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MORAL AND SPIRITUAL EDUCATION
AS PART OF LIFELONG LEARNING IN KAZAKHSTAN
A.K. Kusainov
One of the prime challenges for Kazakhstan at this time is to modernize its lifelong education system in order to create a successful education system recognized by the international community for its unique features, a system that would develop the intellectual and spiritual potential of the young generation to the utmost. Kazakhstan’s lifelong education system, according to its strategic and regulatory guidelines, is also supposed to actualize certain spiritual and moral educational parameters in the national lifelong education model on each level, and especially at the preschool and general secondary school levels. The content of moral and spiritual education as defined by the fundamental national values will acquire a specific shape and direction depending on the values shared by society and how those values are transmitted from one generation to the next. Moral and spiritual education is an inseparable part of every person’s life in its fullness with all of its contradictions. It is inseparable from family, society, culture, all of mankind, the country where you live, and the historic epoch you live in, which shapes the way people live and the way they think.
The writings of such Oriental thinkers from the Middle Ages as Al-Farabi, Y. Balasaguni, M. Kashgari and A. Yassawi are filled with thoughts on moral and spiritual education. The history and national worldview of the Kazakh people are reflected in the oral folk tradition, which has a special place in every Kazakh’s heart. For a very long time, the oral tradition was the only way for Kazakh people to express how they felt and what they dreamed about. The Kazakh "Zhyrau,” or thinkers, philosophers such as Akhtamberdy, Bukhar-zhyrau or Shal-akyn, sang about peace and equality. They stressed the value of knowledge and education as the requisite components of the intellectual and cultural maturation of man. Abai Kunanbaev, a Kazakh philosopher from the late 19th century, came to the conclusion that the mainsprings of humanity are Love and Justice. Kunanbaev based humanity on moral education, the purpose of which is to raise the child to be a hard worker, a patriot, a multi-faceted, highly moral person who truly shares the values, thoughts and aspirations of his people [1]. Pondering the methods and means of moral education, Kunanbaev praised the virtues of tact, patience, attention and parental love [2]. S. Kudaiberdiev, another Kazakh philosopher from the early 20th century, claimed that the human soul is immortal and possesses specific properties and a potential to grow and improve. He maintained that conscience is the fuel for an upward, progressive trajectory of the soul [3]. The advent of Islam contributed immensely to the
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spiritual identity of the Kazakh people. In all ages, Muslim preachers preached Islam as a religion based upon epiphany.
In the legacy of those thinkers, the central place belongs not to the invocation of a superior Being, but to what people do on Earth, their acts, the communal morals and ethics. It is important for a human being to do good works, set an example of honesty and tolerance and meaningfully contribute to the spiritual health of the nation, society and the individual.
In recent years (and particularly since 1991), many Kazakh researchers have devoted a great deal of attention to the different aspects of "folk” education. S.A. Uzakbaeva, K.Z. Kozhakhmetova, K.B. Zharykbaeva, A. Urazbekova, K. Boleeva and others have explored the ways and methods of “grassroots” pedagogy extensively in their works. Vocational training based on the ethnic cultural tradition of Kazakhstan has been discussed in detail by A.A. Zholtaeva, M.E. Erzhanov, M.S. Nurmakova, S.S. Kulma-gambetova, A.K. Kulbekova and others. They all stress morality as the key to development and progress in Kazakhstan’s society, viewed as the sum total of its norms, customs and habits. Moral education, according to these thinkers, is the translation of moral codes, rules and commandments into the knowledge, skills, habits and behavior patterns of individuals, who are expected to consistently observe them.
The well-known psychologists, Richard Mayer and Lawrence Kohl-berg examined the three prevailing approaches that teachers can use when searching for the best way to inculcate moral judgment: the “romantic” approach, “cultural transmission” and the “evolutionary” or “progressivist” approach. They conceptualized the aims of moral education on the foundation of those three approaches: (1) fostering in students an understanding of the values and skills that will contribute to living a morally wholesome and personally satisfying life; (2) training the students in the behaviors and judgments that reflect the traditional spiritual values of their society; (3) teaching students the skills that will help them live a productive, successful life as members of their society.
In our view, the essence of moral and spiritual education is best manifested in the child’s activity as a fully-fledged actor. Moral development thrives when socialization and individualization processes are united in the educational environment, shaping the conscious, meaningful formation in schoolchildren of socially relevant values, of recognition and acceptance of society’s priorities and culture, and so forth.
This is how the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev, defined the mission of secondary schooling for the whole nation in his annual Address to the Nation on 28 February 2007 (“A New Kazakhstan in a New
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World”): secondary education should "promote the formation of competent, intellectually advanced and spiritually developed people who are prepared to productively contribute to the social, economic and political life of the Republic of Kazakhstan.»
The purpose of moral and spiritual education is to preserve the best historical and cultural traditions of the Kazak people and give the young generation-in addition to knowledge-a system of moral and spiritual standards and values, but most importantly, to raise people who are able to resist evil and build their life according to the laws of good. The first (basic) level of moral and spiritual education is about absorption of the cultural values inherited from past generations. The second level is where the person learns to consciously apply the absorbed cultural values to real life. The third (and highest) level is the discovery of new cultural values as the person begins to realize the purpose and meaning of human life on Earth. The dynamic of moral and spiritual education in secondary school calls for the expansion of moral horizons, rethinking of values and attitudes, and developing the ability to build value-based relationships with other people.
In our view, at the core of moral and spiritual education lies an action-based approach that promotes the development of personality in schoolchildren by making them privy to the world of culture and inspiring them to seek and find fulfillment in culture. It is also important to bear in mind that folk culture, being an integrated crystallization of the entire multiplicity of manifestations and higher forms of human being, serves as a source of moral and spiritual development. The pedagogical rationale of folk culture is entreasured in, and manifests itself through its essential characteristics: the organization of labor and communal life, worldview, the system of values and motivations, and the nuanced means of personal fulfillment. And finally, we view the folk cultural tradition as a code that keeps stability in the conservation and advancement of culture, and in the transmission of the cultural behavioral models and values that regulate interpersonal relations.
It is in general secondary schools that moral and spiritual education is actualized in a deep, consistent and systemic way. The entire school life is devoted to development and education. And it is general secondary schooling, which is a part of lifelong education, that is destined to become the prime mover of socio-cultural modernization in Kazakh society.
References
1. Абай (Ибрагим) Кунанбаев. Полное собрание сочинений. В 2-х т. (на каз. языке). Алма-Ата: Галым, 1977.
2. Тажибаев Т.Т. Философские, психологические, педагогические взгляды Абая Кунанабаева. Алма-Ата: Казгосиздат, 1957.
3. Шакарим Кудайбердиев. Собрание сочинений (на каз. языке). Халыкаралык Абай клубы, 2006. 736 с.
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