Following the armed invasion of the independent country of Ukraine in February 2022, universities and other institutions in the country went into crisis mode. First, they did their utmost to continue the courses that had already begun, pivoting to an on-line platform developed during Covid 19. They did this while physically adapting to accommodate a population that was moving westward and seeking safety, whether, across the country or to other nations.
Many universities in the east of Ukraine were targeted and destroyed by Russian bombs. Others, such as L’viv Polytechnic National University’s Department of Sociology and Social Work (DSSW), marshaled the faculty, staff, and students seeking to build some kind of normalcy, while continuing to offer quality education to support present and future citizens of Ukraine. Daily, in the early months of the war, this involved interrupting in-person classes several times a day to hustle to air-raid shelters, returning to class once the “all clear” was sounded. By May 2022, the university developed a system that was somewhat functional, with a focus on helping students to complete their courses and degrees. The university administration did their best to keep local students safe, while also freeing up dormitory, classroom, and common area spaces to provide shelter to internally displaced people fleeing to safety in the western part of the country.
The DSSW was created less than ten years after Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union, with the philosophy that access to education that promotes critical thinking is a sign of peace. Prior to the war, the standard DSSW theoretical and practical courses included not only individual and family-focused work, but also community development work, essentially peacebuilding work. Part of the practical social work training students involves working within, and assisting further development of, community resources. The DSSW has also been instrumental in developing a student accessibility program, “No Limits”. This includes a Veteran’s Hub on campus, providing services to former military members and their families as they reintegrate into community post-service and/or as they complete university degrees. Faculty also serve at a rehabilitation centre outside the city of L’viv. All this work has accelerated and deepened considerably since the onset of the war.
At the university, there are many ongoing personal and professional challenges associated with basic safety, and with the delivery of education. Stress is continuous. People are responsible not only for their own lives and people they love — close friends, relatives, friends, colleagues — but also for the student’s safety and development. The stresses change by the moment, with faculty, staff, and students experiencing deep anger and disbelief that this war could be possible.
Now, more than two years after the first invasion, some faculty members, depending on their own physical, mental, and familial challenges and resources, remain stubbornly in place, while a few have moved away from L’viv, even past Ukraine’s borders. Many have been housing family members and friends fleeing the east. In addition to their regular work, most are involved in different kinds of volunteer activities that support both internally displaced people (IDP) and the army in practical ways, including fundraising outside the country.
The university wants to remain viable, prepared for full engagement after the war: in addition to course preparation and delivery, faculty members are still required to write and publish academic articles, participate in conferences wherever they can, and continue to seek funding support and project engagement from outside sources. There has also been a demand to keep our university in the public eye, to entice new students. Without students, there are no programs. Faculty feel this responsibility personally.
In the first fall after the beginning of the war, the 2022-2023 academic year, there were many applicants to the DSSW program. So many people who had absolutely no connection to social work applied to the Master of Social Work (MSW) program with their degrees from aeronautics, engineering, information technology, etc. The DSSW accepted many, with some succeeding in making the shift to sociology and social work from these technical programs.
The content of the DSSW program itself has also undergone changes. Professional practice courses have been filled with new topics related to the actual issues of the work of social workers in wartime conditions. Topics that reveal the essence of social work with military personnel, veterans and their family members and internally displaced people have appeared, with even greater focus on trauma experienced not only by service users, but also service providers in this context. To accommodate the increase in both classes and students, classes have been shortened, with many taught in hybrid form – both on-line and in person.
Social work education includes field placements where students learn in the community, with local organizations. Most of these placements were lost in the early months of the war as people moved to strictly online classes. Now things have again shifted as students who remain in their home territories take classes online. Through these new, different community connections, the DSSW has also connected with local service providers and so students may have practical placements in different resources and areas in the country. Thus, the DSSW now collaborates with other universities and organizations and at the time of writing had taught six different training sessions for people across the country. Their work with universities in cities such as Dnipro, Mykolaiv, and Vinnytsia has developed a course to train veteran’s assistants in a kind of peer-support program through the LPNU Veteran’s Hub, aimed at overcoming trauma and reintegration into civil society. Currently, program participants are not paid for their work, but their expertise is highly needed now. It is a two-sided coin in that doing the work of the veteran’s assistant is also helpful for the assistants themselves.
The faculty and staff of the DSSW realize that they must support each other through these very trying times, remaining as positive as they can in interactions with each other while also doing their best to look after themselves as they continue this grueling work. They know that they and their students will have a part in rebuilding Ukraine after the war. Creating a vision of peace, with the accompanying practical work is part of peace education. They, and we, pray for a just peace, and that the world around will not forget Ukraine during the process of building this peace both now and after the war.
** This essay was adapted from the following article: Klos, L., Stavkova, S., & Flaherty, M. (2024). Teaching Peace in Times of War: Perspectives from a Ukrainian University. Peace Review, 36(1), 6–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2024.2306400
Liliya Klos
Dr. Klos, MD, Ph.D. in Education, D.Sc. in education, is the head of the Department of Sociology and Social Work of the Lviv Polytechnic National University (LPNU), Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ukraine. Dr. Klos worked for 22 years as a pediatrician in an infectious disease hospital (1985-2007), while at the same time engaged in scientific and pedagogical activities. In 2003, she joined the Reforming Social Services: Canada-Ukraine project (1999-2003), funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and began her professional career at the Department of Sociology and Social Work of the LPNU.
Sofiya Stavkova
Sofiya (Sonya) Stavkova has been a faculty member of the Department of Sociology and Social Work since its inception as part of Reforming Social Services: Canada Ukraine. Now Associate Professor in DSSW, she has more than 15 publications on supervision in social work and continuous professional training, as well as multicultural aspects of human co-existence in a globalized world.
Maureen P. Flaherty
Maureen P. Flaherty, MSW, PhD is a Senior Scholar in Peace & Conflict Studies at the University of Manitoba, Canada. In collaboration with Ukrainian and other partners, her ongoing work is anchored in participatory research, using tools such as narrative and visioning for empowerment, bridging differences and building community in both Canada and Ukraine.
