MORAL AND ETHICAL EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHARITY AND VOLUNTEERING IN PEDAGOGICAL COLLEGES OF UKRAINE (1991 – 2025)

Abstract

The article provides a historical and pedagogical analysis of the development of moral and ethical education as well as charity and volunteering in pedagogical colleges of Ukraine in 1991–2025. The relevance of the study is determined by changes in the value orientations of Ukrainian society under the conditions of post-Soviet transformations, European integration processes, and the Russian-Ukrainian war, which has intensified the need to form moral responsibility, civic engagement, and professional ethics among future specialists. Moral and ethical education is interpreted as a holistic process of shaping moral consciousness, values, feelings, and behavioral attitudes of students, implemented through cognitive-worldview, emotional-value, and behavioral-activity components. Three stages of its development are distinguished: the ethnocultural-oriented stage (1991–2003/04), the socio-civic stage (2004–2013), and the civic-patriotic stage (2014–2025). It is shown that charity and volunteering have evolved from occasional actions into an institutionalized system of socially significant activity integrated into the educational process of colleges. Particular attention is paid to the role of anti-corruption and academic integrity components of moral education, as well as to the impact of volunteering during the war on the formation of patriotism, empathy, and an active civic position among students.

The conclusions state that during the period under study, the development of moral and ethical education in pedagogical colleges was aimed at the personal formation of students as bearers of humanistic values and moral culture, as well as at their acquisition of national and civic values such as humanism, justice, mercy, and patriotism. A significant role in this process was played by charity and volunteering, which contribute to the development of empathy and altruism, civic responsibility and active engagement, awareness of personal involvement in social problems, and readiness to provide effective and self-sacrificial assistance to those in need and to the state.