During July 2-13, 2018, the International Educational Coordinating Council (IECC) of the World Congress of Ukrainians (UWC), chaired by Dr. Oksana A. Wynnyckyj-Yusypovych, organized professional development courses for teachers from Lviv and Donetsk Oblasts of Ukraine (Summer Institute – 2018).
The Summer Institute was launched by the Institute for the Professional Development of Teachers (IPDT) of the IECC in 1992 with the express aim of facilitating the dissemination of contemporary teaching-learning methods among Ukrainian educators in Ukraine. This year, after a break of several years, the Summer Institute resumed its activity.
The Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Liliia Hrynevych, sent greetings to the Summer Institute 2018 participants, in which she noted that: “It is deeply symbolic, that, on the eve of the launch of The New Ukrainian School, we are witnessing the return to Ukraine of a brilliant team of teachers from the Institute for the Professional Development of Teachers. After all, we owe much to the work conducted by the Institute back in the days when Ukraine first began to develop a truly independent educational system. For it was then that the preconditions for today’s Ukrainian network of agents of educational change was laid.”
Summer Institute – 2018 participants consisted of 30 school teams from the Lviv and Donetsk Regions, as well as the City of Lviv. Team participants included a principal, two vice-principals, a teacher of science, a teacher of the Ukrainian language, a teacher of a foreign language and a school psychologist. There were also teams from the Lviv Regional Pedagogical Development Institute (LRPDI) and the City of Lviv Educational Methodological Centre. Particular emphasis was placed on the needs of grade 5-9 students.
Canadian educators were instructors at the Summer Institute – 2018: Nadia Luciw and Bohdan Kolos (Principals’ course), Christina Yurchuk (Vice-Principals’ Course), Oksana Wynnyckyj-Yusypovych (Vice-Principals’ Course), Melanie Kovaluk (School Psychologists’ Course), Borislaw Bilash II (Science Teachers’ Course), Sophia Berezowsky (Ukrainian Language Teachers’ Course), Ira Perehinets (Foreign Language Teachers’ Course).
Ukrainian educators served as co-instructors at the Summer Institute – 2018: Kateryna Horokhovska, Pavlo Hnus and Oksana Rosypska (Principals’ Course), Svitlana Mazur (Vice-Principals’ Course), Liudmila Kopyna, Maria Logush, Olena Galwicka, Lidiia Khorshunova (Vice-Principals’ Course), Iryna Khmil (School Psychologists’ Course), Ludmila Zemba, Lida Andrushko, Maryana Bodnar (Science Teachers’ Course), Anna Bayovska (Ukrainian Language Teachers’ Course) and Svitlana Matys (Foreign Language Teachers’ Course).
On the final day of the Summer Institute – 2018, each principal presented a school vision and plan of action. The presentations were attended by the Directors of Education of the Lviv and Donetsk Oblasts, Lubomyra Mandziy and Nadiia Oksenchuk.
In summing up the activities of the Summer Institute – 2018, it was agreed that the Directors and the Chair of the IECC would visit the schools that had taken part in the Summer Institute during the 2018-2019 academic year and get acquainted with the implementation results.
Several distinguished guests visited the Summer Institute – 2018 to lend support: Roman Waschuk, Canadian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine; Roman Shyyan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Education Content Modernization, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine; Andrii Sadovyy, City of Lviv Mayor; Oleh Synyutka, Governor of Lviv Oblast; Halyna Slichna, Director of the City of Lviv Department of Human Resources and Policy; and Zoryana Dovhanyk, Head of City of Lviv Department of Education.
Special guests were Mykhailo Bregin, former Director of Education, Science, Family and Youth Services of Lviv Oblast, who in the 1990s and 2000s organised multiple Summer Institutes in various regions of Ukraine, as well as, Lubomyra Ryvko, the first Director of the International Institute for Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, who in the early 1990s facilitated the first seminars, meetings and courses for diaspora educators to share their knowledge and skills with educators of Ukraine.
The Summer Institute – 2018 was organised by the IPDT of the IECC-UWC in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the LRPDI.
Financial support for the Summer Institute – 2018 was provided by the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (Canada), Buduchnist Credit Union (Canada), the Department of Education and Science of the Lviv Oblast State Administration and the City of Lviv Department of Human Resources and Policy.
“I look forward to visiting the schools together with the Directors of the Departments of Education. This will give us an opportunity to better understand the process of implementing the innovative projects we have been working on during these two weeks and to further strengthen our cooperation,” – stated Dr. Oksana A. Wynnyckyj-Yusypovych, Chair of the IECC.
In the photo: Participants of the second week of the Summer Institute – 2018
