https://doi.org/10.53656/ped2024-2.05

Резюме. The article offers the basics of creating an educational hub with rehabilitation potential. Approaches to the peculiarities of the organization of this type of activity, including in extreme conditions, were analyzed and systematized. The peculiarities and experience of the organization of educational hubs, relevant during the war and in the post-war period, were analyzed from the point of view of the effectiveness of educational and rehabilitation processes and their compliance with modern educational standards. The authors also propose their vision of an alternative educational hub. Its main sense is to focus attention on the possibilities of the individual’s self-organization in extreme conditions, as well as actualization of potential possibilities of self-rehabilitation, learning the art of self-help. The hub is created in the context of the professional training of specialists in the socionomic profile and provides the supervision of teachers-scientists, who ensure the appropriate content and methodical support of the educational and rehabilitation process. The effectiveness of this approach was determined due to approbation of the part of educational and rehabilitation program, in particular, the organization of a psychotherapeutic space for students with the aim of forming their professional and personal resistance to traumatic events caused by war and other challenges of the time.

Ключови думи: educational and rehabilitation hub; psychotherapeutic space; selfhelp; war and post-war period; students; teachers-scientists.

Introduction

There is no need to prove the importance of adaptive education, which must maximally respond to the challenges of time, satisfying the current needs of subjects of educational activity as well as the market of educational services, which directly or indirectly reflects them.

It is natural that extreme conditions, to which war and post-war period belongs, dictate the demand to rethink the essence of the educational process in order to correspond the needs of its participants in realizing the functions, which are especially relevant in such situations.

These functions include: physical protection of life and preservation of health; reduction of psycho-emotional, stressful, depressive states associated with injuries, loss of relatives, housing, comfortable living conditions; loss of opportunities to be engaged in usual activities, to realize one’s development potential. In general, it is about adaptation to a social situation that does not correspond to fixed patterns of interaction with the environment, established values of human life.

As a result, rather original creative solutions appeared in Ukraine with the beginning of the war, for example, educational, educational and rehabilitation hubs, which became a reaction to the urgent needs of creating special conditions for those who were particularly affected by the war (especially persons displaced from zone of active fighting). As the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska noted in her video message on May 23, 2022, Ukraine is launching the National Program of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support: “...we will create our own unique program of psychological assistance. This is an ambitious task – to convert stress and pain into strength and effort, evil into good’’.

The purpose of the article/investigation: to analyze the peculiarities and practical experience of organizing educational hubs, relevant during the war, in the postwar period and their compliance with modern educational standards; to model and test an alternative version based on the principles of person-directed education.

The following methods were used in the investigation:

Theoretical (analysis, synthesis, generalization), as a result of which: there were analyzed the essence of educational and rehabilitation activities in extreme conditions of war, theoretical models and practical experience of the organization of educational hubs; there were determined the priority areas of work and there were identified problems that significantly reduce the effectiveness of their work and come into conflict with modern educational standards, technologies of personally directed work (self-directed learning).

Predicting and modeling methods that made it possible to design a comprehensive approach to the organization of rehabilitation activities in the conditions of an educational hub, focusing on the standards of innovative education, interactive technologies and rehabilitation potential in its context.

Diagnostic methods (questionnaires, research interviews, essays, quantitative and qualitative analysis, methods of mathematical statistics), which made it possible to find out the effectiveness of individual components of the developed alternative model of an educational hub with rehabilitation potential, based on the dominance of the principles of self-education, self-rehabilitation, self-management, etc.

In the course of the research, we analyzed a significant number of literature sources on the problem of education in extreme, conflict-causing situations, as well as concepts and programs for the functioning of educational and rehabilitation hubs (both foreign and Ukrainian), created mainly during the war.

The analysis of literary sources made it possible to form the theoretical basis of the study, which includes the interpretation of concepts and the definition of the basic positions concerning its forming. The concept of hub in the modern sense means the center of activity, the node of a certain network of subjects of this activity, in our case, educational activities. In other words, it implements the system-forming function of a certain educational complex, which is based on the concentration of resource opportunities, as well as communication and constructive forms of interaction between all participants in the educational process. The educational hub should be perceived as a component of an integral educational process based on general innovative development trends, basic principles, content and models of their implementation, specifying it in accordance with the determined needs and requirements of the current situation. Educational and rehabilitation activities should be focused on the gradual actualization of the subject position of participants in the educational and rehabilitation process, immanent forms of their integration into the educational and social community of different levels on the basis of equal subject-subject relationships.

In the conditions of war a person is exposed to new realities, which necessitates not only adaptation processes, but also in some places the situational breaking of stereotypes, the development of a new scale of values, respectively – life priorities.

It means that the subjective measure of safety, which is produced by the individual himself in the specially created conditions of the educational and rehabilitation hub, will be a determining criterion for the quality of the educational environment and the effectiveness of its rehabilitation potential.

The analysis of the local practice of creating and operating educational and rehabilitation hubs during the period of military operations is of particular value because they reflect not only the features in accordance with the current situation, but also the level of adaptability of the educational system, its ability to work on innovative technologies and quickly respond to the challenges of the time. Therefore, we analyzed some of them.

The educational hub of Khmelnytskyi region, as an innovative avant-garde education, was one of the first in Ukraine to start its activity to provide a wide range of educational services and systematic psychological advice to children and adults. (Basiuk 2022). In the context of this task, we analyzed the social innovation project “Educational Hub of Kyiv City” (2019), which is based on the concept of continuity of education “Lifelong Learning” in Kyiv, which makes it possible to adapt to the real conditions of the employment market, providing opportunities for the development of the necessary “soft skills” that allow increasing competitiveness in the employment market.Various non-traditional forms of organizing the educational process for internally displaced schoolchildren and students are used.

Analysis of the conceptual foundations and practices of organizing educational activities of the vast majority of such hubs are focused on continuing training, leveling stressful situations, as well as providing additional information, helping to develop skills necessary in a survival situation, finding forms of activity that will help to realize themselves, improve their financial situation. Without detracting from the importance of all these emergency measures caused by the extreme situation of military operations, it is worth to analyze the fact that in some places such forms of educational activities are not very popular and do not acquire a tendency to increase their mass scale. There are many reasons for this, including critically depressive states of people (especially children and young people), which do not allow them to organize themselves and actively seek such opportunities, or even accept those offered, including visiting educational hubs.

Without resorting to a comprehensive analysis of the problems related to the efficiency of functioning and development of educational and rehabilitation hubs, we focused on their basic concept, as well as correlated it with modern educational standards and innovative educational practices. Theoretical analysis of the problem and comparative analysis of the functioning of various educational and rehabilitation hubs allowed us to come to the following conclusions: 1) The fundamental contradiction of traditional hubs is laid down in the format of organizing activities. Usually, such projects develop models for effective assistance to those who were most affected by the war. (The following position is laid down: we help, support, teach, entertain, rehabilitate. Thus, educational and rehabilitation activities are built through subject-object relationships). We consider this position to be obviously destructive, since it contradicts the principles of modern education, which is formed on the basis of subject-subject relationships, as a result of which the formula of classical education “I am taught” is not implemented, but instead the innovative formula “I learn” works, and therefore the processes of relationships are actively involved through self-education, self-rehabilitation. 2) Educational hubs try to program their activities on the basis of the target audience, which usually concerns internally displaced persons, who are classified as unable to independently cope with the problems of meeting educational needs and correcting their psychoemotional states which naturally contributes to dissatisfaction. 3) The rehabilitation function is often declared as leading in such types of educational hubs, especially for schoolchildren, which will record an obsessive feeling of psychological and mental problems that they cannot cope with on their own and need external help. 4) These types of educational services are often classified as volunteer assistance, which is accompanied by loud advertising and public reports in which recipients of services must “show their appreciation”. 5) The risk of forming a consumer social position among people who act as passive objects of receiving socio-psychological benefits and services increases. 6) In fact, those who do not belong to the target audience (for example, displaced persons) are ignored, but they still have problems with their psychoemotional characteristics that they cannot cope with on their own.

So, the main problem of this approach to the organization of educational hubs is programming the position of its participant as such, who is “helped” to realize the fact that he is a victim and needs external assistance (obviously a humiliating and destructive position for a significant number of those for whom these services are designed). This is especially unacceptable for the category of young people (displaced persons) who are self-sufficient, successful, financially secure and breaking stereotypes escalates either aggressive or depressive states.

In addition, the differentiation of people, especially young people, into those who provide services and those who receive them, a priori has an inhibitory effect on the processes of social unification, social inclusion, which produces conflict situations in the community, and therefore does not contribute to the development of constructive interaction and cooperation in the socio-economic sphere between the community and groups of temporarily displaced persons who are integrated into it.

Results of modeling. Based on the above-mentioned theoretical positions, we have developed an alternative model of an educational and rehabilitation hub of the appropriate type, which is programmed as part of the professional training of future specialists in socionomic professions. Its goal is to mobilize the teaching and student community within the educational and rehabilitation platform/hub, united by the needs and interests of finding and applying effective formats and innovative practices of assistance in human adaptation to military and post-war realities, in particular the implementation of educational and rehabilitation functions.

So, psychoemotional rehabilitation, which is programmed in the context of educational activities, social integration, is not so much about traditional assistance, but about parity interaction, constructive cooperation, creating external conditions for the realization of everyone’s development potential. It is important to organize activities according to the formula: we study, relax, strengthen our spirit and physical capabilities together in close cooperation on the basis of subject-subject relationships, ensuring the mobility of roles of all participants in the educational platform. At the same time, it is important to ensure the bifunctionality of activities implemented through the formula: we master modern educational practices, rehabilitation techniques for our own needs, and teach this art to others.

In accordance with the above, psychological, rehabilitation, therapeutic, lifecreating directions of educational and rehabilitation activities are implemented in the next format: self-psychologist (we master modern methods (how to manage our psychological states; how to relieve situational stress; how to get yourself out of an aggressive state; how to set yourself up for a positive; how to get rid of obsessive states, etc.); self-teacher (we teach you to learn: we master the art of learning effectively, working for your future success, competitiveness in the labor market); self-rehabilitologist (we deepen our understanding of the psychological components of the process of recovery, compensation, readaptation or adaptation to new human conditions, we master modern rehabilitation practices); self – landscape therapist, art therapist, zoootherapist (we master the art of contemplation and emotional experience of the beauty of nature, communication with art; rest through spiritual enrichment, spiritual development), activate the hormones of joy; self-life creator (self-boss) – the art of managing yourself and your life.

We’ll demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach based on the testing of individual segments of the program of the educational and rehabilitation hub, in particular, the organization of psychotherapy space for students in order to form their professional and personal resistance to traumatic events caused by the war and other challenges of the time.

We proceed from the fact that the educational and rehabilitation hub is a relatively new phenomenon for students, which initially gives them the opportunity to master self-help tools, receive psychological support and support in the fight against traumatic experiences, in order to then use the experience gained in professional and any other sphere of life. An important condition for the effectiveness of such work is a permanently high level of motivation of its participants, because in the conditions of war, many of them also have a complex of experiences associated with a sense of powerlessness before their own emotional states, as well as the need to be useful for the country fighting the enemy.

The practical skills that students receive at the hub are in great educational and social demand. The tools of the psychological self-help segment contain techniques that are easy to understand and versatile to use when working with schoolchildren (with typical development and special needs), young people, and the elderly. They aim to work with intrusive memories, excitability, emotions, sensations, avoidance, and triggers. The tools combine cognitive, emotional, and behavioral coping strategies that are used to solve personal and interpersonal problems, trying to master, minimize, or overcome stress.

In particular, this applies to the techniques that students were taught at the hub: 1. the technique of relaxed diaphragmatic breathing; 2. the technique of relaxation and imagination, which involves relaxing the muscles of the body and searching for a psychological resource in their own imagination, helps to reduce the level of physical tension and make visual unconscious desires and emotional needs of a person; 3. art-therapeutic techniques where healing occurs by means of creativity, which contribute to the release of experiences displaced by the psyche, give an improvement in well-being and emotional state; 4. the technique of positive thinking, which gives you the ability to maintain hope and interest in yourself, no matter what happens.

Having mastered the techniques and worked out their own traumatic experience, students receive an established case of professional self-help tools, which can be further adapted to different situations, as well as used in the educational process, during practices, in future professional activities. Also, these students, under the guidance of teachers-trainers, can use practical classes, trainings with other students, and other participants of the educational platform.

It is important that within this segment of the educational and rehabilitation hub there is an opportunity to receive supervision with the participation of university teachers, students, psychologists and teachers-practitioners in order to collectively solve difficulties during the implementation of the program and create a space for discussing creative ideas. Working in a supervision group develops participants’ reflection, enriches their professional and personal experience, increases work efficiency, and gives them the opportunity to get the support of colleagues.

We will demonstrate an element of the experimental program on the example of a set of training sessions conducted for students of the Faculty of Special Education, Psychology and Social Work of the Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University (age of participants – 18 – 19 years), trainers are I. Martsinovska and T. Valko.

The effectiveness of the developed program was confirmed during control measurements and comparative analysis of the results of psychoemotional states on the scale of impact of events, in particular, the criteria of avoidance, intrusion, hyper-anxiety of students before and after mastering the tools of psychological self-help. This is demonstrated by the results of comprehensive diagnostics of individual students according to the specified criteria.

Content analysis of the process and performance of students’ work made it possible to identify individual trends that are significant for the activities of the educational and rehabilitation hub regarding the dynamics of programmed processes. Thus, before participating in the program on the “Impact of Events Scale” (2016), 100% of respondents had one or more symptoms indicating a high level of stress and the presence of anxious experiences related to the war, in particular: obsessive negative memories; insomnia and/or dreams associated with a traumatic event; sudden negative emotions and feelings caused by “returning” to a traumatic situation; psychological stress in events symbolizing trauma; avoidance of thoughts, discussions, emotions related to the war; inability to remember the details of the event; irritability; alertness; difficulties in concentrating; physiological responses to trauma-like events (shaking, sweating, rapid heartbeat and breathing, etc.). This is demonstrated by the results of comprehensive diagnostics of individual students according to the specified criteria, which are presented in Fig. 1.

After participating in the program, 100% of respondents noticed changes based on the test results. On the traumatic event avoidance scale, the overall rate of respondents decreased by 34,66%. In 25% of students, the avoidance symptom disappeared after participating in classes. In 12,5% of respondents, the indicator increased, but remained within the average level, which may indicate the need for individual psychological work. On the intrusion scale, the overall score decreased by 45.65%. In 37,5% of respondents, this symptom disappeared. In 12,5% of students, the indicator has not changed, which may indicate the need for individual work. On the hyperexcitation scale, the group’s score decreased by 54,32%. In 75% of respondents, this symptom disappeared.

Also, the results of diagnostics indicate that students in the course of classes were able to use the suggested tools to analyze their psychoemotional states, receiving individual results that sometimes turned out to be unexpected for them and became the subject of a comprehensive analysis. Thus, we have gained invaluable experience in self-diagnosis, self-regulation, and self-help, which is characterized by activity and a motivated willingness to help others based on personality-oriented methods.

Conclusions and summary

Therefore, the results of investigations indicate the urgency of the problem of finding new forms of organizing the educational process with a high rehabilitation potential, which corresponds the needs of youth and other segments of the population in the conditions of war and complex conflict-causing situations of the postwar period. The analysis of the theoretical foundations and practice of organizing the educational hubs shows the dominance of traditional forms of providing educational services. They provide various forms of social and psychological rehabilitation, assistance to the most affected persons during the war and are based on the subject-object relationship of their participants.

There was proposed the vision of an alternative educational hub, where the main attention was focused on the possibilities of the individual’s self-organization in extreme conditions, as well as actualization of potential possibilities of self-rehabilitation, learning the art of self-help.

Approbation of the part of educational and rehabilitation program, which concerns the organization of a psychotherapeutic space for students with the aim of forming their professional and personal resistance to traumatic events caused by war, showed the positive results.

The prospects of the research are related to increasing the level of conceptuality, systematic approach of the operation and development of the hub. This is necessary to increase the level of its adaptability to conditions that are constantly changing due to the improvement of resource, content, and technological capabilities.

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