Formation Of A Civic Stand For Future Innovative Teachers

Abstract

Relevance of this research is instigated by the change in the relationship between the state and civil society regarding the consolidation of efforts of many countries and communities in the fight against terrorism. The purpose of this article is to find out features of forming a civic stand for the innovative teacher. The system approach allowing to consider the formation of a civic stand as a purposeful process is the leading approach of this research. Features of formation of a civic stand of future innovative teachers is the main results. The importance of the received results consists that the essence of a civic stand as an integrated quality of the personality aware of his/her civil rights, freedoms and duties is reflected and revealed; understanding of civil liability before society; and a steady orientation on civil activity within the precepts of law. It is established that an established knowledge of the civil society, the rights, freedoms, and duties of the citizen, allows the student to design his own line of civil behavior, to build adequate relations with the civil society and the state, to form a culture of civil thinking, to protect his civic stand in a civilized way, without violating the rights and the interests of other people. The course "Civil Society in Modern Russia" and an algorithm for the assessment of the discussions held on occupations are developed. 87 teachers and 305 students participated in this approbation.

Keywords: Societycivic standteacher of new type

Introduction

Relevance of this research is instigated by a change in the relationship between the state and civil society in communication by consolidation of efforts of many countries and communities in fight against terrorism (Yepaneshnikov, etc., 2016). In article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is stated that everyone has duties in relation to the society, without which free and full development of the personality is impossible (The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1998). Now, we are witnesses to the modification of the conditions and nature of relationship between the state and civil: the state is perceived as an organization providing conditions for the implementation of human rights and the citizen (Gobozov, 2011).

Civil society represents: first, a human community at a certain stage of development which includes, voluntarily created non-state structures in various spheres of societal activity; secondly, a set of non-state relations rather independent of the state; thirdly, a sphere of self-manifestation of free individuals protected with laws from any regimentation of their activity by public authorities.

It is established that the main signs of civil society include: 1) existence of market economy where the personality isn't aloof of property, the freedom of business activity exists, and intervention of the state in economic relations is minimized; 2) recognition and real security of natural human rights, possibility of their judicial protection; 3) self-controllability, self-organization; 4) publicity of the carried-out social and political actions; freedom of speech and communication with international public organizations; 5) rule of the legal law; equality of all before the law and court.

A trail in the signs of a civil society is that it is interconnected with the constitutional state. Out of civil society, the constitutional state is impossible. The constitutional state can't be built without civil society. Such interrelation is explained by the fact that neither power, nor right can be real guarantors of performance of laws, if the right is not legitimated by society. But society is able to achieve it only at rather high level of civil development.

Problem Statement

The constitutional state and civil society are formed in a communal process. Their creation demands a progressive edge and purposeful efforts, an open entry to information and ability of citizens to process and analyze it. Therefore, education aims to develop not the traditional schemes of thinking and practical actions, but the abilities to comprehend and select necessary information, proceeding from the requirements to make independent decisions.

The problem of formation of a civic stand was already considered in modern literature. It is found out that in works Asmolova, Vulfov, Gayazov , and Karakovsky, the formation of a civic stand is treated as a valuable activity process which provides the activization of social functioning of the personality (Asmolov, 2008; Vulfov, 1990; Gayazov, 1995; Karakovsky, 1993). The main task of formation of a civic stand consists in educating a personality to be ready for full self-realization in the society. Undoubtedly, self-realization of the personality – is one of the components of the process of forming a civic stand. However, it is illegal to reduce all process only to self-realization. For this reason, we consider that development of knowledge of civil society, rights, freedoms, and duties of a citizen is the most important feature of management of formation of a civic stand.

Psychological aspects of formation of a civic stand of a personality are covered in works Bozovic (1995), Kovalyova (1965), Ikonnikova (1974). For example, Kovalyov correlated a position to the attitude of the person towards reality. Bozovic and Ikonnikova defined sides of formation of a civic stand through the system of relations to life, events, people. In their researches, the civic stand is studied as a difficult psychological education for the development of a self-sufficient personality. Undoubtedly, the civic stand is accompanied by personal properties, therefore, we consider it as an integrated quality of the personality. But it is not enough, as realization and manifestation of this quality is carried out only in the course of civil activity. Therefore, one of features of formation of a civic stand is the involvement of students as subjects in legal, moral and political, social and economic relations for the development of civil activities, acquisition of experience to form a civic stand, and an emotional valuable attitude towards it.

We consider that ambiguous interpretations of an essence of formation of a civic stand are caused by variety of the points of view about the essence of a civil society. Hegel wrote that civil society is the sphere of realization of the special and private purposes and interests of the individual: here everyone for themselves is the purpose, all others are significant only as means for achievement of this purpose (Hegel, 1990). Civil society is a special sphere of the society, area of private activity, set of the non-state public relations and institutes expressing various values, interests and requirements of members of society rather independent from each other (Vulfov, 1990). Civil society is connected with the phenomenon of modern western civilization as forms of existence of the democratic society based on the market relation (Gayazov, 1995). Civil society is a system of ensuring activity of social, sociocultural and spiritual spheres, their reproduction and transfer from generation to generation (Gazman, 1990). We consider that civil society represents systems of public institutes and their relations, dependent and independent of the state, which are designed to provide conditions for self-realization of certain individuals and collectives, and realization of private interests and requirements. Therefore, we consider the formation of a civic stand as purposeful process. At the same time, the analysis of scientific literature showed that topics on the formation of a civic stand have not been scientifically researched yet. In this regard, clarification of features of the formation of a civic stand for students and youth is the purpose of this article. For achievement of this purpose, we plan to disclose the essence of civil society and a civic stand; examine the characteristic of the formation of a civic stand; prove the need for the development of knowledge of civil society, rights, freedoms, and duties of the citizen, and involvement of students as subjects in civil activities as features of the formation of a civic stand.

Research Questions

The modern society aims to train specialists, not only to survive in the competitive labour markets, but also to take active part in the activities of the civil society (Pugacheva et al., 2016).

In the conditions of the aggravation of global problems, formation of a civic stand for students and youths is an imperative of sustainable development of the civil society, and a basis for political and economic stability of the state (Ivanov et al., 2016).

All this causes a new view on the formation of a civic stand for innovative teachers, as residents of many countries are venturing into more difficult public relations, to carry out new social roles, to see themselves not as citizens of any concrete state, but as citizens of the world.

Purpose of the Study

Article purpose – to find out features of the formation of a civic stand in the course of training the innovative teacher.

Research Methods

The system approach allowing to consider the formation of a civic stand as a purposeful process is the leading approach to this research. The wide scope of system approach covers the different parties of public life and many sciences.

A basis of understanding the system approach are its principles through which a basic formulation is submitted in the works of Ackoff (1972), Garayedagi (2007), Forrester (1970), Kahneman (1979; 1992), and Tversky (1974). One of the principles of system approach is commitment which represents a basis of system thinking (Black, 2013). Commitment was stated as a principle firstly by Kant. Kant guessed that something disappears in the purposeful nature of activity of the person, peculiar to the most objective course of history which is not depending on people (Kant, 2000). Today the principle of commitment is based on understanding the purposes of the subjects of system based on information, knowledge, and understanding. Information allows to answer the question "what?", knowledge - "as?", understanding - "why?".

Formation of a civic stand in students grounded on the principle of commitment provides system integrity of the processes of assimilating the knowledge of the civil society, the rights, freedoms, and duties of the citizen and involvement of students as subjects in civil activity, and their continuity. The result received at each preceding stage provides the beginning of the subsequent stage. From stage to stage, the task becomes complicated. The students are linked to the performance of these tasks by gradual building of independence and activity, knowledge of civil society, the rights, freedoms, and duties of the citizen and civil activity represented in a goal-oriented system.

Findings

The main results of this research are: 1) essence of a civic stand and features of formation of a civic stand of the innovative teacher; 2) experimental check of features of formation of a civic stand of the innovative teacher.

Essence of a civic stand and feature of formation of a civic stand of the innovative teacher. It is revealed that the civic stand is an integrated quality of the personality who is aware of his/her civil rights, freedoms, and duties; understands his/her civil liability before society; has a steady orientation on civil activity within the precepts of law. We understand the formation of a student's civic stand as a purposeful process of inclusion of students in the legal, moral, political, social, and economic relations for the consciousness of the civil rights, freedoms, and duties, understanding of civil liability, education of a steady orientation on civil activity within the precepts of law. Commitment characterizes the formation of a civic stand of future teachers as a difficult process capable to self-preservation, self-organization, and self-control on the basis of processing of information. These characteristics is present in a person possessing liberty of choice at decision-making. It is established that, from a position of system approach, a person belongs to a class of self-regulating purposeful systems, functioning on the basis of the correlation of two types of information: environmental conditions (situation) and personal condtion system. It is found out that features of the formation of a civic stand during training of the innovative teacher consist: in the knowledge of civil society, the citizen’s rights, freedoms and duties; involvement of students as subjects in the existing legal, moral, political, social, and economic relations for development of civil activities, experiencing the formation of a civic stand, and an emotional valuable attitude towards it.

Experiment on the features of formation of a civic stand of the innovative or new-generational teacher. An experimental inspection of results of the research was carried out in the Kazan (Volga) federal university from 2015-2017. 87 teachers and 305 students participated in the experiment. The experiment took place in three stages: stating, forming, control.

At the stating stage, during the poll, the relation of teachers and students to the process of formation of a civic stand was found out. At the forming stage, for development of students’ knowledge of civil society, a course "Civil Society in Modern Russia" was developed and included in the curriculum. The course purposed to acquaint students with the history of emergence of the civil society, its institutions and mechanisms of functioning. For the achievement of this purpose, three tasks were set: to teach students to work independently with the recommended literature, to competently conduct a discussion, and to clearly state their thoughts in a written format. The course consists of three blocks. The first block is devoted to the consideration of ideological roots of the civil society. The second block is focused on studying the institutions of a civil society and their interaction with the state. The third block includes history of emergence of institutions of civil society in Russia, their modern features and prospects of development. As a result of studying the course, students should: 1) know theoretical bases, historical conditions and research approaches to definition of the concept of "civil society" and its interaction with the state; 2) be able to formulate personal definition of a civil society and to come up with its functions and analysis for the description of a modern situation; apply the chosen theoretical design to the analysis of the concrete periods of formation of civil society and the concrete operating institutions of civil society; 3) to have an idea of the forms of interaction of structures of civil society existing in Russia and foreign countries within the state; 4) have skills of critical thinking; preparation of political texts; analysis of effective forms of interaction of structures of civil society within the state.

During the experiment an algorithm for assessing the discussions held on occupations was developed: 1) Organization of occupation: existence of manipulative materials, ability of leaders to summarize and turn to new questions; 2) Representation of debatable materials: talking, communicative skills; 3) Training of leaders: competence, respect for other opinions; 4) Order of discussion of debatable material: integration of the read texts into an outline for discussions, reference to opinions of other authors, explanation of difficult terms, knowledge of the training material; 5) Contact of leaders with audience: promotes participation in the discussion, promotes dialogue of participants with each other, stimulates thinking and give constructive answers to questions, recognition of other approaches / opinions. Besides discussions, students showed great interest in the micro essay – written work not less than 500 words and no more than 1000 words. In preparation of the micro essay, it was recommended to combine theoretical material of the course with the analysis of the chosen case (case-study). Students – future teachers popularly chose these topics: "In civil society is the main centre of human freedom" ( Chicherin), "Silent citizens are ideal citizens for the authoritative governor and misfortune for democracy" (Dahl), "The greatest problem of the human race forced to be resolved by nature is – the achievement of general legal civil society" (Kant).

For approbation of a conclusion on the need of students’ involvement as subjects in the legal, moral, political, social, and economic relations for development of civil activities, acquisition of experience of formation of a civic stand, and an emotional valuable attitude towards it. In this stage, "The youth parliament" was organized. The purpose of its creation consisted in the organization of interaction of students and bodies of the state and municipal authority for protection of the rights and legitimate interests of youths. Within this project, the students actively participated in the preparation, acceptance, and implementation of administrative decisions affecting their activities, protection of their rights and interests. In our opinion, "The youth parliament" is the real component of civil society allowing to involve students as subjects of legal, moral, political, social, and economic relations for development of civil activities. The members of "Youth parliament" consisted of 21 persons, the term of their governance - 6 months. The process of formation of "Youth parliament" is carried out by the "Youth electoral commission". Elections of members of "Youth parliament" are held by direct confidential voting on proportional system. In the course of vote, voters are recommended to be guided by the following personal qualities of candidates: a) experience, other work; b) educational level; c) experience of public work; d) achievements in social, political, economic, and social spheres. Thus, the candidates for the "Youth parliament" has to possess a civic stand. The experiment showed that the efficiency of the "Youth parliament" increases on the condition of assimilation by students the knowledge of civil society, the rights, freedoms, and duties of citizens.

At the control stage, the analysis of results of the experiment is carried out. It is found out that features of forming a civic stand in future teachers are dependent on their age characteristics, and methodological and civil culture of teachers. It is well-known that at student's age there is further mental development of the person, the structure of the personality in connection with entry into a new, wider social community changes, quest for the meaning of life takes place. Aspiration to self-realization – characteristic feature of students, and the leading activity - educational and professional. The thought system gains a personal emotional character. There is an aspiration to theoretical and world outlook on problems. Emotionality is shown in experiences concerning personal opportunities and qualities. Intellectual development is expressed in thirst for generalizations, search for regularities and principles standing behind private facts. There is concentration of attention, and memory size increases. There is an ability to independently understand difficult questions. Independence, determination, criticality and self-criticism, rejection of hypocrisy, and roughness is shown. All these also create an integrity system of developments of knowledge of civil society, the rights, freedoms and duties of the citizen and involvement of students as subjects in the legal, moral, political, social, and economic relations for development of civil activities, acquisition of experience of formation of a civic stand and an emotional valuable attitude towards it.

The methodological and civil culture of teachers is instigated by the scientific and pedagogical nature of their professional activity. On the one hand, teachers are researchers who are influencing the student’s personal qualities, scientific achievements, integrally combining realization of educational process with scientific research, developing ability to understand the essence of natural and public processes of students, training an innovative expert. The teacher builds the training courses on the basis of the normative legal acts regulating educational process and also personal scientific research reflected in monographs and textbooks. In higher educational institutions, the participation of each teacher in scientific research is a necessary and indispensable condition for effective work. On the other hand, the teacher is the leading figure of the educational process. The teacher interacts with students on the basis of the civil culture, conceptual humanistic principles aimed at the spiritual development and formation of the identity of students. Methodological and civil culture make a basis for pedagogical thinking, activity, and communication. It is the strategy of creative self-realization for the teacher to form a civic stand for students. Structure-forming components of methodological and civil culture of teachers include: knowledge of the principles and methods of modern education, structure of knowledge (its formal and logical structure, development tendencies, means and methods of reception and expression), regularities of creation of scientific and educational knowledge, structure of civil activity; abilities to organize the process of education and formation of a civic stand; steady pedagogical and civil values. A quality of the formation of a civic stand in training of the innovative teacher is an indicator of methodological and civil culture of teachers. Integration of methodological and civil culture of teachers relies on knowledge and abilities, allowing all levers to coordinate to the purpose, thereby, harmonizing the structure of pedagogical activities.

Conclusion

It is established that civic stand, as one of the main characteristics of the personality, has concrete historical contents, as each stage of development of civil society makes new demands to the activity of citizens. The essence of a civic stand consists in the consciousness of civil rights, freedoms, duties, and social responsibilities, and a steady orientation on civil activity within the precepts of law. The formation of a civic stand during the training of innovative or new-generational teachers is a purposeful development in the students’ knowledge of civil society, the rights, freedoms, and duties of the citizen, and inclusion in civil activity within the precepts of law. Features of the formation of a civic stand of future teachers include: development of knowledge of civil society, the rights, freedoms, and duties of the citizen, and involvement of students as subjects of legal, moral, political, social, and economic relations for the development of civil activities, experiencing the formation of a civic stand and an emotional valuable attitude towards her.

It is established that the set of knowledge of civil society, the rights, freedoms, and duties of the citizen allows the student to design his own line of civil behaviour, to build an adequate relation with civil society and the state, to form a culture of civil thinking, to protect one’s civic stand in a civilized way, without violating the rights and the interests of other people. The epistemological analysis of knowledge of civil society, the rights, freedoms, and duties of the citizen showed that knowledge of this sphere appeals not to the natural essence of a thing, but to its sense. Three stages of assimilation of knowledge of civil society, the citizen's rights, freedoms, and duties are revealed: 1) a conscious perception and storing expressed in direct playback of knowledge; 2) application of a sample in similar conditions; 3) creative use in unfamiliar situations.

It is revealed that effective formation of a civic stand of innovative teachers increases on the condition of commitment of developments of knowledge of civil society, the rights, freedoms, and duties of the citizen, and involvement of students as subjects in the legal, moral and political, social and economic relations. Stages of involvement of students as subjects in the existing legal, moral and political, social and economic relations are revealed: 1) formation of a steady orientation on the development of various civil roles; 2) judgment on the maintenance of civil roles and mastering the abilities to plan personal civil activity, to organize one’s self, self-check; 3) education of civil liability; 4) development of abilities to introspection and self-criticism.

Taking into account the received results it is possible to allocate a number of the scientific problems on the formation of a civic stand of the innovative teacher demanding further consideration: instruments of the formation of a civic stand; selection and structuring of knowledge of civil societies, rights, freedoms and citizen's duties; methods of involvement of students (future teachers) in civil activity.

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