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In:The Moving Canon(s) of Slavic Children’s Literature
Edited by Mateusz Swietlicki, Dorota Michułka and Zofia Zasacka
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 20] 2026
► pp. 39–55

Chapter 2
Children’s literature in the contemporary Ukrainian school canon

Transformations and reorientations

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Abstract
This chapter showcases the changing position of children’s literature in the Ukrainian school canon in the last decade. The reforms of literary education began in Ukraine in 2015–2016. In 2018, the new State Standard of General Elementary Education came into effect, followed by the new State Standard of Basic Secondary Education two years later. This chapter identifies key factors in the dynamics and transformations of the Ukrainian school canon used from 2000 to 2016 and from 2016 to 2022 in elementary schools, demonstrating the most significant changes and reorientations based on comparative and typological research of the school canon’s content before and after the introduction of the new curricula in 2016.
Article outline
  • The canon, the children’s literature canon, and the school canon
  • Changes in the aesthetic paradigm of Ukrainian literature in the school canon
  • Children’s literature in the school canon before and after 2016
  • The active school canon and the criteria of classic children’s literature
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (41)
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