Pedagogical reception of oles honchar’s publicistic heritage: ideas of harmonious human development and education

Abstract

The relevance of this study is determined by the importance of the development of “personalistic” approach in contemporary research. This approach acquired a special significance in Ukrainian pedagogy in connection with the nation-building processes that were activated when Ukraine got its independence and which brough back from the oblivion the names of those whose artistic or research achievements or civic position had not correlated with the ideological doctrine of the Soviet empire. Olena Pchilka, P. Kulish, M. Dragomanov, M. Zerov, I. Ohienko, V. Vynnychenko were among those personalities, however their names are well-known now. Yet, there has not been done enough research into the recent history – the second half of the 20th century with its contradictions and with opposing activities of those who made efforts to develop pedagogy based on the progressive experience of the predecessors and those who blindly followed the instructions of the guardians of imperial ideology. This paper focuses on a pedagogical reception of O. Honchar’s publicistic heritage that is represented by such genres as article, essay, diary, and epistolary correspondence the addresser and addressee of which was O. Honchar. The article singles out pedagogical problems that were of interest to the writer or that he had to solve, making significant efforts, as a state, political, public, cultural figure and as a person with the honorary title “the man of the 20th century”. The research has revealed the breadth of the spectrum of these problems which range from the understanding of the great and tragic history of national education, the role and place of outstanding educators in it, to specific measures taken to develop and implement Ukraine-centred educational model, in particular, language and literature education of the 60-s–80-s of the 20th century as an opposition to russification of education, as well as to protect teachers’ rights. The article characterises the originality of the writer’s views on the mission of the educator in the intellectual and spiritual life of the people, on the humanitarian component of the content of education, on the importance of language in the life of the society, and on the role of the native language as a means of communication and as a school subject using the example of the “teacher from Ichnia” Stepan Vasylchenko, who was destined to become a classic of Ukrainian literature. Based on the specific arguments, obtained from various sources, the paper proves that O. Honchar’s pedagogical views are as close as possible to the pedagogical conception of the founder of the science of pedagogy and the initiator of the folk school K. Ushynsky, who is highly appreciated by the world community. The evidence to support this claim has been obtained from O. Honchar’s articles, diary entries, letters that discuss the social essence of language as the most important means of communication, the nation-building and nation-preserving potential of the native language, the place of the native language in the educational system as a subject and as the most powerful instrument to learn all disciplines. The paper pays special attention to the history of the relationships of the world-famous writer O. Honchar and the world-renowned teacher V. Sukhomlynsky, whose destinies and life paths intersected in the space and time and whose views and thoughts merged in their focus on Ukrainian culture. The paper provides systematic account of the humanitarian component in the content of education as the spiritual aura of the nation, the culture of language, the role of literature in the upbringing of children, the real stories that would become literary works as they had been recorded in the epistolary correspondence between O. Honchar and the director and the teacher of the native language in Pavlysh school V. Sukhomlynsky as well as the diary notes of O. Honchar. The paper emphasizes that V. Sukhomlynsky, the author of the book “I Give My Heart to the Children”, highly praised O. Honchar’s novel “The Cathedral” at the peak of the campaign against this literary work. The paper also observes that V. Sukhomlynsky wrote several studies of O. Honchar’s literary world. The article draws readers’ attention to the fact that O. Honchar took an active part in the commemoration of V. Sukhomlynsky, in particular in publication of V. Sukhomlynsky’s research, literary and publicistic works. Besides, the paper describes O. Honchar’s activity to help preserve the oldest Kyiv school with its time-tested traditions and worthy achievements as well as save schools in small villages.