The article analyzes the process of formation and development of the content of primary science education in Galicia during the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the second half of the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th century. It is noted that its organization was largely determined by the educational policy of the state, which included Galicia as a crown region, primary science education was subordinated to the task of socio-economic development of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, which led to a generally contradictory genesis accompanied by positive and negative trends. The key features of the content of science education in the folk schools of Galicia in the studied period are characterized. One of the leading trends in the development of science education in public schools has become the active character, the integration of subjects of the science cycle with reading and other disciplines. At the end of the 19th century natural science became a compulsory subject in senior classes of public schools. Methodical findings of that time were the study of natural history through reading, conducting observations, excursions, local history work to study nature, work in the school garden, growing fruit trees and caring for them, etc. Primary science education, among other things, prepared graduates of folk schools for independent practical life. Under the conditions of the then social development (predominantly rural population) of Ukrainians, we qualify this as a progressive pedagogical phenomenon. In the process of developing the content of primary science education, teachers used various approaches to teaching science disciplines, but the leading vectors of reforming the content of school science remained practical-realistic, systematic, biological, local history, the implementation of interdisciplinary connections in lessons, the integration of scientific knowledge, and the rationalization of the content of science education, etc.

У статті проаналізовано процес становлення та розвитку змісту початкової природничої освіти в Галичині за часів Австро-Угорської імперії у другій половині ХІХ – на початку ХХ ст. Зазначено, що її організація великою мірою визначалася освітньою політикою держави, до складу якої належала Галичина як коронний край, початкова природнича освіта підпорядковувалася завданням соціально-економічного розвитку Австро-Угорської монархії, що зумовило загалом суперечливу генезу, яка супроводжувалася позитивними і негативними тенденціями. Схарактеризовано ключові особливості змісту природничої освіти в народних школах Галичини.