych, and Uchytel’s’kyi Wholos, in Kolomyia. Uchytel’s’ke slovo remained the most influential journal of its kind in the interwar period and published the supplements Shliakh vykhovannia i navchannia and Metodyka i shkil’na praktyka (1930–9). The Teachers' Hromada society published the monthly Svitlo (1920–1), edited by Mykhailo Halushchynsky, and Ukraïns’ka shkola (1925–39). Both journals were in effect continuations of Nasha shkola. Ridna shkola (Lviv), published in 1927 and 1932–9, was the organ of the private Ukrainian school society of the same name. In 1938–9 the Ukrainska Zakhoronka society published a journal devoted to preschool education, Ukraïns’ke doshkillia.

Four monthly pedagogical journals were published in Uzhhorod and Mukachevo in Transcarpathia in the interwar period: Uchytel’ (1920–36), the organ of the School Administration of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the Russophile Narodnaia shkola (1921–38), and Uchytel’s’kyi holos (1930–9) and Nasha shkola (Mukachevo) (1935–8), both organs of the Teachers' Hromada of Subcarpathian Ruthenia.

Pedagogical periodicals in Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s reflected the polemical battle being waged among three pedagogical camps. The first camp advocated the creation of labor schools with a national basis but adapted to Soviet conditions. Journals that supported this policy included Osvita (1920), published in Kyiv; the newspaper Narodnyi uchytel’ (1925–30), published in Kharkiv; the Kharkiv journal Narodnyi uchytel’ (1926–7); and Kuznia osvity (1928–9), published in Kyiv. Numerous bulletins also expressed the positions of this group. The second camp espoused modern Western pedagogical theories. Its approach was championed by Ukraïns’kyi visnyk eksperymental’noï pedahohiky ta refleksolohiï (1925–30).

The positions of the third camp, represented in the educational policy of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic’s Commissariat of Education, faithful to Marxist-Leninist precepts but independent of the policy of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, was advanced in several journals: Narodna osvita (1919), published in Ukrainian and Russian in Kyiv; Proletars’ka osvita (1920–1), published in Kyiv; and the official organs of the People's Commissariat of Education of the Ukrainian SSR, Shliakh osvity (1922–30) and Radians’ka osvita (Kharkiv) (1923–31), both published in Kharkiv.

With the onset of Stalinism and the official condemnation of all three of these approaches to education, most of the pedagogical press of the 1920s and early 1930s was suppressed and replaced by orthodox Stalinist publications—Za markso-lenins’ku pedahohiku (1931–2) and Za masovu komunistychnu osvitu (1931–3). In this period the Commissariat of Education also established three new organs: Komunistychna osvita (in place of Shliakh osvity) and Za komunistychne vykhovannia doshkil'nyka, both published in 1931–41, initially in Kharkiv and later in Kyiv, and Pedahohika i metodychna literatura (Pedagogy and Methodological Literature), published in 1938–41 in Kyiv.

During the Second World War pedagogical periodicals in Soviet Ukraine ceased publication, and after the war they were replaced by new journals. The Ministry of Education of the Ukrainian SSR published three monthlies: the scholarly journal Radians’ka shkola (since 1945; now Ridna shkola); the methodological journal Doshkil’ne vykhovannia (founded in 1951); and the methodological journal Ukraïns’ka mova i literatura v shkoli, established in 1963 through the merger of the monthly Ukraïns’ka mova v shkoli and the bimonthly Literatura v shkoli. Radians’ka osvita (Kyiv) (now Osvita), a newspaper for teachers, has been published since 1940. In addition, since 1962, nine specialized serials dealing with problems of pedagogical methodology have been founded.

Ukrainian pedagogical periodicals have also been published by émigré Ukrainians. The Ukrainian Teachers' Labor Alliance published Ukraïns’ka shkola in 1942–3 in Cracow, under the editorship of Petro Isaiv. Isaiv also edited a journal of the same name in Augsburg, Germany (1947–8). In New York Ridna shkola (1918) and Uchytel’ski visty (1928–9) were both intended primarily for precentors-teachers. In Toronto and later in the United States V. Lutsiv edited and published Zhyttia i shkola, a journal for parents and teachers, and Uchytel’s’ke slovo (1955–8), a methodological journal. In 1969 the Saskatchewan Teachers of Ukrainian started publishing Tema, a quarterly magazine devoted to problems of Ukrainian language education. In 1979 the School Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee launched the magazine Ukraïns’kyi uchytel’ v Kanadi. The school boards of the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba all have publications related to their Ukrainian-English bilingual school programs, and parents’ organizations in those provinces publish various bulletins and newsletters in support of bilingual education. In 1976 Informatyvno-metodychnyi lystok was founded in Melbourne by the Ukrainian Central School Council of Australia.

Chrystia Freeland, Sofiіa Yaniv, Bohdan Krawchenko

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