Canada-Ukraine Summer Institute 2022: Ukrainian teachers to go to school better prepared

When Ukrainian primary and high school students return to their classes on Sep. 1, they will be met by teachers better prepared for implementing innovative education practices.

While the students were enjoying their summer holidays despite all the hardships of the war, about 40 teachers and education experts from Ukrainian Lviv and Mukachevo as well as Canadian Toronto attended online the Summer Institute 2022 where they developed a new generation of print-ready guides with innovative methodological materials, that will be also made available online.

The Summer Institute 2022 was organized by the UWC International Educational Coordinating Council (IECC) in conjunction with the Lviv Teachers Professional Development Center, the Lviv City Council Education Department and their colleagues from Mukachevo, Zakarpattia Oblast.

The operation of this Summer Institute was intermittent because of air alerts. Nevertheless, during nearly two weeks, the educators held hourly Zoom meetings on Mondays and Fridays to discuss issues arising during the work. Alumni of the Summer Institutes 2019-21 were also engaged in the guides development and shared their experience in applying the integrated teaching principles and developing competencies for the creation of competitive education in Ukraine.

The Summer Institute was established by IECC at the Toronto-based Institute for Professional Development of Teachers in 1992 to disseminate among Ukrainian educators up-to-date teaching techniques, democratic management principles at schools, specific skills to work in times of changes and information warfare, as well as self-education and continuous self-improvement skills. These principles later became an integral part of the New Ukrainian School policy that has been being implemented in Ukrainian general education schools since 2016.