Workshops for tutors dedicated to the Soviet history took place in Kyiv

DVV International Ukraine together with All-Ukrainian Association “Nova Doba” has completed a series of workshops for history teachers on the subject of the Soviet past and its representation in contemporary Ukrainian school history education.

DVV International Ukraine together with All-Ukrainian Association “Nova Doba” has completed a series of workshops for history teachers on the subject of the Soviet past and its representation in contemporary Ukrainian school history education.

With the support of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany History competitions for youngsters between 14 and 18 are going on in Ukraine under the title “Soviet past: (Re)thinking the history.”

Although this competition is aimed primarily at young people, mostly schoolchildren, it was important for the project team to contact history teachers as well. It is the teachers who will tutor teams of youngsters in the process of preparation of the competition entries.

About 70 participants from different regions of Ukraine were selected from more than two hundred applications. Four two-day workshops were held for them

The workshops consisted of 2 main parts: theoretical (lectures and discussions with invited academics about research methods and Soviet history) and practical one.

Participants were split into small groups and assigned to conduct some sort of a field-work exploring the Soviet objects in Kyiv – Lenin monument, Government quarter, Friendship of Peoples Arc etc. They were supposed to find out what these monuments symbolize and what role they play in the cityscape and everyday practices of city folk. Above all – the fieldwork aimed to teach the potential tutors how to organize student team, distribute the tasks and choose the best way to present their findings.

The theoretical part was intended to bridge the gap between academic history and teachers. Prominent scholars like Georgiy Kasyanov, author of numerous books and publications on memory politics, Olga Kolyastruk, an expert on oral history, and Natalia Schlikhta, author of the textbook for students “History of the Soviet society”, were invited to take part in the workshops.

Closing the workshops project team noted that the main task of the project was to (re)think the Soviet experience - reject simple answers and accept instead the wide range of possible answers, interpretations and evaluations. The Soviet experience, with all its traumas and ambiguity, should become a source of national unity, not conflict.

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