COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND NATIONAL HISTORY OF SECONDARY EDUCATION IN INDEPENDENT UKRAINE

Abstract

The article demonstrates that secondary education is a powerful moderator of the historical memory for new generations of Ukrainian citizens. Now historical memory is in the focus of scientific attention. The role of modern historical education as formation of collective memory and identity of young generations of Ukraine has become a field of study for scholars. Most researchers focus primarily on textbooks as tools for transmission of collective memory. Thus, we expanded the subject field of study of school history education by investigating the role of a teacher of history, who forms the vision of the past among the students. The empirical level of the research is based on the materials from the media archive of the Centre of Urban History of East-Central Europe. They represent transcripts of discussions teachers of history that worked at secondary schools in different Ukrainian cities (2011–2012). While working on these materials, the goal was to summarize personal experience of teachers in teaching national history; to clarify the role of the teacher in interpretation of textbook information during classes; to study values, attitudes and practices of the environment of school teachers of history in independent Ukraine, which are important factors for the students’ collective memory.As a result, the research proves that the transition of didactic history from the Soviet to ethnocentric vision is carried out while preserving the archaisms of the authoritarian era. Students’ conformism, which was typical for the Soviet school, had been transformed into utilitarian pragmatism with the exclusivity of the final assessment. Constant changes in curricula and textbooks and their overload, excessive politicization of material and suggestion of a “victim complex”, slow introduction of methods that facilitate students’ self-understanding and critical discussion, priority role of teachers in creating national history are remarkable for the secondary education. An important aspect of collective memory is creation of a new concept of school education.

Keywords

• secondary education
• history teachers
• students
• collective memory
• national history
• memory policy