The thesis is devoted to the comprehensive analysis of the teaching corps of church parish schools in Kyiv diocese in the 1960s and at the beginning of the 20th century. On the basis of the historiography analysis of church education in this period the author clarified that the scientific works studying church parish education in Kyiv diocese mostly paid attention to increasing the number of state-church schools, expanding the normative basis of their functioning, creating administrative departments and highlighting the success of church parish education in Kyiv diocese. According to the number of schools, admission of school-age children and the success rate of Orthodox population, Kyiv diocese was said to outpace all other dioceses in the Russian Empire. It was found that there were no separate studies analysing teaching corps in the church schools of Kyiv diocese. Consequently, the information about the number of various type teachers in church schools, their educational level, and pedagogical experience was a part of the general statistics of church parish schools.
To carry out the annotated research a broad source base was used. Among the published sources there can be mentioned the materials of church periodicals in Kyiv diocese: "Kyiv Eparchy Reports", "Guide for Rural Priests", "Church Parish School”, and "Western-Russian Primary School", and among the unpublished - annual reports on Kyiv diocese state, archival materials of Kyiv Spiritual Consistory fund and the fund of the Kyiv Eparchy School Council. The use of a broad source base enabled the author to highlight all the links in the teaching staff training system, to show the process of teaching corps formation, to reveal its staffing mechanisms. The information about teachers’ number in such schools found in school general statistical information made it possible to calculate the number of teaching staff in church parish schools of Kyiv diocese, to show the dynamics of such schools’ functioning and to characterise the various stages of their existence.
The comprehensive analysis of the historiography of church parish education and the source base of its state in Kyiv diocese enabled to follow the evolution of education, and distinguish three stages: the rise in the 1860s, the temporary decline caused by the re-subordination of elementary education to the Ministry of Education and the new development provoked by the Rules for Church Schools in 1884. The appearance of such document began a profound transformation in church parish education, resulted in formation of a management vertical of three levels (School Council at the Holy Synod, Kyiv Eparchy School Council, its departments in the districts of the region), state control strengthening, and maintaining fixed state funding. The regulatory framework was gradually improved and was differentiated for various types of church parish schools. The teaching corps developed under the influence of both general educational policy and public challenges.
The main idea of the proposed work is the reasoned statement that the overwhelming majority of the teaching corps in the church parish schools of Kyiv diocese during the specified chronological boundaries were the members from rural families who, having received a title of a teacher, an average, or a special teacher education, worked in state-owned schools, provided education for the population according to their skills and capabilities, and contributed to raising the cultural level of the people.
