On February 5, 2024, the winter school of exchange of experience in the field of inclusive education "Winter School: EduWell Support Initiative – Empowering Professionals for Inclusive Education in Eastern Europe" between Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University and Orebro University (Sweden) ended.
During the work of the school, the participants took part in a series of lectures conducted by a Swedish expert (Professor Thomas Barow) and a representative of Ukraine (Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Practical Psychology K. Bondar). Ukrainian participants not only gained new knowledge about the specifics of inclusion in schools but also shared their experiences with students of a Swedish university.
Students of various faculties (psychology and pedagogy, foreign languages, Ukrainian philology) actively participated in all aspects of the program, starting with lectures and seminars and ending with demonstrations of their own presentations and writing essays. The final event included a guest lecture by Kateryna Bondar, revealing the features of inclusive education in Ukraine.
After the lecture, Ukrainian and Swedish students were involved in joint practical work in Zoom rooms, during which the participants shared their thoughts and impressions of the program and exchanged new ideas about inclusive education. The best essays on the topic "Comparative analysis of education systems in Sweden and Ukraine" were presented by Maria Parkhomenko, Olena Rudenko, Daria Perepichayeva, Kateryna Vladova, and Yaroslava Prymachenko. Participants of the Winter School received recognition certificates for their significant contribution to the development of inclusive education in Eastern Europe. The event ended in a positive mood and with high hopes for the future of this initiative.
The project was created with the support of Swedish-Ukrainian Contact Seminar 2023 and Erasmus+ Office Ukraine and Svitlana Shitikova personally.
