Научная статья на тему 'The teacher’s role in the context of modern society’s socio-cultural ideas and values'

The teacher’s role in the context of modern society’s socio-cultural ideas and values Текст научной статьи по специальности «Науки об образовании»

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Текст научной работы на тему «The teacher’s role in the context of modern society’s socio-cultural ideas and values»

THE TEACHER’S ROLE IN THE CONTEXT OF MODERN SOCIETY’S SOCIO-CULTURAL IDEAS AND VALUES

O.S. Bobrenko

Social surveys in Russia have revealed that one in every three students interviewed (or 34% of the sample) deems their teacher’s work satisfactory. 42% displayed a degree of dissatisfaction with teachers’ work. On the positive side, the interviewees noted that teachers are "highly educated” (10%) and "intelligent” (5%), they "do their job well” (7%), they are "demanding” (2%), "conscientious” (2%), and "hardworking” (2%). Looking at these findings, one cannot help but wonder if such characterizations as "highly educated” and "intelligent” are, in fact, reflections of a widespread social myth about how all teachers are supposed to be highly educated, well read, knowledgeable people. As for "doing their job well”, what part of the job is meant, exactly? Is it teaching the subject, being a good role model, transmitting knowledge, grading, disciplining students, or something else? Three percent said they thought their teachers "lacked competence”. Six percent said that, on average, a contemporary teacher is an "honest person”, but 4% thought that teachers care more about "how much money they can get from the student’s parents than about actually teaching,” or said that teachers "extort money.” For the 5% who said their teachers are kind to students, there were 4% who thought their teachers were "negligent of students.” When asked, "Is there a teacher in your school you would want to be like when you grow up?”, 42.3% of students said "no”, 42.3% said they’d "never thought about it”, and only 15.4% said they view one of their teachers as a model to follow. 75.1% of the children polled graded the quality of the teaching as "more average than high”, 19.5% thought it was high, 1.3% said it was low, and 4.1% said it was "lower than average.” [1].

This information seems to suggest that few teachers are capable of making competent decisions, and even fewer view teaching as a complex, flexible process using a knowledge base that’s never complete, constantly changes, and should always be kept open to alteration and improvement. At best, teachers seek to impart the maximum amount of knowledge, which does not by itself translate into a "creative” worldview or self-perception for the child. And so the schools continue to perform their outdated social role inherited from the past. Schoolteachers today are part of a knowledge transmission process, and this has become the be-all and end-all of their relationship with the students. The quality of education is measured by how well the children are "trained”, and this is recognized as the prime criterion of education quality (irrespective of the approach used: knowledge-based

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or competency-based). Accordingly, all the testing - initial, interim, and final (including the National Standardized Tests, NSTs) - is geared towards measuring how "well-trained” the students are.

In our opinion, the problem here is that there are no uniform social ideals and no uniform moral evaluation criteria for individuals, social groups, organizations, or society overall, which leaves us with: (a) uncertainty about where education should go or where the state/society wants it to go; (b) the impossibility of targeted social integration being spearheaded by key social institutions (most notably secondary schools); (c) rampant ignorance and rudeness, which are viewed as "cool” behavior patterns; and (d) young people’s indifference and immaturity.

The minds of young people today are dominated by fear of the future. The social mode of existence of most youngsters nowadays is described in such terms as "pessimism,” "desperation,” "confusion,” "aggressiveness,” "anger,” or "extremism.” The prevailing "social” states of mind are indifference and selfishness. Researchers cite numerous examples of mutual alienation among youth [2]. Without a reliable set of moral and cultural values, exemplified by cultural achievement nationally and on a global scale, the education system overall and secondary schools in particular cannot really do what they are supposed to.

We believe that in a society whose future is at stake, the mission of a pedagogue must change. The new mission of a teacher vis-a-vis society may focus on maintaining society’s integrity with respect to "socio-cultural reproduction”; vis-a-vis the children - on bringing up a happy child in a diversified, fractional world; and vis-a-vis the parents - on helping them raise their child to be a free and responsible person. In reflecting on the entirety of the teaching profession, a new teacher must realize that, in times of change, only those who are learning will inherit the earth.

The fact is that today social status alone is not enough for a teacher to command any kind of authority. And the amount of training that a teacher has, in our opinion, is not alone a sufficient criterion to evaluate education quality; the level of "culture” in a person is at least as important. With that in mind, it appears appropriate that the ability to think and make decisions should take center stage in the training of future teachers, while the "job” part of the training should be viewed as a lifelong quest for professional improvement.

References

1. Общество безопасности как альтернатива обществу риска / под ред. Г. В. Косова. - М., 2006.

2. Осипов Г.В. Российская социология в XXI веке // Социологические исследования. - 2004. - № 3.

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