NATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTS OF UKRAINE (1991–2022)

• Lesia Sukhomlynska

  V. Sukhomlynskyi State Scientific and Educational Library of Ukraine

Abstract. The article is based on the methodology of the history of the present, which involves the actualization of concepts and conceptual texts published in the Ukrainian educational space over the past 30 years. It has been established that they are most comprehensively represented in two editions: Anthology of Texts on Educational Reform in Ukraine: Programs, Concepts, Projects (1991–2017) (2019) and Anthology of Texts on Reforming the Content of General Secondary Education in Ukraine (1991–2017) (2022). From the wide range of materials in these collections, conceptual texts on nature, its protection and preservation, and issues of ecology and out-of-school education have been selected.

Five concepts have been identified that directly or indirectly represent ideas about the significance of nature and the environment in which a child grows up for the formation of value-based and caring attitudes toward them among school and university students (Concept of Continuous Valeological Education in Ukraine (1994), Concept of the Educational Model “Environment” (1995), Concept of Out-of-School Education and Upbringing (1996), Concept of Upbringing of Children and Youth in the National Education System (1996), Concept of Environmental Education in Ukraine (2001)). It has been established that most of them remained unrealized, especially those of an integrative nature.

It has also been found that scholars generally paid insufficient attention to the importance of the natural environment, treating it as secondary, reflecting a post-Soviet legacy in which domination over nature and its transformation were proclaimed as primary objectives. At the same time, it is emphasized that the emergence of theoretical and methodological works devoted to the role and significance of nature, its preservation, as well as the development of methods for their partial implementation in the activities of educational institutions, including out-of-school ones, constitutes a positive trend that will continue to expand and deepen.

The article highlights the active role of teachers in the development of concepts, which became possible after a long historical interruption (since the 1920s), as well as the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine's support for these initiatives – a new trend compared to the Soviet period.

• pdf (Ukrainian)

Copyright (c) 2026 Леся Сухомлинська

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.