Canadian educators mark 10 years of cooperation with Ukraine (01/05/03)

Canadian educators mark 10 years of cooperation with Ukraine

by Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO - In 1992, a group of Canadian educators embarked on what is one of the longest running continuous cooperative projects between Canadian and Ukrainian partners. The focus and aim of the project was the introduction of contemporary educational philosophy and practices into the post-Soviet Ukrainian school through the professional development of teachers in Ukraine.

Pavlo Khobzei, the current Head of the Lviv School Board, speaking at this summer 2002 conference organized to mark the decade of cooperation, said:

"Ten years ago, our colleagues from Toronto showed us how to educate a free person, a person who possesses the following abilities: critical thinking, problem solving, communications and working in groups.

"They explained to us what it means to have one's own opinion, be able to defend it while at the same time be acceptable of the opinions of others," he continued.

"Even today this is not taught in all our schools but ten years ago, we were all in the stereotypical Soviet schools, which did not teach one to ask questions but taught the student to give answers and only those which were written in books."

The removal of stereotypes, the democratization of education and the introduction of child-centered learning have been main achievements of the project.

The project was initiated by educators in Toronto who set up the Institute of the Professional Development of Teachers under the auspices of the Ukrainian World Congress. Elementary school principal Nadia Luciw took charge of the Canadian side, while the Ukrainian partnership was organized by Mykhailo Bregin, who headed the City of Lviv School Board in 1992 and currently heads the Lviv Oblast School Board.

In the past decade, 10 professional development sessions have been held during summertime with over a total of 2,000 educators taking part. All oblasts of Ukraine and Crimea have been represented, as well as Romania, Poland and Latvia. In addition, weekly classes over periods of three months, with a total of 572 participants to date, have been held during the year in Lviv, based on the methodology introduced by the Canadians. Monthly seminars for teachers of primary grades began in 1994-1995, while seminars for preschool teachers and for administrators were introduced in 1996-1997.

At the conference held on July 19, 2002, in Lviv, Ms. Luciw explained, "We found educators who helped in the organization of professional development courses and together we developed and adapted these new teaching approaches to the needs of Ukraine. At the beginning there were serious doubts, objections and uncertainty - would our knowledge and experience be useful for Ukraine? Are Western systems of teaching realistic and needed for Ukraine?"

On that point, Mr. Khobzei had this to say: "Teacher professional development and child centered learning is the most successful project in the city of Lviv. It has resulted in the creation of several primary schools - grades 1 to 6 - which work with this methodology. The fact that Lviv is the leader in Ukraine in special needs education - the teaching of children with cerebral palsy, the setting up of a rehabilitation center - is due to our Canadian partners."

The first professional development summer session for teachers was held in Lviv with the Canadian lecturers presenting their own course materials. Six courses were included: teaching Ukrainian in Russian-language schools, teaching English, a principals' course, history teaching methodology, primary school language teaching and primary school science teaching methodologies. A total of 127 educators from Ukraine took part.

In 1995 psychology, economics, and individualization and integration in primary schools were added as subjects. Ukrainian educators joined their Canadian colleagues as assistants in course development and progressively began to assume greater responsibility for teaching. By 1999 the Ukrainian lecturers were running the Canadian-authored courses by themselves with the Canadians acting as advisors.

The summertime professional development sessions were organized with various regional partnerships: the Volyn Oblast Institute of Post-Graduate Education in Lutsk (1996), Ternopil Institute of Postgraduate Education (1997), Khmelnytskyi Institute of Professional Development, and a special institute in Lviv for teachers from Crimea. By the summer of 2000 there were nine courses at the summer session, each with a lecturer and assistant lecturer from Ukraine with the Canadians acting as partners.

The project has been able to reach the 10-year mark for several reasons. There has been continuity in its leadership - Ms. Luciw from the Institute of Professional Development of Teachers and Mr. Bregin from Lviv have headed the project since its inception. In addition, Dr. Oksana Wynnyckyj - who, besides being a professional educator is also the Canadian consul in Lviv, lives there and has been able to facilitate project-related activities throughout the year.

A second positive aspect is the flexibility of the project. The Canadian partners have been willing to work with any educational institution in Ukraine that was able and willing to set up the sessions. To ensure that the programs developed during the sessions are then supported in the schools of the participants, the organizers have insisted that not only individual teachers but teams, including administrators and principals, take part in the professional development.

Over the years the project has developed and published its own materials: administration and management in schools (authors Bohdan Kolos and Nadia Luciw), teaching history (Valentina Kuryliw), primary grades (Oksana Wynnyckyj, Mirka Onuch and Halyna Dytyniak), economics (Bohdan Kolos), Ukrainian language (Lida Lubynska), teaching preschool (Oksana Wynnyckyj).

At a conference this summer, future Ukrainian cooperation with the Institute for the Professional Development of Teachers in Canada was discussed. The plans include the creation in Lviv of an alternative center of post-graduate education with the support of the institute; further development of the network of innovative education centers by course participants in the raion centers of the Lviv Oblast; publication of books and methodological guides for teachers; and resource centers of innovative educational technology on the basis of the six schools already working with the educational philosophy supported by the institute.

The institute will continue to hold professional development sessions for teachers during the summer, but will try to do this in other regions of Ukraine, particularly the east, although problems of local support will have to be resolved. They would also like to help Ukrainian schools in Poland, Slovakia and Russia, as well as organize courses for trainers who will then provide professional development sessions for teachers in various regions of Ukraine.

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