In the dissertation, based on the analysis of historical-pedagogical, philosophical, and psychological literature of domestic and foreign scientists, and Internet resources, the relevance of the problem has been substantiated. The essential features of the basic concepts of the study “tolerance/intolerance”, “levels of tolerance”, “tolerant relations”, “teaching tolerance to preschoolers”, “communicative tolerant environment of preschool education institution”, “children’s literature”, “literature for children” are given. Tolerance is considered as the ability to collaborate and cooperate, the willingness to accept others, regardless of differences; tolerance for other opinions, beliefs, and behavior, recognition/acceptance of diversity, and equality of others.
The stages of the development of the theory and practice of teaching tolerance to preschool children (second half of the 20th – beginning of the 21st century): I stage – the adoption of basics on the protection of children’s rights, their education based on humanity, mutual understanding, tolerance, peace, and general fraternity; II stage – 1989-1995 – recognition of the children legal status, the necessity to educate them according to the principles of freedom, equality, solidarity, dignity, tolerance, and peace; III stage – 1995–2000 – the education system was recognized as an effective tool for the development of a child's tolerance, the revival of national preschool traditions, educators’ active creative search for didactic aids for preschool children, themes of personal interaction, perception of the moral and psychological state of a person and his/her social environment dominate in Ukrainian children's literature; IV stage – 2000–2022 – the reformation of the Ukrainian preschool education system in the direction of pedagogy of tolerance and humanization (implementation of the State Standard of Preschool Education (2021) based on the competence approach in accordance with international quality standards.
The pedagogical potential of Ukrainian children’s literature of the second half of the 20th – the beginning of the 21st century has been analyzed, and constructive ideas regarding the actualization of the historical and pedagogical experience of teaching tolerance to preschoolers have been highlighted, considering modern innovative educational trends. It has been proven that Ukrainian children's literature, enriched with psychological models of behavior, axiological orientation, life experience, and traditions of Ukrainians that are valuable for the child's development, has a significant impact on preschoolers’ personality development.
The content and specifics of poetic and prose works of Ukrainian children’s literature within the studied period are characterized by the purpose of their use in the preschool education institution (PEI) for teaching tolerance to preschoolers.
The state of the problem under study in modern PEI practice has been studied: the results of the survey of preschool teachers from different regions of Ukraine made it possible to reveal their awareness of the content of tolerance/intolerance in modern conditions; to identify the forms, methods, techniques, and works of children's literature that are the subject of their use in working with children. According to the results of the survey of educators and the analysis of artistic works for children of the outlined period, those that contain the most expressive content for teaching tolerance are recommended (Hryhoriy Falkovich’s poems “About Jealousy”, “About Love”, Galyna Malyk’s “Scary Girl”, “Crooked Mirror”, “Greedy Andrew”, Oksana Krotyuk’s stories “Friend”, “Airplane”, “Bad Habit”, Lesya Movchun’s fairy tales “A Harp for a Spider”, “Social Party”, “Little Wind”, “Silence”, Zirka Menzatyuk’s “One Thousand Umbrellas”, “Lost Heart”, etc.). Pedagogical tools for increasing the effectiveness of teaching tolerance to preschool children by means of Ukrainian children’s literature are proposed. The priority directions of educators working with preschoolers for the purpose of teaching tolerance by means of children's fiction books of the studied period have been outlined.
