The system of professional training for foreign language teachers in Bukovina (1918–1940): the history of the fragmented land

ABSTRACT

The article describes the key features of the system of foreign language teacher professional training in Bukovina in 1918 to 1940. Bukovina is an area of present-day Western Ukraine, which in the period under study belonged to Romania. The study has been carried out in the form of an analysis of the components constituting the system of foreign language teacher education: the discussion begins with the preconditions for establishing pedagogical practices in training future teachers from the historical-social and administrative-territorial perspectives; then the structural aspects and educational policymaking issues of the institutions responsible for foreign language teacher training in Bukovina, as well as their activities aimed at providing professional support for in-service teachers, have been studied; finally, the structure and content of both the curricula and textbooks used in foreign language teachers’ education have been critically analysed. The deliberations brought the authors to conclude that the methods of teaching foreign languages most widely used and supported by the government in the period under study in Bukovina were the Direct and Mixed methods. At the same time, the analysis of governmental policy of the ruling state contributed to the process of Romanianisation of the Ukrainians, depriving young people of the opportunity to gain secondary and higher education in their native language, while discriminating against the school graduates on their ethnicity as the criterion for enrolment of university applicants for a degree in teaching foreign languages.

KEYWORDS:

• Bukovina
• foreign language teacher
• teacher training
• foreign language learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Inna Yashchuk, “Teoriia ta praktyka vykhovannia studentskoi molodi vyshchykh pedahohichnykh zakladiv Ukrainy (1920–1991 rr.) [Theory and practice of student education at higher pedagogical institutions of Ukraine (1920–1991)]” (Doctoral thesis, Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University, Ukraine, 2011), 22.

² Bohdana Labinska, “Tendentsii rozvytku metodyky navchannia inozemnykh mov u zakhidnii Ukraini (druha polovyna XIX – persha polovyna XX st.) [Tendencies in the development of foreign language teaching methods in Western Ukraine (second half of the XIX century – first half of the XX century)]” (Doctoral thesis, Kyiv National Linguistic University, Kyiv, Ukraine: KNLU, 2013), 37–8.

³ Mircea Grigoroviţă, Învăţămîntul în Nordul Bucovinei (1775–1944) (Bucureşti: Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, 1993).

⁴ Lilia Kobylianska, “Stanovlennia i rozvytok ukraiinskykh narodnykh shkil na Bukovyni (70ti rr. XVIII – pochatok XX st.) [Formation and development of the Ukrainian folk schools in Bukovina (70s of the XVIII – early XX century)]” (PhD diss., Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, 1998).

⁵ Iryna Petriuk, “Stanovlennia i rozvytok zahalnoii serednioii osvity na Bukovyni (kinets’ XVIII – pochatok XX st.) [Formation and development of general secondary education in Bukovina (late XVIII – early twentieth century)]” (PhD diss., Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, 1998).

⁶ Odarka Penishkevych, Rozvytok ukraiinskoho shkilnytstva na Bukovyni (XVIII – pochatok XX st.) [Development of the Ukrainian schooling in Bukovyna (18th– early 20th century)] (Chernivtsi, Ukraine: Ruta, 2002).

⁷ Constantin Ungureanu, “Die Deutschsprachige Czernowitzer Presse über den Grundschulunterricht in der Bukowina (Ende des 19. Jhs. – Anfang des 20. Jhs.,” Bukovyna: istorychni ta etnokul’turni studiyi: materialy IV Mizhnarodnoyi naukovoyi konferentsiyi “Kayndlivs’ki chytannya” (Chernivtzi: Selena Bukowina, 2007): 379–94.

⁸ Ioana Velica, Diachronische Analyse der schulischen Lehrpläne für Deutsch als Fremdsprache in Rumänien (Zeitspanne 1918–2006) (Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2013).

⁹ Vasyl Botushanskyi, Narysy z istoriii osvity na Bukovyni (XIX – pochatok XXI st.) [Essays on the history of education in Bukovina (19th–early 21st century)] (Chernivtsi, Ukraine: Tehnodruk, 2017).

¹⁰ Bohdana Labinska, Istorychni narysy z metodyky navchannia inozemnykh mov na zakhidnoukraiinskykh zemliakh (druha polovyna XIX – persha polovyna XX st.) [Historical essays on methods of teaching foreign languages in Western Ukraine (the second half of the 19th–the first half of the 20th century)] (Kyiv, Ukraine: KNLU, 2013).

¹¹ Olha Homeniuk, “Methods of teaching English in educational institutions of Bucovina (1933–1939)” [in Ukrainian], The Scientific Issues of Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University. Series: Pedagogy. no. 1 (2016): 16–23.

¹² Olha Homeniuk, “English Teaching Methods in Bukovina (1918–1930),” Romanian Journal for Multidimensional Education/Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala. Iasi, no. 11(4, Sup. 1) (2019): 105–16. https://lumenpublishing.com/journals/index.php/rrem/article/view/1382.

¹³ Mikhail Riger, “K istorii razvitiya metodiki obucheniya zhyvym inostrannym yazykam na zapadnoukrainskih zemlyah (s kontsa XVI veka po 1918 god) [On the history of the development of the living foreign languages teaching methods in the Western Ukrainian lands (from the end of the 16th century to 1918)]”. Doctoral thesis abstract. Minsk (1970).

¹⁴ Frank, Anuarul Liceul de fete no. 2 în Cernăuți pe anul şcolar 1922/23 (Cernăuți: Societatea tipografică bucovineană, 1923), 20.

¹⁵ Mariana Hausleitner, “Von der Diskriminierung zur Vertreibung: Nichtrumänen in der Bukowina zwischen 1918 und 1944,” Cécile Cordon – Helmut Kusdat (Hgg.): An der Zeiten Ränder. Czernowitz und die Bukowina. Geschichte, Literatur, Verfolgung, Exil (Wien: Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft, 2002), 103.

¹⁶ Teofil Rendiuk, “The position of Ukrainians of North Bukovina in Great Romania during 1918–1940” [in Ukrainian], Kraieznavstvo, no. 4 (2011): 255. http://dspace.nbuv.gov.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/32718/36-Rendiuk.pdf.

¹⁷ Ibid., 256.

¹⁸ Yurii Sheveliov, Ukrainian language in the first half of the twentieth century (1900–1941). State and status. https://zbruc.eu/node/68992.

¹⁹ Ibid.

²⁰ Ibid.

²¹ Oleksandr Oguy, “Multilinguismus in der Bukowina und agrammatische Formen des Buchenländischen am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts: Interferenzgrad,” http://www.irbis-nbuv.gov.ua/cgi-bin/irbis_nbuv/cgiirbis_64.exe?C21COM=2&I21DBN=UJRN&P21DBN=UJRN&IMAGE_FILE_DOWNLOAD=1&Image_file_name=PDF/germvu_2013_8_9.pdf (accessed February 21, 2022).

²² Fedir Cheviuk and Volodymyr Zakharchuk, Bukovina and Bukovinians (On the history of the region and people’s lives (Lviv: Svit, 2008), 156.

²³ Ibid., 157.

²⁴ Die Forderungen der Minoritäten in der Bukowina. Czernowitzer Morgenblatt. 5. Jahrgang, von 5. September 1922, no. 1257, S. 1.

²⁵ Isabel Röskau-Rydel, Deutsche Geschichte im Osten Europas. Die Bukowina seit Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges (Berlin: Siedler Verlag, 1999), 289.

²⁶ Irina Livezeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania: Regionalism, Nation Building, and Ethnic Struggle, 1918–1930 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), 65.

²⁷ Ibid., 74.

²⁸ Ibid., 87.

²⁹ S. Lakusta, “Dolia ukraiinskykh serednikh shkil v Rumunii” [in Ukrainian], Yuvileinyi naukovyi zbirnyk do dvadtsiatylittia tovarystva (Lviv: Ukrainske Pedahohichne Tovarystvo, 1935): 190.

³⁰ Rusnak, “Rumunska shkilna polityka na Bukovyni – a diisnist,” Ridna Shkola, VIII (1938), 281.

³¹ Stepan Siropolko, Ukrainske shkilnytstvo v Halychyni. in: Ukrainske shkilnytstvo na Bukovyni, v Halychyni, na Zakarpatti ta v Kanadi [Ukrainian schooling in Bukovyna, Halychyna, Zakarpattia and Canada] (Prague: Ukranske Pedahohichne Tovarystvo, 1932), 9.

³² Vasyl Botushanskyi, Oleh Dobrzhanskyi, and Makar Yurii, Bukovyna. Istorychnyi narys [Bukovyna. A Historical essay] (Chernivtsi: Zelena Bukovyna, 1998), 243.

³³ Hausleitner, “Von der Diskriminierung zur Vertreibung,” 106.

³⁴ Botushanskyi, Dobrzhanskyi, and Yu, Bukovyna, 244.

³⁵ D. Zhmunduliak et al. eds., The Guide to the Collection of the pre-Soviet period, vol. 1, (Kyiv, 2006), 300, National Archives of Chernivtsi Oblast.

³⁶ C. Kirițescu, Die rumänische Schule in Siebenbürgen (1943), 459.

³⁷ M. Nieminen, “Women Teachers and the Feminisation of the Teaching Profession in a Finnish Journal for Primary School Teachers (The Teacher), 1915–1920,” Paedagogica Historica, DOI: 10.1080/00309230.2020.1818797.

³⁸ V. Botushanskyi, O. Dobrzhanskyi, and Makar Yu, Bukovyna. Istorychnyi narys [Bukovyna. A Historical essay] (Chernivtsi: Zelena Bukovyna, 1998), 243.

³⁹ “God’s Law” – a specific wording used in Bukovina to denote the subject of the study of the Bible.

⁴⁰ Zhmunduliak, The Guide, 60.

⁴¹ Ibid., 61.

⁴² I. Velica, “Unterricht und Deutschunterricht in den Sekundärschulen Rumäniens in der Zeitspanne 1918–1945,” Neue Didaktik, no. 1 (2007): 11, https://www.pedocs.de/frontdoor.php?source_opus=7338.

⁴³ I. Brăteanu, Cugetări asupra reformei învățămăntului (Cernăuți: Societatea tipografică bucovineană, 1924), 49.

⁴⁴ Maturation examinations – the examinations taken by school graduates in Bukovina (in Polish they are called “matura”); they proved the students were eligible to receiving a graduation certificate; some students could be made to repeat the academic year if they did not pass their maturation examinations.

⁴⁵ Brăteanu, 50.

⁴⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁷ Ibid., 51.

⁴⁸ Anuarul Universității din Cernăuți pentru anii de studii 1926/1927–1927/1928 (Cernăuți: Editura Universității, 1928), 161–70.

⁴⁹ Ibid.

⁵⁰ Anuarul Universității Regele Ferdinand I din Cernăuți. Anul de studii 1924–1925 (Cernăuți: Editura Universității, 1925), 82–6.

⁵¹ V. Georgescu, Istoria Românilor de la origini până în zilele noastre, ediția a 2-a revizuită și adăugită (Oakland: ARA Publications, 1989), 258.

⁵² “A course in Bucharest” [in Ukrainian], Kameniari, September 22, 1922, 4–5.

⁵³ XIV District School Inspectorate, “Correspondence with the Ministry of Education and school principals on educational issues,” file 213, Collection 1, RG 1223, 1922–1923, 57, National Archives of Chernivtsi Oblast.

⁵⁴ XIV District School Inspectorate, “A directive letter from the Ministry of Education about financing the secondary school teachers who wish to travel abroad to improve French and English,” file 213, Collection 1, RG 2936, 1925–1926, 1–4, National Archives of Chernivtsi Oblast.

⁵⁵ G. Rațiu, Anuarul IV–V Liceul Real de Stat № 2 Cernăuți pe anii şcolari 1924/25–1925/26 (Cernăuți: Tipografia Mitropolitul Silvestru, 1926), 47–8.

⁵⁶ Ibid., 49–50.

⁵⁷ S. Arhire, “British Policy Towards Romania, 1936–41,” E-international Relations (March 3, 2019): 2–3, https://www.e-ir.info/2019/03/03/british-policy-towards-romania-1936-41/ (accessed April 20, 2021).

⁵⁸ The Anglo-Rumanian Society, “The English School,” Annual, 1937–1938.

⁵⁹ Velica, “Unterricht und Deutschunterricht”, 27.

⁶⁰ Universitatea “Regele Carol II” din Cernăuți. Programa cursurilor pentru anul de studii 1935/1936 (Cernăuți: Editura Senatului Universitar, 1935).

⁶¹ I. Nistor, Anuarul Universității Regel Carol al II-lea din Cernăuți pe anul de studii 1936–1937 (Cernăuți: Institutul de arte grafice Glasul Bucovinei, 1937).

⁶² Ministerul Educațiunii Naționale, Programa examenelor de capacitate pentru recrutarea profesorilor de grad secundar (București: Imprimeria Centrală, 1937).

⁶³ Facultatea de Filosofie și Litere din Cernăuți. Programa cursurilor pentru anul de studii 1923/1924 (Cernăuți: Editura Facultații de Filosofie și Litere Universității, 1924), 4.

⁶⁴ Ibid.

⁶⁵ Ibid.

⁶⁶ Ibid., 8.

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ Ibid.

⁶⁹ Ministerul Instrucțiunii, Cultelor și Artelor, Programa minimala pentru scoalele secundare (gimnazii si licee) pe anul scolar 1932–1933 (București: Imprimeria Centrală, 1933), 54.

⁷⁰ I. Nistor, Anuarul Universității Regel Carol al II-lea din Cernăuți pe anul de studii 1937–1938 (Cernăuți: Institutul de arte grafice Glasul Bucovinei, 1938), 246–7.

⁷¹ Ibid.

⁷² Ministerul Instrucțiunii, Cultelor și Artelor, Regulamentul examenelor de capacitate pentru recrutarea membrilor corpului didactic de grad secundar (București: Tipografia Curții Regale, 1935), 4.

⁷³ Ibid., 5.

⁷⁴ Ibid., 6.

⁷⁵ Ibid., 15.

⁷⁶ Ibid., 17.

⁷⁷ Ibid., 18–24.

⁷⁸ Ministerul Educațiunii Naționale, Programa examenelor de capacitate pentru recrutarea profesorilor de grad secundar (București: Imprimeria Centrală, 1937), 4.

⁷⁹ Ibid., 25–6.

⁸⁰ D. Protopopescu, Pagini Engleze (București: Cultura Naționala, 1925).

⁸¹ D. Protopopescu, Fenomenul Englez (București: Fundația pentru literatură și artă Regele Carol II, 1936).

⁸² Labinska, Istorychni narysy [Historical Essays], 67, 183.

⁸³ Ibid., 115.

⁸⁴ Ibid.

⁸⁵ Ibid., 186.

⁸⁶ Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bohdana Labinska

Bohdana Labinska is a Professor of German language education and foreign language teaching methods; the Head of the Department of Foreign Languages for the Humanities, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Ukraine. Her research interests cover a broad range of topics, such as the history of foreign language teaching methods, modern methods and technologies of foreign language teaching, methods of teaching foreign languages to people with special educational needs. She has authored 156 scientific papers, including three monographs and 17 academic books.

Liliya Morska

Liliya Morska is a Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Rzeszow, Institute of Pedagogy, Poland. Her research interests cover a broad range of topics, from foreign language teacher education to pedagogical design and digital education. She also has authored some articles on intercultural communicative competence development as well as professional communication strategies.

Olha Homeniuk

Olha Homeniuk is Associate Professor of English for Specific Purposes at Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, the Department of Foreign Languages for the Humanities, Ukraine. Her research interests cover the history of foreign language teaching methods, foreign language teacher education. She has also authored some articles on English and German language teaching methods.