THE FIRST UKRAINIAN PEDAGOGICAL JOURNALS OF GALICIA AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE OF RESEARCH ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRIMARY SCIENCE EDUCATION

Abstract

The article is devoted to the coverage of the problems of primary science education on the pages of the Galician magazines «Dom i Shkola» (1863-1864, «Home and School»), «Shkola» (1865, «School»), «Uchytel» (1869-1874, «Teacher») through the prism of the present. This year marks the anniversary of the first Ukrainian-language pedagogical journals in Galicia. The results of the content analysis of publications in the magazines «Dom i Shkola», «Shkola», and «Uchytel» showed that a significant place was occupied by publications that raised the problems of teacher training, the role of teachers in society and educational activities among the rural population, topical issues related to school education, teacher training, the development of primary science education, the place of natural, economic, sanitary, and hygienic knowledge in the system of students' competencies, etc. The theoretical developments of creative teachers and scientists in the field of science education of schoolchildren are highlighted, gender aspects are shown, and it is concluded that these journals are a historical source of research on the development of primary science education. The article highlights the work of V. Ploshchanskyi, a professor at the Lviv Gymnasium, a teacher at the Lviv Preparatory School, who turned the pages of the «Uchytel» («Teacher») magazine into the promotion and dissemination of methods of teaching geography (land surveying) and geographical local history among Ukrainian teachers. He enriched the arsenal of teaching and methodological support for natural education with his methodological findings, and many of his recommendations have not lost their relevance in the current conditions of development of natural education. It also discusses I. Naumovych and other teachers and scientists who emphasised the importance of primary science education, its practice-oriented nature, and outlined its significance and role for the future economic development, economic progress of the region, and improvement of the welfare of Ukrainians as the basis of the theory of national autarky.