Projects for Teachers

For the second year now, Vinnytsia has become a meeting place for participants in educational projects of “Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies. Last year, the Institute’s Summer Pedagogical Studies took place here, and in the fall – on November 11-12 – the All-Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Seminar for History Teachers and Methodologists. The event, which is the result of fruitful cooperation between the Tkuma Institute and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, brought together 35 talented teachers and methodologists from all regions of Ukraine, as well as academic researchers of history, and specialists in the publishing sector.

The staff of the Vinnytsia Academy of Continuing Education, as well as local teachers, particularly Iryna Matkovska, a teacher of civic education at Vinnytsia Lyceum No. 18, provided great assistance in organizing the event in Vinnytsia. Iryna is one of the winners of the competition “Lessons of War and the Holocaust – Lessons of Tolerance,” which took place in late September in Chernivtsi.

If we try to structure the content of the seminar, it is worth talking about several important components:

- New academic approaches and methodology of Holocaust research for school history teachers. Within this conditional block, the seminar participants had the opportunity to take part in lectures-conversations with researchers of the history of the Holocaust and other genocides, dedicated to those aspects of the Catastrophe that often fall outside the scope of traditional school lessons. Thus, Dr. Igor Shchupak, director of “Tkuma” Institute, who has been researching the phenomenon of the Rescue of Jews and the phenomenon of human solidarity during the Nazi genocide in general for many years, demonstrated the broad possibilities of analyzing sources on the history of the Holocaust in the practical work of a history teacher. The lecture of Dr. Faina Vynokurova, deputy director for scientific work of the State Archives of Vinnytsia Region, was also “source-oriented” in nature. However, F. Vynokurova, who devoted a significant part of her life to researching the history of the Shoah, clearly demonstrated how real human destinies are hidden behind seemingly dry archival records. It is the human dimension of history that is a powerful motivator for children to study the past of their family, hometown or village, and the country. Dr. Yehor Vradii, Deputy Director for Scientific Work of “Tkuma” Institute, invited the audience to reflect on the long-term and not always obvious consequences of the trauma of genocide, which generations who were not direct participants in the events experienced and are experiencing. The history of post-war anti-Semitism in the USSR and in Europe in general, unfortunately, cannot be considered a complete story. After all, even after eight decades, we can observe how rapidly anti-human rhetoric and actions are gaining popularity in modern society. Therefore, understanding the Holocaust and its lessons does not lose its relevance today.

- Peculiarities of reforming the concept of modern history education in Ukraine. The key events of this block of the seminar were the participants' communication with well-known Ukrainian researchers who are members of the working group that seeks to implement modern approaches to teaching history at different stages of secondary education in Ukraine. In particular, the features of the group's work were told by its active participant, Prof. Vladyslav Hrynevych, director of the Center for Research on Historical Memory, member of the Ukrainian-German Commission of Historians, and the participants in the discussion with the speaker were Dr. Igor Shchupak and Rayisa Yevtushenko, chief specialist of the Department of School Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and other participants of the seminar.

- Practical experience in applying modern approaches in history education. Within this block, which was moderated by the head of educational programs of “Tkuma” Institute, co-author of a number of school textbooks Iryna Piskareva, the seminar participants were able to get acquainted with the experience of successful educational and educational projects on the history of the Holocaust by participants of “Tkuma” Institute International Contest; modern history textbooks presented by participants of one of the most productive, in terms of not only the quantity but also the quality of the educational product, author teams of the Ukrainian Educational and Publishing Center “Orion” Natalia Vlasova, Dmytro Sekerynsky, Iryna Krasutska, Iryna Rudenko.

At the end of the seminar, its participants were able to learn how the results of local history and academic research can be implemented in a practical dimension. Last year, a unique project was presented in Vinnytsia to popularize the Jewish heritage of the city, destroyed by the Holocaust and decades of Soviet totalitarian rule, in the format of an audio walk “In the Footsteps of a Hasidic Boy”. The combination of the work of the prominent Jewish writer Yitzhak Yoel Linetsky (1839-1915), with the musical accompaniment of klezmer music and graphics by the prominent Ukrainian artist Vasyl Sylvestrov (1888-1937) revives modern urban landscapes and allows us to embed the place of the traditional Jewish district of Vinnytsia – the so-called “Yerusalemka” – in the history of the city and its community.

Even though the seminar lasted only two days, the intensity and content of its events have already become a source for planning interesting new projects in the field of historical education and enlightenment. So, follow our news.