Flourishing or floundering? Exploring Ukrainian elementary schoolteacher understandings of their professional experience

Pidzamecky, Ulana Plawuszczak (2024) Flourishing or floundering? Exploring Ukrainian elementary schoolteacher understandings of their professional experience. Ed.D thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This empirical study investigated Ukrainian elementary (in the UK, known as primary) schoolteacher perceptions of their professional flourishing within the current education environment in Ukraine. It involved 12 teachers from different parts of the country and explored the relationship between professional and personal flourishing. In addition, the research attended to the contexts of state and society within conditions of ongoing neoliberal education reform since Ukraine declared independence in 1991. Teacher opinions were also solicited about the relationship between professional flourishing and continuous professional development (CPD) in this dynamic climate. Their views were elicited as well about a preferred educational future for the evolving democracy of Ukraine under the impact of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion in 2022. The study took a qualitative approach and employed narrative inquiry using visually based data collection techniques (‘river of experience’ and autophotography/photo elicitation), along with semi-structured focused group discussions and individual interviews. It responds to a gap in the broader literature about drivers of work engagement (disengagement) and meaningfulness (Long, 2014). Additionally, the discourse remains scant in the studies of post-communist/post-totalitarian education systems and is underrepresented in the literature (Oleksiyenko, 2016). Findings revealed that three fundamental confluences contributed to the teacher-participants’ journeys of professional flourishing, individually and collectively: perseverance: managing personal and practitioner difficulties, field challenges, and societal crises; innovation: embracing and creating new techniques and technologies; and identity: transitioning from a centralized to a capitalist economy and balancing the new forces of neoliberalism, Europeanism, and globalization while educating children for Ukraine. The implications of these findings are discussed, and topics for further research are proposed.

• Item Type: Thesis (Ed.D)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB1501 Primary Education
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Supervisor's Name: McKinney, Professor Stephen and Hedge, Professor Nicki
• Date of Award: 2024
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2024-84651
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 05 Nov 2024 09:25
• Last Modified: 05 Nov 2024 09:27
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.84651
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/84651