Pedagogical discourse on the new Ukrainian school 1917–1921: using newly gained independence to reach out to the world’s ideas after the fall of the Russian Empire

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the leading ideas of the Ukrainian educators and the reform of school education in the era of the Ukrainian revolution (1917–1921), in the context of the values of both Europe and the wider world. Under Soviet rule (1921–1991), this period was obscured by a false narrative, but with the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence in 1991, this page of history has been rightfully restored in the scientific space of a democratic state. For the international audience, it will be interesting to study the use of world pedagogical thought during the development of Ukrainian education more than a hundred years ago as an example of great expectations and subsequent lost hopes. School education in Ukraine should be based on national, humanist and democratic principles. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian revolution was defeated, and Bolshevik forces captured Ukraine; nevertheless, its democratic achievements laid the foundations for the creation of the national education system in modern independent Ukraine.