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LIFELONG EDUCATION
AS A FACTOR OF PERSONAL STABILITY:
THE VIEW OF RUSSIAN SCHOOLCHILDREN
N. N. Shestakova E. I. Krasavtseva
It’s obvious that a sense of stability and constancy is particularly important for every person throughout his or her life. This raises the question, what is the factor that gives people confidence in themselves, and the solidity of their position? What could withdraw, at least partly, each individual from the influence of circumstances that are often beyond their control and shape the environment in which they exist? Education seems to be such a factor. Moreover, given the rate of change in the modern information field, which is increasing like a snowball, education cannot be received just once and forever, terminally. Education should become an integral part of life, of the very existence of every person. It should be continuous.
The authors have undertaken a special survey to study Russian schoolchildren's perceptions of and attitudes towards lifelong education. The survey has three purposes: (1) to identify schoolchildren's awareness of the principles of lifelong education; (2) assess their understanding of the concept; and (3) determine how important they find the implementation of the principle of lifelong education in their future life.
This survey was conducted in February of 2011 in the form of a questionnaire-based interview among pupils of the eighth and ninth grades at one of the schools in St. Petersburg. The authors interviewed 59 people, of whom 55.2% were girls and 44.8% were boys. It should be emphasized that we intentionally selected respondents from among teenagers who are at their first vital educational “fork”: these are those who are about to finish incomplete secondary education and should make their first decision on whether or not to continue their educational path. It is obvious that such a decision can be made either once (i.e., when a teenager knows firmly and exactly what he or she wants to achieve in life, and sees the ways of reaching their goal) or adjusted (provided that a youngster is either unaware or lacks a clear understanding of what he or she should aspire to, or simply wants to try himself or herself in different fields). Apparently, in both cases, achieving the desired goal is highly associated with acquiring appropriate education.
Our survey has shown that two thirds of the respondents (66.1%) are aware that everyone has to plan their educational path as early as in middle secondary school. The concept of “middle/high school” corresponds exactly to the current status of the respondents, who are eighth and ninth grades of incomplete secondary school. What are teenagers’ educational plans? According to the data obtained from the survey, the overwhelming majority of them (96.6%) plan to complete secondary education, whereupon two thirds of the respondents intend to continue their education at universities, institutes and academies. Traditionally, girls are more focused on acquiring higher professional education than boys. These indicators differ by almost two times: 61.5% of girls versus 38.5% boys.
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Every fifth student finishing incomplete secondary education is still choosing his or her future educational path after completing secondary education; 11.9% of students intend to get secondary vocational education in vocational schools or colleges. Only 3.4% of the boys interviewed are not going to continue their education. The information obtained quite correctly reflects the pattern of educational targets among young people in large Russian cities in general.
These are general current attitudes of young people. However, up to this point we have been speaking about one-time education. What are the longer-term plans of teenagers for their educational path? How do they understand the objective need for continuously maintaining and developing their knowledge and skills in light of the idea of lifelong education? The study has revealed the lack of a mainstream commitment among students to continue their education throughout their lives: only every four out of ten respondents (39%) adhere to this principle. Girls are more committed than boys (78.3% vs. 21.7%). One third of the surveyed students believe that education acquired at a young age will be enough “until the end of life.” This opinion is cited by 30% of girls and 70% of boys. More than one quarter of teenagers were not able to provide a definite answer to this question. What are the reasons behind the distribution of results? The authors brought forward a hypothesis that perhaps young people simply do not have enough information about the idea and principles of lifelong education. The questionnaire included a number of questions designed to confirm this hypothesis. Indeed, it was found that the level of awareness of the principles of lifelong education among schoolchildren is not sufficiently high. One fifth of the teenagers (20.7%) had not heard about the concept of “lifelong education” at all. The sources of information cited by the respondents (in descending order of importance) include: “parents and other family members at home” - 24.1%; “school teachers” - 24.1%; “radio and television programs” - 20.1%; “newspapers and magazines” - 8.6%; “classmates and friends” - 6.9%; Internet - 3.4%. Moreover, while every fourth girl had learned something from radio and television programs (an especially outstanding source), boys most frequently mentioned parents, relatives (30.8%) and school teachers (26.9%) as their source of information.
Logically connected to the above was our question designed to evaluate the degree to which students understood the essence of the concept of “lifelong education” among teenagers. One half (49.2%) of Russian (St. Petersburg) schoolchildren associate lifelong education with “continuous studies in various educational institutions throughout one's life at one's own discretion.” One fifth (18.6%) see it as “continuous studies in various educational institutions throughout one's life due to business needs/on request of the employer.” The same proportion (18.6%) interprets lifelong education as “continuous self-education”. A small portion of students (6.8%) see it as “studying in educational institutions from time to time as and when necessary.”
What is the purpose of such education according to schoolchildren? Opinions on this question are divided as follows. Four out of every ten respondents (36.4%) believe that lifelong education is necessary “to know the achievements in their chosen profession”; two out of ten (22.7%) think that it will enable them “to keep up with the rapidly changing situation, and be modern”; and one out of six respondents (15.3%) wants to be an interesting conversationalist. Every seventh
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respondent (13.6%) believes that lifelong education contributes to active citizenship. Only 3% of the surveyed students linked lifelong education to the opportunity to know the latest professional news. The list of proposed responses was supplemented by the following positions: “To be an educated and intelligent person”; “To be developed, know everything, and in general be a man of the 21st century”; “To be developed and learn many new things.” In general, we can conclude that teenagers have nearly correct intuitive understanding of the essence of “lifelong education”. It should be noted that the survey has contributed to building interest to the concept among schoolchildren, which can be regarded as one of the absolutely positive results of the survey. This is, in particular, confirmed by the fact that one half of the respondents (47.5%) showed a need for learning more information about lifelong education which can help them choose an occupation. Furthermore, every third student noted that such knowledge is useful.
Thus, we can state that teenagers and young people are poorly aware of the idea and principles of lifelong education, even in a large city like St. Petersburg. Therefore it is necessary to raise the question of the need for large-scale promotion of the idea of continuous maintenance and development of base education, including professional education. It is extremely important to explain to young people that being constantly alert of their attainment level is a real factor which can provide, at least to some extent, personal stability, and offset the influence of the surrounding environment, which is not always controllable. This work may be particularly effective in those periods of social and pre-professional formation of young people that precede decision making regarding the choice of their future educational path.
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