RUSSIFICATION OF UKRAINE’S EDUCATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PEDAGOGICAL RESEARCH IN THE XX – AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XXI CENTURY

Abstract

The article traces the development of scientific research of Ukrainian scholars and teachers in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries about social processes aimed at the russification of the Ukrainian education sector. Ukrainian education and science were formed under challenging conditions due to changes in social life and numerous reforms. After overthrowing the tsarist government in the early twentieth century, the rise of the national consciousness of Ukrainians was observed, contributing to the development of national education and crucial experimental research. However, further scientific research became impossible due to the process of ideologization of public life that began in the 1930s and was aimed at spreading the idea of the dominant role of the Russian language and culture. The number of Ukrainian schools is being reduced, and nationally conscious teachers are being repressed. Research is no longer experimental, and topics such as child personality development, national education, the influence of folk pedagogy, coverage of the experience of world science, and the achievements of prominent Ukrainian teachers are banned. The works of scholars are aimed at glorifying the achievements of Russian pedagogy, especially of the Soviet period. After a short period of "thaw" in the 1960s, the russification of the educational sector resumed for several decades, and research focused mainly on the study of Marxism-Leninism in pedagogy and criticism of pedagogical ideas of the so-called "bourgeois countries" of the West. It is emphasized that after 1991, public life and education russification did not stop. This process only slowed down, as pro-Russian politicians remained in power and did not aim at national revival. The problems of national education were raised more on the pages of academic publications than in practice. Therefore, the issue of getting rid of Russian influence in the educational sector and turning to the achievements of national pedagogy is now a priority.