In April, the “Learning Schools” Program Team conducted a training session in Kyiv for school principals from the regions of Ukraine most affected by the war: the Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Dnipropetrovsk districts. The meeting was attended by 17 newly appointed education leaders who manage schools operating in wartime conditions on a daily basis, often working remotely or in shelters.
The training session, titled Resilient Principals in Ukraine: The Key to Effective Educational Organizations, marked the next phase of a partnership developed since August 2025 between the Center for Civic Education Foundation and the Teacher Training Academy at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University.
As part of this collaboration, drawing on the Polish Postgraduate Studies for Education Leaders and Ukrainian experiences, a course was developed to strengthen educational leadership in crisis conditions, build competencies for coping with trauma and stress, and redefine the role of the school principal as a leader of the learning process. The visit of “LES” program trainers and experts to Kyiv aimed to prepare Ukrainian school principals to implement these solutions in their schools.
Participants worked in three thematic blocks:
- Strategic leadership of the principal in times of crisis;
- Resilience of the principal and the school – a trauma-informed approach;
- From resilience to development – supporting learning and formative assessment.
The training was collaborative in nature – it was based on the exchange of experiences and mutual learning among experts and practitioners from both countries. The program included workshops and sessions conducted in Polish-Ukrainian pairs. Experts shared proven working methods and solutions that support school development in conditions of uncertainty and constant change. An important part of the training was also the work of seminar groups led by experienced Ukrainian principals.
As Sylwia Żmijewska-Kwiręg, director of the “Learning Schools” program, emphasizes: “The principals came to the training, often leaving their schools in the midst of air raid alerts and work in shelters. Despite this, they participated in every activity with great commitment, planning specific changes in their schools. The learning process continued even when the air raid siren twice forced our workshops into the shelter. This experience brought us very close together and reinforced the need for further cooperation.”
Participants noted the similarity of the challenges facing Polish and Ukrainian schools – including in the areas of assessment, cooperation with parents, and communication within the school community. At the same time, Polish experts were able to draw on the experiences of Ukrainian schools in building the public image of teachers and organizing remote education in crisis situations.
The training became a space for learning, strengthening principals’ leadership, and building community. Here is how one participant summed up the meeting: “I’m glad you brought us all together here, because being here has reaffirmed my belief that we’re on the right track and that there are people ready to implement reforms, breaking away from old fears. Most of us have been working alone, on our own, up until now, but now I feel that each of us has felt more empowered in this process”.
The participants will now take part in further online meetings, which will help consolidate the results of the work begun in Kyiv and support the implementation of changes in schools. Discussions are also underway regarding opportunities to expand cooperation – bringing together Polish and Ukrainian school principals, building partnerships between schools, and developing spaces for collaborative learning.
The training was conducted as part of the “Learning Schools” program of Polish-American Freedom Foundation, thanks to co-funding from the “Region in Transition” (RITA) program, managed by the Education for Democracy Foundation.
