Shevchenko Society hosts young scholar's talk on educational practices in Ukraine (12/11/05)

Shevchenko Society hosts young scholar's talk on educational practices in Ukraine

by Dr. Orest Popovych

NEW YORK - The headquarters of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) on October 29 hosted a talk by Anna Fournier titled "Educational Practice and the Making of Citizens in Ukraine Before and After the Orange Revolution."

Ms. Fournier, a Ph.D. candidate in the department of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University, based her lecture on a year of ethnographic fieldwork she had carried out in the Kyiv region in 2004-2005, during which she also witnessed the Orange Revolution, as well as similar research trips in 1998 and 2003. Her last trip to Kyiv was financed in part by a $3,000 grant from NTSh.

In his welcoming remarks, NTSh Vice-President Dr. Orest Popovych introduced Ms. Fournier as an example of a success story for NTSh's program of scholarships and grants for deserving students in the field of Ukrainian studies. He explained that NTSh grant money comes from the long-term named funds established at the society by patriotic members of the Ukrainian community who decided to support Ukrainian studies with their generosity.

Dr. Popovych urged those in the audience who can afford it to immortalize their own names by creating at NTSh their named funds with tax-deductible contributions, thereby supporting Ukrainian scholarship and education.

A more substantive introduction of the guest speaker was given by Prof. Vasyl Makhno, who chaired the program.

After thanking NTSh for the financial support, Ms. Fournier began by raising the question of whether Ukrainian schools were succeeding in creating patriotic, nationally conscious citizenry, and whether the Orange Revolution has had any effect on the educational process.

Her research covered several schools - public, private, village - in the Kyiv region, focusing primarily on high school students in Grades 9-11, with the objective of analyzing their views on the relationship between the nation and citizenship. By way of background, Ms. Fournier examined the citizenship education curricula, including textbooks and other teaching materials, in the courses on civics, history, geography, folklore, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian literature, and the patriotic education component of the military preparedness course.

A major challenge inherent in the content of citizenship education in Ukraine, said Ms. Fournier, arises from the way nationalism is contrasted with national culture and patriotism. Nationalism is seen as an ideology that is inherently negative, a synonym for chauvinism, representing a threat to peace, order and stability of the state. Also, in the last few years, much of Ukraine's population became disillusioned with the national idea by associating it with the lack of economic prosperity, continued Ms. Fournier.

Therefore, citizenship in Ukraine is not grounded in nationalism. Instead, Ukraine's state authorities as well as schools promote the idea of a national culture that is marked, in Ms. Fournier's words, by excessive folkloricization, paternalism and infantilization. National culture defined in this manner is benign and depoliticized. Therefore, it offers little resistance to the aggressive process of present-day Russification, according to Ms. Fournier.

As a result, citizenship education in Ukraine today promotes a tame version of patriotism that is supposed to originate from one's soul, while in practice it is associated with the concept of order, obedience and spectatorship, as opposed to initiative, social responsibility and active participation, continued Ms. Fournier.

These presumably desirable qualities of a good patriot-citizen coincide with those expected of a good student in Ukraine's schools. The key element of national pedagogy in Ukraine is repetition without questioning, as well as compliance with the teacher's rules and demands, said the speaker. The teacher is always right and there is virtually no discussion allowed in class. Moreover, students as advanced as Grade 11 are still called "children" and are told that they "are too little to have an opinion."

With this type of pedagogic philosophy, the heavily stereotyped folkloric version of Ukrainian culture presented in class cannot be a source of pride to students, leading them to reject it. Students oppose their teachers by feigning compliance and by defiantly using Russian in class. According to Ms. Fournier, Ukrainian culture as it is taught is devoid of Ukrainian self-assertiveness and is viewed by students as "marginal," compared to the Russian language and culture, which they consider "global." Nevertheless, the students' preference for things Russian does not extend to a desire for economic or political union with Russia.

The Orange Revolution brought profound changes in the way students view their Ukrainian national identity, as well as their relationship to the state, continued Ms. Fournier. No longer associated with a village culture, Ukraine has become a modern political nation, the flocus of the world's attention. For the first time, said the students, Ukrainian symbols became meaningful to them, while the experience of the "maidan" (Independence Square in Kyiv) awakened in them feelings of patriotism without any connotation of compliance or obedience. The idea of a Ukrainian nation not only came forward, but became the basis for a peaceful political action against the state.

Furthermore, the Orange Revolution made the students more aware of their rights and demonstrated to them that power can be acquired by the people in a peaceful way, provided there is a collective will. Subsequently, some students have tried to apply elements of the revolution to their school situations, as in opposing the perceived injustices from their teachers and principals. Unfortunately, the lessons of the maidan have yet to be integrated into Ukraine's school curriculum, concluded Ms. Fournier.

Recommendations and pedagogic strategies on how to accomplish this will be offered in Ms. Fournier's doctoral dissertation titled "Education and Citizenship in the Era of Ukraine's Orange Revolution." To facilitate the writing of this dissertation, NTSh has awarded Ms. Fournier a grant totaling $8,000 for the next two semesters.

A letter from NTSh informing her of this award was presented to Ms. Fournier by Dr. Roman Voronka, chairman of the NTSh Committee on Scholarships and Grants, at the conclusion of her lecture.

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