The 15-person delegation was composed of academics and related to education people working for research centers moved from areas affected by war, such as Lugansk, Donetsk or Berdiansk.

One of the initiators of that visit was Lilia Hrynevich – the Minister of Education and Science in Ukraine in the years 2016-2019, a teacher, education activist, one of the initiators of educational reform in Ukraine, and an alumnus of Kirkland Program run by the Polish-American Freedom Foundation. The visit was held under the “Study Tours to Poland”, that is another PAFF program.

“The objective of that visit to Poland was to immerse into Polish system of education and watch how the School of Education prepares future teachers to their profession. We have planned various activities, from watching to acting. I hope we will join hands in creating the concept of how to educate teachers in Poland and how it can look like in Ukraine,” the School of Education Program Director Magdalena Swat Pawlicka explains.  

For five days the participants could learn how the School of Education is organized and what the classes look like. Among other things, they attended subject teaching workshops and learned about the objectives of integrating seminar. They visited a school where practices are held and  an Ukrainian school in Warsaw, as well as listened to a presentation of the survey on Ukrainian students in Polish system of education.

“We would like to thank you very much for that opportunity. That was a very interesting experience for us, we learned many new methods of working with children and with future teachers. We were most impressed with the School of Education curriculum, its sustainability and the whole system of preparing future teachers to their profession. We would like to use your experiences at our Teachers’ Academy and also offer a shorter program of education to our teachers. We were also strongly impressed by your programs for mentors, the practice school base, the fact that students don’t have to learn the theory in advance but can verify it immediately in practice. You do great job here,” Vice Director of the Teachers’ Academy at Wasyl Karazin Kharkov National University Olha Vyhovska said.

The participants ended each day of their study tour with so called reflection journal, that is jotting down their thoughts, experiences and observations. That method is also used by the School of Education in its work with students and it is meant to develop reflective and conscious approach to one’s own development.

The academics’ study tour is one of many initiatives aimed at enhancing cooperation and supporting the Ukrainian system of education, especially after the barbaric attack of Russia on our neighbor country. Less than two months after the outbreak of war the PAFF & UW School of Education held a Ukrainian Teacher In Poland conference which was an opportunity to integrate but also improve teaching skills. Apart from that, the School of Education lecturers prepared a set of guides for teachers where they described the differences between Polish and Ukrainian curricula and recommended tasks and activities helping to integrate the refugee’s children. The guides turned out to be very useful and used by several dozen thousands of teachers.