THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE EDUCATION OF THE INSTITUTE OF PEDAGOGY OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES OF UKRAINE: SCIENTIFIC ATTAINMENTS FOR THE PERIOD OF 25 YEARS

The aim of the article is to review and evaluate the scientific attainments of the Department of Comparative Education of the Institute of Pedagogy of NAES of Ukraine during 25 years (1991-2016) of its functioning. 1991 was chosen because it signifies the renaming of the Laboratory of Scientific and Educational Information (established in 1971) into the Laboratory of Comparative Education (the Department of Comparative Education since 2015). This has led to the transformation of its very concept. From analysis and dissemination of foreign experience the Department went to comparative studies, identification of general trends with formulation of landmarks/prospects for the Ukrainian education. Based on the analysis of the published works of the Department the author made conclusion about its sound and multidimensional scientific input. It covers all levels of education and presents the advanced experience/topical processes/ innovative phenomena of the world countries-leaders. Under globalization, the scholars of the Department of Comparative Education conduct also a supra-national analysis aimed at opening the impact of the international organizations (EU, UNESCO, OECD, etc.) on the development of educational policy in the world and in Europe. In such a way the scholars of the Department of Comparative Education have added value to the development of the national education.

the name of "The Laboratory of Scientific and Educational Information" and since 1991 -under the name of "The Laboratory of Comparative Education". Since 2015 the DCE is functioning under the name of "The Department of Comparative Education". The DCE performs the task of cross-national analyses responding to the demand of the national education to be harmonised with the advanced world and European standards. Based on the research of the key trends of education development abroad the scholars of the DCE disseminate ambitious foreign experience/ideas among the academic community of Ukraine. Exploring ways to integrate the Ukrainian education into the global educational space by developing recommendations for policy makers is no less a mission of the DCE. The DCE also plays an important role in the development of the methodology of comparative education (CE) in Ukraine.
In 2016, the DCE celebrated its 25 th anniversary. The article is aimed at the review of the DCE scientific attainments in view of its 25-years jubilee.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The development of CE in the NAES is analysed in the article "Comparative Education at the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine: Steps of Growth". The heads of the CE units of NAES O. Lokshyna, N. Avshenyuk, O. Ovcharuk and O. Borodienko analyse the history of these units, specificity of their activities at the present stage (Lokshyna, Avsheniuk& Ovcharuk, 2016).
O. Lokshyna in the article "Comparative Education at the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine: Rise, Successes, Challenges" presents the input of the CE units of the NAES into the development of the CE science in Ukraine (Lokshyna, 2018).
In the scientific-auxiliary bibliographic index "Department of Comparative Education of the Institute of Pedagogy of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine (1991-2016)" the compliers O. Lokshyna and O. Glushko assembles the published works of the scholars of the DCE for the 1991-2016 period (1991-2016) (Lokhyna & Glushko (eds.), 2019). This work made it possible to carry out the detailed analysis and present in this article the scientific achievements of the Department over a certain period of time.

METHODOLOGY
The author of the article has analysed the works of the DCE scholars of the Institute of Pedagogy of NAES of Ukraine published in 1991-2016. 1991 has been chosen as the lower chronological boundary because it signifies the renaming the Laboratory of Scientific and Educational Information into the Laboratory of Comparative Education. This has led to the transformation of the very concept of the Department. From review and dissemination of foreign experience the Department went to comparative studies, identification of general trends with formulation of landmarks/prospects for the Ukrainian education. In 2016, we completed 25 years of specialization of the Department in the field of CE.
In order to achieve the aim of the article -to review the scientific attainments of the DCE for 25 years of its functioning -the author has conducted both: the quantitative analysis of the published works (total number of the published works, number of the works by types) and qualitative analysis (by analysing the study topics and the geographical coverage).
The scientific-auxiliary bibliographic index "Department of Comparative Education of the Institute of Pedagogy of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine (1991-2016)" (2019) was the source for the analysis (Lokshyna & Glushko (eds.), 2019).

MAIN RESULTS
The establishment of the Laboratory of Scientific and Educational Information in 1971 at the Institute of Pedagogy of the NAES of Ukraine laid the basis for the development of the Laboratory of Comparative Education in future. The mission of the Laboratory of Scientific and Educational Information was to inform the scholars of the Institute about the state of education in foreign countries. Within thirty years of its existence, a scientific school was formed and a methodology for conducting cross-national studies was worked out. This ensured efficiency and effectiveness of work of the unit after its transformation into the Laboratory of Comparative Education.
The ) in different periods of its existence. An active research activity was also carried out by young scholars without a degree, who gradually defended their PhD theses and obtained a PhD Diplomas. In particular, during the 25-year period, 7 PhD and 3 Dr. Sc. dissertations were defended by the DCE researchers.
The total number of the works they published in the 1991-2016 period is 972 1 . The quantitative analysis by types of products testifies to a wide range of the items, i.e. dissertations, monographs, textbooks, educational and teaching aids, recommendations, materials of scientific and practical conferences, seminars, collections of scientific works, articles from periodicals, analytical reports, etc.
The scientific articles and abstracts of the reports at the scientific conferences, in which the scholars of the DCE published the finding obtained while conducting their personal research, constitute the majority of the scientific-auxiliary bibliographic index. The results of such personal researches are accumulated in the multi-authored monographs published by the CDE. There are also one-author monographs presenting the scientific findings of Department leading scholars. The studies of the DCE scholars are published in the multi-authored monographs, which are the products of other research teams too. The consolidated number of types of the scientific production of the DCE is presented in the Besides, the DCE as the founder and organizer of the "Comparative and International Education" conference published 7 book of abstracts of the participants in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. Speaking about the geographical coverage of the DCE's printed works, it should be noted that educational phenomena in almost all leading countries of the world and regions -Europe, North America, and the East have become the subject of the analysis (table 2) (Lokshyna & Glushko (eds.), 2019). The Table 2 shows that the European countries, primarily the EU states, are of special interest for the DCE scholars. It attests to the orientation of the DCE to support the integration of Ukraine into the European educational space.
Many publications by the DCE's scholars also address the state and features of education development in other foreign countries, the United States of America are among them. Responding to the achievements of the Asian countries, the DCE devotes its research to the education of such world leaders as China and Japan. Education in Ukraine through the prism of foreign experience is also the subject of analysis.
The study of the educational realities at the level of general secondary education is an obvious area of activities of the Department within the Institute of Pedagogy of NAES of Ukraine. However, the topics of the DCE publications cover also all other levels of education, from preschool to adult education in the context of lifelong learning.
Within the study of educational realities abroad, the scholars focused primarily on the analysis of the following global issues: reforms and trends in education, the organization and content of education, governance/management of education, a competence-based approach to education, education quality monitoring and assessment of students' educational achievements, textbooks, upbringing and socialization of youth.
There are also publications on advanced experience in teaching subjects -geography, history, civics, ecology, ICT, foreign language, religious education. In

CONCLUSIONS
Thus, the scientific attainment of the DCE over a 25-year period is sound and multidimensional. It covers all levels of education and presents the experience of the world and European countriesleaders. It is important that the DCE's works present topical processes/phenomena of foreign education promoting the implementation of its innovative ideas into the education of Ukraine. Under globalization, the scholars of DCE conduct also a supra-national analysis aimed at opening the impact of the international organizations (EU, UNESCO, OECD, etc.) on the development of educational policy in the world and in Europe.
The analysis showed the DCE gradual movement from the study of education systems in foreign countries to identification of the key trends in their development, which corresponds to the purpose of comparative research.
Based on the analysis we can state that the DCE, carrying out research activities, performs a complex of the following important functions: --research of the advanced foreign experience with projection on the Ukrainian education; --dissemination of innovative ideas of the foreign education in the abstracts od conferences; --development of official/strategic documents for the education sector as members of the analytical groups set up by the Governmental bodies and/or the NAES; --development of methodology of comparative education/training of comparative education researchers.
In such a way the scholars of the DCE have added value to the development of the national education.