Behavior of gymnasium female students vs revolutive events of 1905–1907 in Ukraine: discourse of normatives and administration
Abstract
The normative principles of behavior of female students of gymnasium education in Ukraine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are studied. The relevance is justified by the importance of contextualizing the protest moods of gymnasium students in a situation of revolutionary crisis of society in order to (re)interpret educational institutions and discourses in the focus of decolonization. The sources are the reports of the trustee of the Kyiv Educational District in 1905–1907. It is proved that the norms of behavior of female students of imperial gymnasiums in Ukraine represent a holistic system of disciplinary practices aimed at forming a controlled, predictable and hierarchically ordered educational environment. The regulation of daily behavior – from preparation for the lesson and a certain placement in the classroom to bodily postures, speech restrictions and the order of interaction with the teacher – testifies to the educational institution’s desire not only to organize the educational process, but also to exercise comprehensive control over the body, speech and behavioral reactions of the students. Ritualized forms of veneration and collective prayer, speech codes of subordination and an emphasis on virtues functioned not only as means of external control, but also as mechanisms for the internalization of norms aimed at the formation of a loyal, self-disciplined and socially conforming student. The gymnasium space functioned as an environment of intersection of disciplinary power (M. Foucault) and moral pedagogy, where the reproduction of social order and gender-marked behavioral models was carried out through the everyday educational practices of the students.
It was found that the revolutionary upheavals of 1905–1907 witnessed a crisis in the traditional disciplinary regime of women's (pro)gymnasiums: formal compliance with the rules was increasingly combined with their actual ignoring or open violation. Female students, especially in the senior classes, demonstrated an interest in public and political life, an increase in collective agency, the ability to act in solidarity, and a willingness to challenge the authority of the gymnasium administration, teachers, and parents.
The confessional composition of the female students expelled from the Vinnytsia Women's Gymnasium in 1905 testified not only to the protest moods of representatives of the most discriminated ethnic groups in the Russian Empire, in particular Poles and Jews, but also to the spread of civic values and nation-building ideas among the youth.
