Biographical Portraits of Ukrainian Educators: Reconstruction of the Pedagogical Heritage (Second Half of The 19th Century – Beginning of The 21st Century)

Abstract

This article examines the Encyclopaedic Dictionary “Pedagogues of Ukraine (Second Half of the 19th – Early 21st Century)” as a scholarly project aimed at reconstructing and systematising national pedagogical heritage that was fragmented as a result of political repression, forced migration, and long-term ideological pressure. The purpose of the study is to substantiate the significance of collective biographical research for the restoration of educational memory and the reintroduction of marginalised figures into the history of education. The research is based on a qualitative methodological framework that combines historical-pedagogical analysis, biographical and prosopographical approaches, and principles of source criticism. Particular attention is given to the criteria for selecting biographical entries, the representativeness of the corpus, and the contextual interpretation of individual pedagogical trajectories. The source base includes materials of the Encyclopaedic Pedagogical Biographical Dictionary, archival documents, pedagogical publications, memoirs, periodicals, and selected multimedia sources related to the lives and professional activities of Ukrainian educators of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The study demonstrates that collective biography enables a comprehensive understanding of pedagogical processes that cannot be fully captured through individual life histories alone. It allows for the identification of shared professional patterns, intellectual networks, and the impact of political and cultural contexts on educational thought. The article concludes that the Encyclopaedic Dictionary “Pedagogues of Ukraine (Second Half of the 19th – Early 21st Century)” functions as an effective scholarly tool for preserving educational heritage, supporting the politics of memory, and integrating Ukrainian pedagogical experience into broader international research in the history of education.