Avgustyn Voloshyn – the Director of Uzhhorod Greek-Catholic Chorister and Teacher-Training Seminary

The topicality of the research is conditioned by the need to improve the quality of professional pedagogical education in Ukrainе. Taking this into account, it is of utmost importance to study the past experience of national education, in particular the system of training teachers in Transcarpathia that under the influence of historical circumstances adopted and realized European educational models in addition to its own achievements in the field. After WW1 in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles, state borders were changed in Central and Eastern Europe, thus significantly influencing Transcarpathia's political and territorial sovereignty. The region was annexed to the newly formed Czechoslovakia that combined four counties of the Hungarian period (Ung, Bereg, Ugocsa, and Máramaros) into one territorial unit – Carpathian Ruthenia with its administrative centre in Uzhhorod. In the period under research of special topicality is the issue of training and continuous upgrading of skills of primary school teachers that implemented educational reforms initiated by the government of Czechoslovakia. Avgustyn Voloshyn (1874–1945) made a significant contribution into the development of the region's professional pedagogical education. Avgustyn Voloshyn's talent as a pedagogue and scientist was mainly revealed while he was director of Uzhhorod Greek-Catholic chorister and teacher-training seminary (1917–1938). The article aims at elucidating the approaches of the Transcarpathian scientist and pedagogue of the first half of XX century Avgustyn Voloshyn to professional training of primary school teachers and improvement of their pedagogical skills under the conditions of state power and the region's territorial belonging to Czechoslovakia. We use the following system of methods in the course of research: bibliographic search, content analysis, historical and geographical, chronological, retrospective logical and systematic analysis. Therefore, based on the conducted historical and pedagogical research of Avgustyn Voloshyn's approaches to professional training of primary school teachers and improvement of their pedagogical skills, we can determine the following major factors: choice of qualified teaching staff; improvement of curricula; improved technical, financial and administrative support of the educational establishment; change of the seminary students' body to mainly peasants, craftsmen, workers by origin; writing and publication of textbooks; increased influence of cultural and educational societies, as well as of the church. The significance of Avgustyn Voloshyn's heritage for the improvement of professional pedagogical education of Transcarpathia and Ukraine is nowadays of high historical, pedagogical, scientific, and cognitive value