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AN ESTIMATION OF THE VALUE OF LIFELONG EDUCATION IN THE CULTURAL SPHERE
I. G. Vasiliev
Lifelong education is an integral structural component and major functional link in the preservation and reproduction of the cultural potential of any subjects, social groups, structures, and institutes participating in socio-economic changes. For efficient utilization of cultural components of socio-economic changes, any carrier (subject) of cultural potential requires a continual increase in its professional level including, as is known, worldview and value levels. As social institutes "responsible" for the ethical and moral condition of society and the establishment of value consciousness in the population, cultural institutions use an entire arsenal of methods, resources, and mechanisms for lifelong education and change in the values of all of the social-demographic and social-professional groups of the population. The level of preparedness of cultural institutions to perform this socially responsible mission highly depends on the condition of the professional training of cultural workers, which certainly includes the corresponding institutions of lifelong education.
In the contemporary context of the modernization of Russian society and transition to a new level of the quality of life, a crisis in the value system for all groups of population can be observed, as well as the decrease in value of previous life experience. To adapt to the changing world from the point of view of previously acquired cultural norms becomes more all the more difficult. A need arises for the creation of qualitatively new system of lifelong education and training.
In the basis of any developed society always lies a certain concept of the individual and his world and way of life, which is merged with social and cultural values, views on life, and people’s real every day activities. Analysis of the contemporary Russian social and cultural situation, characterized by intercultural conflict, makes it possible to newly comprehend the current social problems of the modern education of professionals in the social and cultural sphere.
The strategic priority of a system of lifelong education is a humanistic personality, prepared for professional work, having well-formed informative inquiries and spiritual needs, and capable of satisfying them independently. This is achieved by development of the social and cultural adaptive capabilities of the person throughout his or her entire life by means of
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acquiring and mastering knowledge, skills, and abilities, including professional ones in a system of formal, non-informal, and self-education.
The necessity of changes in the system of lifelong education in the social and cultural sphere originates from the current social and cultural situation: long overdue is the necessity for overcoming the social and cultural crisis, the revival of national spiritual culture, cultural variety, and the humanization of education. For development of the socio-economic potential of a nation, there is no other alternative besides changing the value consciousness, which allows for adaptation to global cultural changes and preservation of the basis of traditional national culture.
The current social and cultural situation can be described as a combination of contradictory trends: the combination of professional interests and the highly spiritual culture of an individual with the delay in the immediate introduction of new social and cultural services; the combination of active modernizing processes in the system of lifelong education, allowing an individual to develop and improve his or her intellectual and spiritual potential throughout the course of his or her life, with the absence of a uniform methodological base and practical techniques; the combination of the objective need for diversification of the system of lifelong education and establishment of a qualitatively new level of thinking and innovative life style with the lack of systematic scientific approaches to the social influence on the formation and development of an individual’s creative potential.
Education of children and youth by means of culture and art, as well as the functioning of art schools for children (for different types of arts), recreation centers, studios, and other cultural institutions for children's leisure presumes a sufficient number of highly skilled experts, capable of training the next generation in the spirit of respect for cultural traditions, patriotism, and understanding of value of art. Identifying artistically talented children and youth is the task of educational institutions of culture and art at all levels (from children's art schools to institutions of higher education of a corresponding profile). Regular updating of educational programs based on the traditions of the Russian artistic education is the task of both individual educational institutions and their methodical associations.
The specific features common to all educational institutions in the field of culture and art predetermine the need for development of special requirements and criteria of state accreditation for them. The educational institutions of the cultural sphere are provided with: (a) the multilevel system providing for the process of forming a humanistic personality; (b) the targeted succession of all stages of training and the stage-by-stage content of educational activity is carried out with the use of highly skilled
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experts; (c) development of the content and technologies of the system is built with consideration of the diversification of principles and functions of social and cultural activity; (d) the orientation of educational process to personal activities is provided for in the social and cultural sphere on the basis of a developed model of diversification of the system of lifelong education; (e) realization of creative potential of an individual is directed at self-identification, self-development and self-actualization; (f) the subject-to-subject relationship and personal positions as objective factors of education are activated as potential resources in the social and cultural sphere; (h) an effective investment policy is formed and directed at diversification of social and cultural projects in a system of lifelong education is formed.
The basis for the provision of resources within the educational system in the sphere of culture and art remains a developed network of state and municipal educational institutions including: (a) educational institutions for the supplementary education of children - children's art schools (by art types); (b) educational institutions for especially talented children, integrated into realization of the basic programs for general, secondary (full) general education, and secondary vocational education; (c) secondary vocational educational institutions - art, musical, choreographic, theatrical, cultural and other schools (colleges) either under the authority of the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the Federal Education Agency or under the authority of subjects of Russian Federation; (d) universities, academies, and institutes under the authority of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Culture of Russia, the Federal Education Agency, the Russian Academy of Arts, and local governmental agencies. It should be also mentioned that educational programs of different levels in the area of culture and art are realized in a number of non-core educational institutions in the state, municipal, and non-governmental sectors.
Such decentralization of the management of educational institutions in the sphere of art and culture, and also their separation from the sector, leads to decrease in the quality of education in this sphere. The system of professional education that has developed over decades in the sphere of culture and art (school - vocational school - institution of higher education), which by right today occupies one of the leading places in the world, works steadily and effectively in those cases when the educational institutions that form this link are controlled by cultural agencies.
The concept for development of education in the sphere of culture and art in the Russian Federation in 2008-2015, approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 25.08. 2008, defines the priorities for development of education in the sphere of culture and art and
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sets the measures for achievement of strategic targets directed at realization of the constitutional rights of citizens regarding maintenance of the freedom of creativity and participation in the cultural life of the country, declared in a report on the results and the basic directions of the activity of the Ministry of Culture of Russia for the period 2008 - 2010. The goals of the concept are: providing for the conditions for effective development and modernization of the national education system in the sphere of culture and art according to the priorities of state policy and the strategic problems of the socio-economic development of Russia; provision of steady, non-crisis development of educational institutions for culture and art under federal executive bodies, subjects of the Russian Federation, and local governmental agencies.
Improvement of the system of lifelong education in the social and cultural sphere is a qualitative change in the hierarchical system of lifelong education, connected with formation of a new paradigm of social and cultural activity that provides for the competitive advantage of a professional who is capable of adequately fulfilling the spiritual needs and cultural requirements of society. At the same time, the essence of the system of lifelong education in the social and cultural sphere consists in unity and interdependence of goal-oriented pedagogical influence on individuals over the course of their entire life. This system is based on relative stability and indivisibility and is characterized by a multi-level structure, multi-functionality, and variability, and it represents a set of mechanisms of an integrated complex of measures and forms, which is aimed at discovering abilities, expansion of spiritual activity, development of activity and communication, satisfaction of informational requirements and inquiries, self-organization, and self-actualization.
The specific nature of the system of lifelong education in the social and cultural sphere consists in the formation of an individual consciousness, spiritual and moral values, development of the artistic and creative potential of an individual and emotional self-control, and it assumes a continuous, goal-oriented, successive, and dynamic process of interaction between educational structures and social and cultural institutions.
In transitional periods, when the paradigms are changing, lifelong education should be considered as historically predetermined, pedagogical directed, and socially demanded process of transformation of culture and cultural values into the object of interaction of individuals and social groups in the interests of developing each member of society.
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