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13Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 3 (2009 2) 310-315
УДК 130.3
Civil Education in the Conditions of Globalization
Antonn U. Koltyrin*
Siberian Federal University, 79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041 Russia 1
Received 14.08.2009, received in revised form 21.08.2009, accepted 28.08.2009
In the given article we present a characteristic of the main directions of modern educational policy in its connection with Russian civil society formation. Here, it is shown that the role of civil education on the modern stage of the country development is defined by the tasks of Russia's transition to democratic society and constitutional state upon obligatory subjection to the national traditions. We prove that in the modern Russian conditions, system of education must provide an efficient usage of its resources - human, informational, material, and financial, and the state must guarantee the foreground support of education. Thereat, social ideology being not yet formed, scientific notions and instruments of social development status and forecast being poorly revealed and organized or underdeveloped and social development being connected with education - all these factors contribute to the fact that there appear contradictory strands of educational policy. In them there expressed various positions of the society and of different social groups, being interested in realization of a certain opinion of civil education in practice.
Keywords: civil education; civil society; education politicy; system of education; education philosophy.
Point
The processes, which take place in education, are directly connected with social processes. In this respect, the problematic of education philosophy has a primary meaning not only in science, but also in a constructive sense. Scientific world-outlook level of education policy, strategies and tactics of education system development will depend upon the degree of education philosophy development. That is why education is one of the most important factors of national security. It connects the activity of state with the activity of its citizens through the level of proficiency to the continuous process of a new generation up-brining by means of family,
* Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected]
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education and social surroundings. Precisely the state has appealed to create the conditions for free personal development, for most full meeting of personal demands and interests, and the person in his turn, as a carrier of social relations, is appealed to preserve social integrity, to stand up for its social and moral values and to provide their realization by all his behavior.
Example
Differences in the opinions take place in the sphere of «one's own» and «borrowed experience in education». As it is underlined by American philosophers Garnett and Naish, every social group suggests through its own theoreticians
and demands building of its own conception of education, wherein its notions about the good and the evil, justice and freedom, its understanding of the modern social processes and «a right-minded and sound citizen as the main target of education are reflected».
To the mind of the group of researchers (G.V. Igonin, V.P. Kaznacheev, N.V. Nalivajko, V.N. Turchenko), there can be distinguished two directions and two educational tendencies. Firstly, English-American (Western) orientation, when education is considered as a personal concern of every person, and the very system of education presents an industry of educational services. A newly-emerging business class of Russia is more and more oriented exactly to this model of education. The other model - so called German-Russian - is based on the state's responsibility for education: responsibility for education affordability to all the strata of population, independently from its economical and social status, responsibility for the growth of an average educational census and so on. In spite of the fact that the given educational model has been already gaining its potential in the soviet period, it still has such a level that keeps Russia in the number of developed countries.
We should note that most philosophers do not consider the policy in the sphere of education as an independent strand, including it in the structure of social or cultural policy. We suppose that this circumstance and also a small amount of special articles, dedicated to this theme in philosophical literature, can be perceived as a reflection of social under-estimation of the role of education on the whole and its policy as well.
Thereat, we should distinguish two contextually close, but not coinciding notions: «educational policy» and «policy in the sphere of education» [1].
Educational policy is a peculiar, separate private sphere of the policy, being developed
only in connection with the given social sphere, but deeply and in full detail. It is an educational tactics, concrete goals, tasks, deadlines, people and etc. concerning education policy and oriented to a certain strategy, if it is correct.
Policy in the sphere of education is a general policy of the state, but applied to a separate sphere of the society, i.e. to education. It is general in relation to education, anything that defines the strategy of educational activity (the main goals and tasks). It includes the whole complex of measures, being performed by the state and its organs in relation to education as a social institution, including the impact of other strands of the Russian inner policy (economical, social, and informational) on education. Being always present in the society and state, educational policy is expressed in the following: it builds up its own system of education: the kind of goals being set in education organization, the ways educational management system being organized, the kind of social, state, personal and other interests that prevail in educational policy, and the way educational system being financed.
In the monograph «Education Philosophy as an Object of Complex Research», N.V. Nalivajko and V.I. Parshikov single out the following education policy components: financial (the level of financing, financial assets disposition and usage), legislative (educational process subjects' behavior limitation, management organs competence), cultural-ideological (social consciousness orientations, which influence the decision making) [2].
To our mind, philosophical analysis of the problem, being raised in the article, can be applied to the cultural-ideological component of educational policy. And in connection with this, it is important to make clear such significant questions as education policy and ideology, education policy and national idea of education, Russian education modernization and civil education.
The goals of education are defined by the state policy in the sphere of education and up-bringing as follows: to define the goals of education and the strategy of their achievement, legislation elaboration and resources finding, pedagogic initiatives support, all these in complex should create favorable conditions for development and spiritual-axiological orientation of oncoming generations in accordance to human positive interests and social demands. Setting foreground goals of the Russian citizens' education, general principals of the modern education policy are defined by the Education Law of RF, the National Education Doctrine of the Russian Federation for the period through to 2025, the Federal Program of education development for 2000-2005, the Federal Program of youth development and patriotic up-brining for 20002005 and etc. [Constitution of the Russian Federation; the Education Law of the Russian Federation; Russian Education Modernization Conception №1756-P dated 29.12.2001 for the period through to 2010, affirmed by the order of the Russian Federation Government; № 24/1 «Strategy of Historical and Art-Historical Education Development in General Education Institutions»; RF EM Letter № 151/11«Civil Education and Russian Federation Constitution Study» dated 06.02.1995; RF EM Act № 479 «Russian Federation Constitution Study in General Education Institutions»dated09.12.1994. RF EM Letter № 385/11 «Legal Culture and Students' Education Improvement in the Sphere of Electoral Rights and Electoral Process» dated 07.04.1995; RF EM Informational-Methodical Letter № 391/11 «Students' Civil-Legal Education in General Education Institutions of the Russian Federation» dated 19.03.1996; RF EM Informational-Methodical Letter № 13-5108/13 «Students' Civil Education in General Education Institutions» dated 15.01.2003; RF Citizens' Patriotic Up-Brining State Program
for 2001-2005 // Collected Legislation of the Russian Federation, 2001. - №9.- P.2208 and etc.»].
In accordance with the mentioned documents, the main aim of the modern Russian education is the up-bringing of a polymathic citizen, acquainted with the native and world culture, brought up within the modern system of values and modern life requirements, being ready to active social adaptation within the society and to an independent vital choice, to the beginning of his labor activity and to professional education continuation, to self-education and self-perfection. Developing society needs modern educated, high-moral and enterprising people, who can independently make decisions in the condition of choice, able to collaboration, distinguished by their mobility, dynamism, and constructivity, ready to intercultural interaction, possessing a sense of responsibility for the fate of the country and for its social-economical prosperity. System of education must prepare people, who can live not only within civil society and constitutional state, but also to create them.
In the process of education modernization they are to provide, firstly, openness of education as a state-social system, secondly, transition to the model of mutual responsibility in the sphere of education, to enforce the role of all the education policy subjects and their interaction, and to broaden society's participation in making and realization of legal and management decisions in education. System of education is a sphere of interaction of state's and society's interests in the name of their institutes and citizens. Every of the educational legal relationship subjects must have a possibility to influence on the education system functioning and development, but, at the same time, to carry its share of responsibility for creation of the circumstances, which are necessary for education system fulfilling its social and educational functions.
On the modern stage of the country development, the role of civil education is defined by the goals of Russia's transition to democratic society, to constitutional state, and to market economy, by the goals of danger overcoming of Russia's accruing underdevelopment from the world tendencies of economical and social development. The Russian system of education is able to compete with the education systems of advanced countries. Though, its advantages can be easily lost, if general national educational policy, being supported by a wide public, fails to be formed, if the state fails to restore its responsibility and its active role in this sphere, fails to perform deep and all-round education modernization, to provide all necessary resources and to create the mechanisms of efficient usage. Education policy is an important component of general state policy, is an instrument of person's fundamental rights and freedoms for speeding up the rates of social-economical and scientific-technical development, and culture growth. On the basis of social approval, education policy sets fundamental goals and tasks of education development and guarantees their implementation into life by means of coordinated actions of the state and society. Today's primary goal of education policy is to achieve a high quality of the modern education, its correspondence to actual and perspective demands of the person, of the society and the state.
Reformed education must play the key role in the steady and dynamic development of the Russian society - the society with a high level of living, and of civil-legal, professional and economical culture. In order to realize modern social requirements to the education system and to make its social role more important, we need, on one hand, to modernize the system of education itself, and on the other hand, to change, the attitude of the state, the society and the person towards education.
While developing today historical education, when Bologna process is of such a principal meaning, it is important to take into consideration, that if democracy means equality, then we are to agree, that there is surely more social equality in the United States, than somewhere else in the West. «Though, this equality has not been the result of equal rights, but of a surprisingly undivided opinion.» [3]
And in fact, crucial changes of values impact all the spheres of life in the western society. The main feature of an individualized mass society is its individualization without producing any individuality, personality and formation of an egoistic individual, who thinks only of himself. The new individual becomes the source of society's fragmentation and perceives even the events of his own life as a summary of episodes, unrelated with each other. Today, most western people can say that they have lived many different lives in the result of fragmentation and unattainability of the whole and that objectively it is almost unsurpassable and is hardly overcome by the efforts of consciousness. The collection of episodes becomes not only the history of a personal life, wherein, there is at best «a biographical salvation of systematic contradictions», but it also becomes the history of the society itself. Life becomes a world of various worlds, and a man of integrity is impossible in such circumstances, if he fails to learn how to live in those worlds simultaneously, having managed to harmonize them to some extent. But this is hardly the task of a mass man [4].
The question, whether western culture's experience can be adequately applied to the Russian socio-cultural conditions, was historically raised long ago. There were hot discussions in the period of the Slavophils and Westernizers. Nowadays, they are still quite topical. Je.V. Il'enkov, an outstanding thinker, markes, that «.. .the boarders between «the West» and «the East» do not at all
go along Elba and the Berlin «Wall». It is situated much deeper: the rift proceeds from the very heart of all the modern culture, and do not at all coincide with the geographical lines and political boarders of the modern world. It lies not only between the parties of one and the same country, but very often it goes even through the mind and the heart of one and the same man.» [5]
The problem of patriotism is also one of the most important social-philosophic problems. In philosophic context, patriotism is considered as truly existing opinions, feelings (ontological aspect); as a social reality reflection in the consciousness of a man (epistemological aspect); as an axiological and praxiological relation to the world through its significance, spiritually transforming relation to the reality (axiological aspect). The typical features of patriotism are: a mergence of the feeling of love to one's «small» motherland, to one's nation with the love to the whole country and deep respect to all the nationalities living there; a combination of respect and interest to the history of the country with the respect to its striving for making the ideals of freedom and democracy true in the modern period; an efficient humane-creative character of patriotism; an international character of patriotism.
To our mind, civil education conception must be one of the priorities of the state policy in the sphere of education. It should be reflected in the content and the programs of all the school subjects. The entire educational field must be targeted at the formation of a citizen-patriot. But the most important role here belongs to humanitarian subjects, first of all to literature, social studies, history, and civic studies. Already N.M. Karamzin asserted, that a member of the public must read history. It reconciles him with the imperfectness of visible order of things, as with a common phenomenon both now and always, it consoles him in state misfortunes, telling, that
similar things and much worse happened yet before and the state managed to survive; it feeds the moral sense and by righteous court it disposes the soul towards justice, which confirms our good and the approval of society [6].
Resume
Russian education policy strategic targets are the following - to overcome social-economical and spiritual-ideological crisis, to provide high quality of people's life and national security; to restore the status of Russia as a superpower in the world society in the spheres of education, culture, science, high technologies and economy; to create a basis for steady social-economical and spiritual development of Russia.
Thus, civil education conception must be one of the priorities of the state policy in the sphere of education. In the sphere of education, cultural-ideological and legal policies must correspond to the optimal finance policy; they presuppose clear and deep understanding of education development goals and ways of civil education system formation.
Moreover, civil education policy must be also built in accordance with the regional specifics. Practical necessity of conceptual-systematic analysis of the Russian civil education becomes very topical.
Future global changes are so large-scale, that no country and no people in the world are ready to their perception. Some branches of production disappear, others appear. The highest technologies become meaningless and are replaced by new ones, yet unknown; today's prosperous territories will be devastated, others will suffer from congestion of population; modern values will become an object of ridicule, and yesterday's flaws will be the condition of success. That is why today the whole world speaks about the necessity «to open oneself anew», «to invent oneself anew» or at least «to become conscious of oneself in the new world» [7].
References
1. O.N. Smolin. Social-Philosophical Aspects of the State Educational Policy in Conditions of the Russian Society Radical Transformation / O.N. Smolin. - Moscow, 2001.
2. N.V.Nalivajko. Philosophy of Education: Some Problems of Concept Formation / N.V.Nalivajko. -Novosibirsk: GCRO publishing house, 2000. - 141p.
3. G. von Keizerling. America. The Dawn of a New World / G. von Keizerling. - St. Petersburg: the St. Petersburg Philosophic Society, 2002. - P. 344.
4. V. G. Fedotova. The Factors of Axiological Changes in the West and in Russia / V. G. Fedotova // The Questions of Philosophy. - 2005. - № 11. - P. 5-6.
5. Je.V.Il'enkov. Marx and the Western World / Je.V.Il'enkov //The Philosophy and Culture. -Moscow: Politizdat, 1991.
6. N.M.Karamzin. Legendry of Centuries / N.M.Karamzin. - Moscow, 1990.
7. A. I. Jur'ev. Political Psychology of Terrorism / A. I. Jur'ev // The Philosophical Sciences. - 2005. -№ 10. - P. 28.
