"The Testament" By Taras Shevchenko in Students Minds

Abstract

Background. The article analyzes the questionnaires of freshmen and sophomores studying the specialty 061 Journalism at the National University of Life Resources and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine regarding prominent places dedicated to Taras Shevchenko and his famous works. The purpose of the article is to analyze the questionnaires of freshmen studying the specialty 061 Journalism of the National University of Life Resources and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, on the specified questions related to the life, work and notable places of Taras Shevchenko. To achieve the set goal, the following tasks were outlined: to classify the questionnaire responses; to analyze the detailed responses of the students; to determine the percentage of recognition of the image of the outstanding Ukrainian writer and artist on the specified questions by the student youth.
Methods. The subject of the study is the formed answers provided by a reference group of students who present the individual education of young people regarding the creativity, life and significant places dedicated to Taras Shevchenko. The object of the study was the answers to the questionnaire, which were obtained in the process of conducting an anonymous survey of student youth. The respondents were 4th-year students of the educational program "Journalism", scientific degree "Bachelor" of the National University of Life Resources and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine. In this study, 18 students were the total number of respondents. In particular, 4 male students (22,22 %) and 14 female students (77,77 %) aged 20 to 21. To guarantee anonymity and convenience when filling out and processing the survey results, the online service Google-form was used. The developed web form consisted of two parts: the first part aimed to collect sociodemographic information about students (age and gender, level of education are formally known and the same for all survey participants). The second part consisted of open-ended questions, another question required a personal comment from each person. The survey was conducted in February 2025, was anonymous, all respondents gave consent to the processing of the results for scientific purposes.
Results. After analyzing the questionnaires of freshmen journalism students, the following results were obtained: 100 percent of the surveyed students know the name of Taras Shevchenko, more than half of them associate him not only with the concept of "writer and artist", but also call him "prophet, symbol of the nation, fighter for independence", etc. According to the questionnaire results, 89 percent of the students know the date of birth and date of death of the poet, the rest remember one of the dates. 55 percent of the surveyed students do not have "Kobzar" in their homes, and 88 percent do not have a portrait of Taras Shevchenko. Among Taras Shevchenko's paintings, the most famous is "Kateryna", named by 77 percent of the surveyed. More than half of the students (55 percent) do not know when "The Testament" was written. A third of the surveyed (33 percent) know that "The Testament" was written in Pereiaslav, the rest are confused in their answers. More than 70 percent of students know nothing about Taras Shevchenko's Pereiaslav period, the rest mention illness and exile, but do not name the place of writing. Some young people confuse the name of the publication "Kobzar" with the name of the poems, 22 percent of them; 78 percent of students correctly named Taras Shevchenko's poems, but only 11 percent of them were able to name five works. Among the respondents, 77 percent only know the name of the poem "The Testament", 16.5 percent of the respondents know the name "When I Am Dead, Bury Me..."; only 5,5 percent know the name "Thought". Almost a third of the respondents (27,5 percent) do not know anything about
Shevchenko's notable places, the rest (22 percent) have been to Kaniv, another 16,5 – to Moryntsi, 5,5 percent each – to Pereiaslav, Yagotyn and Kyiv.
Conclusions. Students do not think about and do not know about the prospects of visiting Shevchenko's notable places – 55 percent, 27,5 percent dream of Kaniv, and the rest of the respondents about other Shevchenko's notable places. Due to the full-scale Russian Ukrainian war, the students' view of Taras Shevchenko has not changed (49,5 percent), although more than half believe  that the figure of the famous Ukrainian has become even more relevant and popular.