The educators of our University – Olena Budnyk, Director of the PNU EcoSystem Center, Professor of the Department of Primary Education and Educational Innovations, and Tamara Tkachuk, Associate Professor of the Department of World Literature and Comparative Literature – have completed their work in an international research project called ‘The impact of the war situation on the education and behavior of students of Ukrainian origin studying in Poland and Ukraine’ (agreement no. BPN/GIN/2023/1/00017/U/00001, signed with the National Agency for Academic Exchange) (25 September 2023 – 24 September 2024), based on John Paul II University of Applied Sciences in Biała Podlaska (Poland). The project focused on examining the impact of the war on the behavior and learning of Ukrainian students who were relocated to the western regions of Ukraine and had to adjust to the educational environment in Polish schools. The team of Polish researchers –Dr. Stanislawa Nazaruk, Dr. Marzena Ruszkowska, Dr. Barbara Sokołowska, and Dr. Izabela Dąbrowska – collaborated with Ukrainian researchers to carry out a year-long study in both Ukrainian and Polish schools, where children affected by war trauma, including internally displaced persons, have been studying.
A survey of education managers and teachers was conducted to explore the difficulties and challenges they encounter in crisis conditions. Based on the findings, recommendations were developed to help teachers provide psychological and pedagogical support to children affected by war, and a model for educational work with these students was proposed.
During the Project implementation, the Ukrainian side paid educational visits to the John Paul II University of Applied Sciences in Biała Podlaska, and Polish scientists visited the Precarpathian National University to discuss the results of joint activities and outline further scientific developments at the Center for Innovative Educational Technologies ‘PNU EcoSystem’.The project led to the publication of joint scientific articles in top-rated journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, as well as an exchange of teaching and learning experiences between Ukraine and Poland during this challenging period for both countries. Additionally, an agreement on international cooperation and academic mobility was signed between the participating higher education institutions to support ongoing collaborative research.
The purpose of the NAWA Intervention Grants program is to support the international collaboration of research teams or the international mobility of scientists in response to sudden, important, unpredictable social, civilizational, and natural phenomena that have global or regional implications. The implementation of projects under the program allows researchers to collect data, gain new knowledge, and explore the consequences and significance of extreme events or phenomena immediately after they occur.
You can access some of the publications developed as part of this project by following the links below:
Nazaruk, S., Budnyk, O., Ruszkowska, M., , I., Sokołowska, B., Tkachuk, T. (2024). Opening Polish Schools to Ukrainian Refugee Children and Providing Them with Spiritual Support: Survey Results. Religions, 15, 651. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060651.
Nazaruk, S., Ruszkowska, M., Budnyk, O., Dąbrowska, I., & Sokołowska, B. (2024). Experiences of the Polish teachers of primary schools in working with war refugee students from Ukraine – selected problems, limitations, and implications for pedagogical practice. Education 3-13 (Publisher: Taylor & Francis), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2024.2336968
Nazaruk, S. K., Budnyk, O., Ruszkowska, M., Tkachuk, T., Sokołowska, B., Dąbrowska, I. (2024). Challenges in the school management systems during the war. Polish-Ukrainian research. Journal of Modern Science, 58(4), 179-200. https://doi.org/10.13166/jms/192197