Projects for Teachers

On August 4–6, the All-Ukrainian scientific and practical seminar “Summer Studies for History Teachers and Methodists” was held in the Ternopil region, organized by “Tkuma” Institute with the assistance and financial support of the Conference on Material Claims of Jews to Germany (Claims Conference).

For three days, history teachers, methodologists, scientists, and educators from different regions of Ukraine worked with the history of the Holocaust and other complex topics of 20th-century history, discussed modern approaches to teaching them, and shared their own pedagogical experience.

The seminar was opened by the director of the Ternopil Regional Communal Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, Oleksandr Petrovsky, director of “Tkuma” Institute, Dr. Igor Shchupak, and deputy director for scientific and methodological work of the Vinnytsia State Archive, Dr. Faina Vynokurova.

The first day was dedicated to different ways of understanding and representing the history of the Holocaust. The participants talked about the truth, myths and fakes in the perception of the Holocaust, analyzed the German occupation and its reflection in the biography and work of the writer Volodymyr Belyaev. An important part of the program was the viewing and discussion of the documentary film “The Road to Babyn Yar” directed by Borys Maftsyr.

Special attention was paid to fiction to talk about the individual experience of a person during the Holocaust. During a lecture-discussion by Dr. Natalia Gorbach, participants examined literary representations of the experience, and in a workshop by Dr. Halyna Yatsenyuk, they worked with the contemporary press as a historical source and tool for teaching the topic of the Holocaust.

A significant part of the seminar was the exchange of practical experience between teachers. Mykhailo Kozachenko presented approaches to depicting the Holocaust theme in feature films, Iryna Matkovska presented the educational project “Choice. Journey. Voice,” and Tetyana Lanevska presented the creative and research project “Museum of One Book” based on Ida Fink’s novel “Journey.”

The second day of the Summer Studies continued its work directly in the city of Zbarazh. During the museum workshop, participants explored the history of Zbarazh Castle, after which they went on an excursion “Traveling in Time and Space: The Great Tragedy of the Small Town of Ida Fink.” Independent researcher and local historian Tetyana Fedoriv led participants through the streets of Zbarazh, connected with the history described in the writer’s works.

This part of the program gained special significance thanks to Ida Fink's novel “Journey”, which became a kind of intersection of literature, local history and personal memory. After the excursion, the participants met with translator and editor Natalka Rymska, the author of the Ukrainian translation of the book, and during a linguistic-historical workshop they discussed how a literary text can become an important source for understanding historical events.

“These were days of deep reflection, meaningful lectures, practical classes, exchange of pedagogical experience, and lively communication with scholars and colleagues from different parts of Ukraine,” said Summer Studies participant Iryna Kyrylchuk. Among the especially valuable components of the seminar, she named new methods of teaching complex historical topics, work with artistic and documentary sources, and museum pedagogy.

During the final meeting, the participants discussed the results of the seminar and ideas that they could apply in their further pedagogical practice.

Tkuma's summer studios are not only an opportunity to deepen professional knowledge, but also a space for understanding history through various sources and human stories. After all, talking about the Holocaust requires not only accuracy and thoroughness, but also the ability to show the fate of specific people, their choices, experiences, and voices based on historical facts.

“We preserve memory to protect the future” – this very thought became one of the important overarching motifs of the Summer Studies.

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