The dissertation presents the results of historical and pedagogical research of the theory and practice of children’s social upbringing in boarding schools of Ukraine, the development of the content, forms, methods and leading tendencies of their development during 1956 – the beginning of the twenty-first century.
According to the results of the historiographical analysis of the problem, the theoretical and methodical foundations of the research have been defined (educational conceptions, directions, types and principles of social upbringing, organization and methodology of its implementation in residential educational institutions). It has been found out, that the content, forms and methods of children’s social upbringing in residential educational institutions were fallen under transformational changes, as they directly depended on socio-political, socio-economic, cultural and socio-pedagogical determinants.
The organizational and pedagogical foundations of children’s social upbringing in residential educational institutions have been considered, especially, a set of conceptual statements defining pedagogical bases of social upbringing and organizational determinants of its development in the Soviet and post-Soviet educational space, in several theoretical and practical dimensions: socio-political (the reflection of the content and quintessence of social upbringing through the prism of socio-political preconditions), technological (as a component of educational process determined by specific forms, methods and results of residential educational institutions’ activities concerning children’s social upbringing) and institutional (as a socio-pedagogical phenomenon of institutional maintenance and children’s state upbringing in boarding schools’ «closed» conditions).
According to the historical perspective, children’s social upbringing in residential educational institutions has been defined as a purposeful activity of boarding schools to provide a relatively controlled process of children’s personality development, determined by specific tasks, content and features of institutions and aimed at the acquisition of knowledge, norms, values and social experience by pupils for the purpose ensuring effective regulation of their social activities and behaviour in accordance with accepted norms in society.
The determinants influencing the development of children’s social upbringing in residential educational institutions have been determined: external (socio-political, socio-economic and cultural), internal (organizational and methodological, social and pedagogical, technological), as well as system-forming (plural interconnected structural elements that ensure the development of social education in the discourse of the genesis of residential educational institutions).
The periodization of the development of children’s social upbringing in residential educational institutions of Ukraine in the studied period has been substantiated: ideological-organizational (1956 – the first half of 1960’s); social-pragmatic (the second half of the 1960’s – 1990); (the first subperiod – 1965–1984, the second subperiod 1985–1990); child-centered (1991 – the beginning of the XXI century).
The transformation of the contents, forms and methods of children’s social education during the studied period has been characterized and differentiated on the basis of the pattern of the changes: organizational and methodological (characterized by forms of organization, methods, technics of implementation and principles of children’s social education in boarding schools), structural and functional (reflecting the impact of school education reforms on the development of children’s social upbringing) and content (reflecting transformations in the content of children’s social upbringing, in particular, the development of social knowledge, skills that must be learnt by pupils, their value orientations, beliefs, qualities and persistent habits of socially-required behaviour.
The preconditions for the development of children’s social upbringing in residential institutions of the country have been specified; the conceptual and terminological apparatus in the field of social andupbringing technologies has been improved.
The productive ideas concerning the experience of children’s social upbringing in residential educational institutions and the possibility of their extrapolation in the context of the reform of institutional establishments for children’s maintenance and upbringing have been singled out.
Key words: residential educational institutions, genesis of residential educational institutions, social upbringing, a boarding school, orphans, social and pedagogical activities, children deprived of parental care, boarding school inmates, methods of education, forms of education, educational means.
