Abstract
Verbytska considers the debate concerning history education and textbooks in the context of developments and changes in Ukrainian society in the years since independence. The debate focuses on a study, initiated in 2008 by the ‘Ukrainian Institute of National Memory’, into how textbooks address Ukrainian history. The study found that most textbooks stressed an ethnocentric vision of history, are dominated by political and military narratives, underscore the notion of cultural inferiority, colonial and oppressed social status, and did not correspond to the needs or standards of a modern, pluralistic state. These findings gave rise to considerable debate in the professional community. The imperative rests upon academics and history teachers to engage in open dialogue, thus supporting the long-term sustainability of democratic change in Ukrainian society.
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Notes
- 1.
N. Yakovenko, ‘Obraz sebe’—“obraz inshoho” u shkilnych pidruchnykah z istorii [The Image of Self—the Image of the Other in School History Textbooks]’. In Materialy robochoyi narady z monitorynhu shkilnykh pidruchnykiv istoriyi Ukrayiny, ed. N. Yakovenko (Kyiv: Olena Teliha Publishing House, 2008), 117.
- 2.
N. Yakovenko, ed., Materialy robochoyi narady z monitorynhu shkilnykh pidruchnykiv istoriyi Ukrayiny, ed. N. Yakovenko (Kyiv: Olena Teliha Publishing House, 2008), 64–81.
- 3.
‘Statements from the Summary Document from the Meeting on Monitoring School Textbooks on the History of Ukraine’, 2008, accessed 31 May 2017, http://osvita.khpg.org/index.php?id=1224512202. All translations by the author unless otherwise stated.
- 4.
L. Zashkilniak, ‘History and Social Commission (on the Example of School History Textbooks)’. In Materialy robochoyi narady z monitorynhu shkilnykh pidruchnykiv istoriyi Ukrayiny, ed. N. Yakovenko (Kyiv: Olena Teliha Publishing House, 2008), 64–81.
- 5.
I. Hyrych, ‘Neobhidnist zberezennia priorytetnosti natsionalnoho komponentu yak osnovy dla formuvannia na zasadakh istorychnoi pamyati svidomosti novoho ukraincya [The necessity of national component priority preservation as the basis for formation on the grounds of history memory consciousness of a new Ukrainian]’, accessed 31 May 2017, http://www.i-hyrych.name/Vyklad/HistMemory/Directives.html.
- 6.
V. Stepankov, ‘Kastraciya natsionalnoyi pamyati, abo Scho peredbachaye proert novoyi koncepciyi vykladannia istoriyi Ukrayiny v shkoli [the castration of national historical memory, or what the project of the new concept for teaching the history of Ukraine in schools stipulates]’, 2010, accessed 31 May 2017, http://www.day.kiev.ua/uk/article/cuspilstvo/kastraciya-nacionalnoyi-istorichnoyi-pamyati.
- 7.
N. Yakovenko, Materialy robochoyi narady, 35. An overall discussion of the textbook can be found at: http://osvita.khpg.org/index.php?id=1223646074, accessed 31 May 2017.
- 8.
Y. Mytsyk, ‘Nove chy pryzabute stare: mirkuvannia pro knyzku ‘Shkilna istorija ochyma istorykiv naukovtsiv’ [The new or the forgotten past: reflections on the book ‘School History through the Eyes of History Scholars’]’, History in Schools of Ukraine 11–12 (2008), 3–8.
- 9.
V. Verstiuk, in ‘Yak i chomu treba perepysuvaty istoriyu Ukrayiny (Why and How the History of Ukraine Should Be Rewritten)’, 31.01.2011 _ Dmytro Rybakov, accessed 31 May 2017, http://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2011/01/31/20201.
- 10.
O. Tolochko, in Ibid.
- 11.
Y. Mytsyk, ‘Nove chy pryzabute stare’.
- 12.
M. Mudryi, ‘The Topic of the “Colonial Status” of Ukraine in History Textbooks’. In Materialy robochoyi narady z monitorynhu shkilnykh pidruchnykiv istoriyi Ukrayiny, ed. N. Yakovenko (Kyiv: Olena Teliha Publishing House, 2008), 87.
- 13.
V. Stepankov, ‘Kastraciya natsionalnoyi pamyati’.
- 14.
N. Yakovenko, “Obraz sebe’—‘obraz inshoho’’, 113.
- 15.
M. Mudryi, ‘The Topic of the “Colonial Status” of Ukraine in History Textbooks’, 87.
- 16.
L. Zashkilniak, ‘History and Social Commission’, 64.
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Y. Hrytsak, ‘Druha svitova viyna v Ukrayini obyednuye zhertv i heroyiv [World War Two in Ukraine Unites Victims and Heroes]’, Istorychna pravda (2011), accessed 31 May 2017, http://www.istpravda.com.ua/columns/2011/05/7/37986.
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O. Zaytsev, ‘Skilky istoriy maye Clio [How Many Histories Does Clio Have?]’, Krytyka 3–4 (2009), 137.
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Y. Komarov, V. Mysan, A. Osmolovskyi et al. The History of the Epoch Through the Eyes of Individual—Ukraine and Europe in 1900–1939. Manual for the 10th grade of secondary schools. (Kyiv: Geneza, 2004).
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‘Razom na odniy zemli. Istoriya Ukraiyiny bahatokulturna [Together in One Land. A Multicultural History of Ukraine]’, Lviv: Western-Ukrainian Publishing House, 2012, accessed 31 May 2017, www.novadoba.org.ua/together-on-the-same-land-book.
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‘Spilna istoriya. Dialoh kultur [Sharing History. Cultural Dialogue]’, Lviv: Western-Ukrainian Publishing House, 2013, accessed 31 May 2017, http://www.novadoba.org.ua/ukr/common-history-book.
Further Reading
Hanaba, S. Istorychna osvita u metodychnomu fokusi intersubyektyvnosti [History education in the methodological focus of an interdisciplinary approach]. Kamyanets-Podilskyi: Kamyanets-Podilskyi I. Ohiyenko National University, 2010.
Hnatyuk, O. Proschanna z imperieyu. Ukrainski dyskusii proidentychnist [Parting with the empire: Ukranian discussions on identity]. Kyiv: Krytyka, 2005.
Kasianov, H., P. Polianskyy and I. Hyrych et al. Pidruchnyk z istorii: problemy tolerantnosti: metod. posib. dla avtoriv ta redaktoriv vydavnytstv [History textbook: tolerance problems: manual for authors and editors in publishing houses]. Chernivtsi: Bukrek, 2012.
Yakovenko, N., ed. Shkilna istoriya ochyma vchenykh-istorykiv [School history through the eyes of historical scholars]. Kyiv: Olena Teliha Publishing House, 2008.
Snyder, T. ‘Memory of Sovereignty and Sovereignty over Memory: Twentieth-Century Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania’. In Memory and Power in Postwar Europe, edited by J.-W. Müller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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Verbytska, P. (2019). Ukraine. In: Cajani, L., Lässig, S., Repoussi, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Conflict and History Education in the Post-Cold War Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05722-0_53
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