MODELS OF INTERSTATE COOPERATION IN SCHOOL EDUCATION OF CHILDREN FROM UKRAINE: THE CASES OF GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND
Abstract
Relevance. The article presents a comparative study of models of interstate cooperation in the school education of children displaced from Ukraine by the full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine, based on the cases of Germany and Switzerland. Its relevance stems from the extension of temporary protection in the EU until 4 March 2028, which moves the issue from emergency response into long-term policy planning and sharpens the question of how durable existing forms of cooperation are.
Purpose. The aim is to develop and test a typology of models of interstate cooperation in the school education of children from Ukraine and, on this basis, to identify the structural features of the cooperation of Germany and Switzerland with Ukraine.
Methods. The leading method is comparative analysis through description, juxtaposition, explanation and generalisation; the main procedure is document content analysis of 34 sources (2001–2026) in four languages – EU acts, Ukraine–Germany bilateral instruments, Ukrainian and Swiss regulatory acts, and statistical data. A two-dimensional typology is proposed, combining the orientation of support (host system versus system of origin) with the degree of institutionalisation, operationalised through a five-criterion scale derived from the concept of legalization; four models are distinguished – integration-treaty, integration-project, support-project and support-treaty – and fourteen forms of cooperation are coded on a single scale.
Results. An asymmetry in the cooperation architecture is established: the support-treaty segment is filled almost exclusively by unilateral Ukrainian acts (the procedure for recognising learning outcomes obtained abroad; the verification of educational centres abroad), whereas partner states operate in it only through project-and-grant instruments; the German profile is concentrated in the integration-oriented quadrants with a high degree of institutionalisation, the Swiss one in the support-project quadrant.
Conclusions. The asymmetry is interpreted as path dependence, and a hypothesis of asynchronous withdrawal of support after temporary protection ends is advanced; removing it requires extending the treaty form to the support orientation and settling the recognition of Ukrainian teachers’ qualifications. The findings are of value for education authorities and researchers assessing the sustainability of interstate cooperation on the education of displaced children.
Keywords
interstate cooperation in education, temporary protection, institutionalisation, legalization, integration policy, displaced children, children from Ukraine, comparative education
Author Biography
Daria Voronina-pryhodii
Daria Voronina-Pryhodii – Researcher at the Comparative Education Department, Institute of Pedagogy of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Research interests: Comparative education; education policy and modernization of school education in EU countries; development and transformation of education systems in the context of societal challenges; integration of Ukrainian children into the European educational space; educational mobility and “learning beyond territories”; intercultural communication and socio-educational adaptation; ensuring the quality, accessibility, and continuity of school education; research into the education systems of Germany, Switzerland, and other European countries; use of international experience for the recovery and development of Ukraine’s education system.
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