Teaching Methodology

Tavrian Painting in the Preschool Education of Mykolaiv: a History of Formation and Development

The history of bringing Tavrian painting into the preschool education of Mykolaiv is an example of how the cultural heritage of the native land gradually becomes an important part of the educational process in a preschool institution — of patriotic upbringing, of children’s cognitive and creative development, and also of the personal and professional growth of teachers.

Acquaintance as a source of knowledge

Teachers first received knowledge of Tavrian painting in 2004, during in-service training at the Mykolaiv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, from the lecturer Dmytro Kryk. It was then, on the initiative of Olena Borozdina, educator-methodologist of Preschool Education Institution No. 141, that she met the artist and researcher of Tavrian painting Yevhenia Bondarenko. Her masterclass became the beginning of professional cooperation and of many years of creative search by practitioners of preschool education.

In personal conversation Yevhenia Bondarenko not only taught the technique of the painting’s elements, but also opened its deeper meaning: the symbolism, the colour range, the history of its arising, the character of its spread, and its spiritual bond with the culture of Southern Ukraine. Later an important source of knowledge became her book of journalistic novellas Paths to the Lyman (the first collection), which helped toward a deeper understanding of the cultural heritage of our land.

2005–2007. The birth of a pedagogical idea

Olena Borozdina’s idea of bringing Tavrian painting into work with little children was supported by Aryna Yakovleva, director of Preschool Education Institution No. 29. It was in these two institutions that systematic work began on adapting Tavrian painting to the capacities of preschool children. The teaching staffs organised practical seminars and creative groups, selected elements of the painting accessible to children, and created the first lesson outlines, didactic materials and samples of children’s work.

It gradually became clear that separate lessons were not enough. There arose a need to create a complete methodology for introducing children to Tavrian painting — one that would help draw preschoolers toward sources of folk knowledge, grow their interest in the cultural achievements and heritage of their people, foster love of their country, develop creativity, and more.

A space devoted to Tavrian painting at Preschool Education Institution No. 50, the city of Mykolaiv

The forming of an author’s methodology

From 2007 to 2015, Preschool Education Institutions No. 29 and No. 141 became the main experimental grounds on which an educational and methodological base was created for the purposeful introduction of Tavrian painting as a means of the artistic-aesthetic and patriotic upbringing of preschool children.

The sharing of experience

In the 2012–2013 school year the teachers of the two institutions joined in the creative group “Along Folklore Paths into the World of Speech,” studying the possibilities of using folklore heritage and the symbolism of Tavrian painting in the patriotic upbringing of preschool children.

On 3 December 2013 the work was first presented to the pedagogical public at a meeting of the city methodological association of educators. There was a masterclass in the technique of Tavrian painting and a demonstration of how it may be used in work with children, given by Oksana Lysianska, educator of Preschool Education Institution No. 29. It was she who created a large part of the visual material — albums for teaching children the elements of the painting and samples of children’s work — which became an important part of the author’s methodology.

On 12 May 2015, at an evening of memory for Yevhenia Bondarenko in the Mykolaiv Regional Universal Scientific Library, Olena Borozdina and Aryna Yakovleva, director of Preschool Education Institution No. 29, presented the results of many years of work by their staffs in bringing Tavrian painting into preschool education. At the same gathering a report was heard from Iryna Romaniuk, then methodologist of the Mykolaiv Scientific and Methodological Centre, on how this experience was being shared among the city’s preschool institutions.

In 2016–2021 the experience of the two institutions was actively shared among the pedagogical community of the city, the region and Ukraine.

The work was presented at:

  • city exhibitions “Education”;
  • August conferences of teaching staff;
  • methodological associations of educators;
  • in-service courses of the Mykolaiv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education;
  • masterclasses for teachers;
  • masterclasses for residents of the city during events for City Day.

The result of many years of work was the promising pedagogical experience Tavrian Painting as a Means of Artistic and Aesthetic Development and Patriotic Education of Preschool Children, which described a complete methodology for using Tavrian painting in the educational process of preschool institutions. Consultative and methodological support for the development of the methodology was given by Iryna Romaniuk, methodologist of the Mykolaiv Scientific and Methodological Centre.

In October 2019 this methodology was presented at the 11th International Exhibition “Innovation in Contemporary Education” in Kyiv. The work received an honorary diploma and a bronze medal in the nomination “Development and Implementation of Innovative Teaching Tools, Projects, Programmes and Solutions in Educational Institutions.” Participants in the exhibition — teachers from different fields of education in Ukraine — highly valued the experience of bringing Tavrian painting into preschool education as an example of sociocultural and competence-based approaches to the organisation of the educational process.

In this period creative cooperation began with the artist and master Liubov Paraniuk, who has been reviving the traditions of Tavrian painting and sharing the unique art of Southern Ukraine for many years. In January 2020 the professional journal Dzhmil published Olena Borozdina’s article “Tavrian Painting: Colours of the Sea,” which presented the themes, symbolism and colour range of Tavrian painting with the use of works by the gifted Mykolaiv master.

The years 2019–2021 became a period of active introduction of the Tavrian painting methodology in other preschool institutions of the city. The authors offered an approximate weekly long-term plan, which reflects the variety of forms and kinds of activity for forming the social-civic and artistic-creative competences of preschool children by means of Tavrian painting: observation, excursions, imagined journeys, reading and conversation, didactic games, acquaintance with reproductions of paintings by Yevhenia Bondarenko, looking at thematic and speech albums, legends, tales and true stories of the native land, cognitive minutes, role-play, independent artistic activity, work with colouring pages, stencils and correction tables, creative minutes, and many other kinds of activity.

Resilience and mental recovery

For teachers of the region, and of Mykolaiv in particular, Tavrian painting has never been simply drawing. It is a living interweaving of the stories of the native land, of shared creativity, and of particular rhythmic movements that convey the plasticity of waves or the sweep of a seagull’s wings, turning art into a means of harmonising the child.

If until 2022 “Tavryka” was cherished as an invaluable cultural inheritance, today it has become our art of resilience and a social glue. The colours of our sea, the images and legends of the South on paper, help little children find an inner calm, and help teachers gather around shared values into a large professional family.

Today this is no longer simply the introduction of different kinds and forms for carrying out a methodology of acquaintance with Tavrian painting. It is a path of keeping and strengthening health, in which every “drop” of the painting is a symbol of the unbreakable spirit of Mykolaiv and of a shared care for the mental future of the nation.

A new impulse of development

Two decades after the work began, Tavrian painting received a new impulse of development — now at the level of the city’s entire preschool community.

An important event for preschool education was the participation of teachers from Institutions No. 29 and No. 141 in the scholarly discourse “Folk Wall Painting in the Historical and Cultural Space of the Mykolaiv Region: History — Contemporary Realities,” held on the initiative of the Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education on 10 May 2024. In the programme of the discourse Aryna Yakovleva, head of Institution No. 29 “Samanta,” and Olena Borozdina, educator-methodologist of Preschool Education Institution No. 141 “Zirochka,” presented the theme “Developing the Creative Potential of Preschool Children by Means of Folk Art” — namely, the methodology they had designed for teaching Tavrian painting to preschool children.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mnmz166/permalink/7609158239162282/ 

In July 2024 the professional journal Doshkilne vykhovannia (Preschool Education) published an article by Olena Borozdina and Aryna Yakovleva, “Tavrian Painting: We Revive Traditions, We Foster Patriotism,” which became a calling card of a professional path toward a quality result in children’s development.

In October 2024 and April 2025, 58 teachers from 26 preschool institutions of Mykolaiv took part in the large project “Mykolaiv: a City that Learns and Teaches,” which the Public Organisation “Adult Learning and Education Center ‘South’” continues to carry out to this day. It was on a commission from the Centre for Professional Development of Pedagogical Workers of the Mykolaiv City Council that Ruslana Sikalenko, methodologist and expert of the public organisation, and Liubov Paraniuk, leading master and teacher, designed the author’s express course for preschool teachers — “Foundations of Tavrian Painting: Preschool.” This initiative to share the unique Tavrian painting of the Mykolaiv Region as a calling card of the region, to preserve intangible cultural heritage, and to prepare teachers for its contemporary use in the educational process also had the support of the municipal institution “Mykolaiv Development Agency.”

We may now say with confidence that the pedagogical idea which was born as far back as 2004 has grown into a true and powerful methodological instrument. Beginning as an author’s initiative of two institutions that for years built and tested this system with their own hands, the methodology has now become the shared inheritance of the whole professional community and is successfully introduced in every preschool institution of Mykolaiv.

The history of bringing Tavrian painting into practice shows the continuity of a pedagogical idea — from the first acquaintance with the work of Yevhenia Bondarenko, through the forming of an author’s methodology and its scholarly and methodological support, to all-Ukrainian recognition and the present stage of scaling. Today Tavrian painting is not only a unique phenomenon of folk art, but also a tested pedagogical technology that helps children come to know the history of their native land, form a cultural identity and foster a love of Ukraine.

Iryna Romaniuk, consultant of the Centre for Professional Development of Pedagogical Workers of the Mykolaiv City Council