On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is still ongoing as in times of writing. Despite the destruction of educational facilities, forced displacement of universities from occupied regions, and the lack of funds, Ukrainian universities continue to function, persevering in teaching and learning. The full-scale invasion had a dramatic effect on all Ukrainians, including university teachers, who are responsible for upholding higher education and preparing future specialists. 

The existing research documents challenges faced by the University teachers: feelings of depression (Lavrysh et al., 2022), psychological problems (Fiialka, 2022), emotional exhaustion (Tsybuliak et al., 2023a) and decrease in family income (Tsybuliak et al., 2023b). However, the research has rarely discussed how the realities of war impacted university teachers’ everyday practice. Ukrainian higher education institutions (HEIs) are symbolic of the nation's resilience to Russian occupants as they continued to work, firstly, by returning to distance education, mastered during the COVID-19 pandemic, and lately by resuming face-to-face instructions. The proposed presentation aims to highlight, describe, and reflect upon university teachers’ experiences in their own words. The research question, who the presentation will answer, is How has the professional experience of Ukrainian university teachers been since the full-scale Russian invasion?

Here, we understand professional experience as a sum of teaching and research/scientific activities that Ukrainian HEIs’ teachers undertake in their respective universities. This study adopts interviews as a method for gathering research data, as the aim is to prompt the participants’ reflexive thoughts (Dewey, 1991) on their practice. Instead of focusing on what happened, reflexive thought fosters considerations of how something happened, for what reasons, and how a person felt and positioned themselves in it, as it is spontaneous and real thinking (Clarà, 2015).

We further connect reflexivity with dialogue, as the interviews with participating Ukrainian university teachers are conducted by the fellow Ukrainian university teacher, the first author. Dialogue looks simultaneously towards individual thinking and reflection and the constitution of cultural practices at a specific historical moment (Renshaw, 2004). As such dialogue provides a space for a deeper reflexive thought, stimulated and co-constructed through each others’ utterances, since, as Wells (2007) writes, when individual understanding becomes powerfully enhanced when realised in dialogue the stamps from inquiry and knowing-together. Hence, in dialogue the research is done with the participants, and not on them.

The first author, who conducted the interviews, shares cultural and professional identity, language, and experiential base with the research participants, which makes them an insider researcher (Asselin, 2003; Dwyer & Buckle, 2009). Being an insider researcher allowed to prompt more reflexive thoughts, as there was no necessity for establishing the context. Being an insider researcher also brings ethical and methodological challenges as it might be difficult to detach personal from experiences of the participants and to not to impose own ideas on the participants (Pillow, 2003; Finefter-Rosenbluh, 2017). During the interviews, it was important for the authors to provide a space for teachers’ agency without imposing and including ourselves in their stories through engaging in open and respectful dialogue. Overall, recognising and critically reflecting on affordances and challenges of the authors’ positionality, the authors approach interviews as dialogue to provide space for the participants’ authentic self-expression and reflexive thoughts.

The research is based on 34 interviews conducted with practising Ukrainian HEIs’ teachers. Interviews allow to engage with research participants individually in a way different from questionnaires, providing dialogic opportunities to probe and clarify what is being said (Atkins & Wallace, 2012). Utilising the first authors’ connections, we use snowball sampling technique, meaning accessing participants through contact information provided by other participants (Noy, 2008). The semi-structured interviews were conducted by the first author over Zoom in Ukrainian language throughout May-July 2024. One challenge in conducting online interviews was the regular power outages in Ukraine that could last for many hours, sometimes a scheduled interview could not happen since there was no electricity to establish connection. All the interviews were recorded with the participants’ consent. The participants were prompted to reflect upon their teaching load, quality of education, relationship with students, research activities, university and international support. The interviews on average lasted around 30-40 minutes. Among 34 interviewed teachers, 24 identified as women and 10 as men. The majority, 29, are in Ukraine, while 5 are abroad. The participants come from across disciplines (social sciences and humanities, art, law, economic studies, life sciences, and medicine). Participants come from across Ukraine, representing 10 different regions, including the capital Kyiv. This research adopts reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2022) for working with the collected data. Reflexive thematic analysis acknowledges the impossibility of unbiased research, thus it embraces subjectivity, while stimulating constant critical reflection on researchers’ own role in the study. Following the established guidelines, both authors participate in data analysis, reflecting on data, generating codes (e.g. “unity”, “because we have to”, “the war drags on”), before drafting, reviewing after some time, and eventually finalising the themes. The reflexive thematic analysis resulted in three themes: 1) Overworked and overstressed but keep on working, 2) The influence of the invasion on teacher-student relationship, 3) There is support, but I don’t use it. Each of these themes will be discussed during the proposed presentation with more details and quotes.

The war changes what it means to be a HEI’s teacher, it makes it impossible to separate the professional from the civil. This study’s participants highlight how their duties, perception of self and their teaching subjects, as well as relationships with students and fellow colleagues, changed following the full-scale invasion. The teachers now feel that the borders between themselves and students are dissolving, as students bombard them with requests across communication channels 24/7, which in turn expands their working hours. At the same time, teachers often provide acceptable minimum grades for students either because they feel empathetic to whatever student is going through, or because students often repeat their attempts to pass, eventually scoring the necessary grade. Because of this and other factors such as the constraints of war, power outages, or decisions of HEI’s administrations, the participants spend more time and effort on teaching, leaving them with no power for any research activities, including the ones offered as a part of international academic support. The only scientific outputs produced by the teachers are conference presentations and articles, that are required by the contracts and the quality of which the teachers are not proud of. While we celebrate the resilience of Ukrainian university teachers in the context of the full-scale invasion, it is important to remember that this resilience comes from somewhere: it blossoms from the feeling of pride in their profession and the quality they aim to uphold, from support and care between each other, from positive relationships with students, and students’ appreciation of their work. This resilience should not be taken for granted. It takes effort and these efforts ought to be supported further by those who have power to do so.

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