Formation Of Post Material Values In Conditions Of Transversality Of Educational Paradigms

Abstract

The study analyzes the post material values of the Y generation, which has developed in the conditions of the transversality of educational paradigms in Russia. The attention is drawn to the importance of social networks with horizontal communication. Another aspect is the growth of the digital technologies in the sphere of education. The post material values shared by teenagers make it difficult to motivate and stimulate them with a help of traditional means. The research is based on the modern theory of generations. The main provisions of the W. Strauss and N. Howe theory of generations, which are applied to the Russian problems of education, are described in the article. The authors agreed with the basic characteristics of generations "Y" and "Z". They are characterized in the article as the main actors of the modern educational process. The attention is paid to the basic difficulties encountered in teaching practice while working with these groups of young people. The researchers pay attention to the importance of the personal-oriented training in this situation, the need to use different models of education, the creation of a highly professional environment for the educational institutions, the significant increase of the humanitarian profile disciplines and the creation of individual educational routes, the applied baccalaureate system and etc. All these factors show the need of creating a fundamental theory that allows one to organize effective interaction with the young people.

Keywords: Post material valuestransversality of educational paradigmstheory of generationsmodernization of education

Introduction

The analysis of the modern socio-philosophical, psychological and pedagogical literature allows us to state that the task of reforming and reconfiguring the teaching process in connection with understanding the time as the existence of a unique experience of one's own time "from within", a person is still relevant. The concept of generations and age as a measure of awareness of one's own living life can be recognized as the starting point in this matter (Svetlov, 2013; Jaeger, 1961; Kuhn, 1962). Especially when one is talking about the first generation of people, whose birth and socialization took place in the post soviet era. This is a so-called "generation Y".

In this regard, it will be appropriate to refer to the certain provisions of the "theory of generations" which is quite actively used in modeling educational and social technologies in the conditions of the modern Russia. At the same time, the authors point out the gap that often arises between sociological, socio-psychological theories and pedagogical practice (Mureyko, Serkova, Shipunova, Romanenko, Romanenko, 2016). "The theory of generations" is originally a sociological theory. The socio-philosophical comprehension of this theory is contained in the works of N. Howe and W. Strauss.

Problem Statement

The American scientists suggested that the generation is a certain group of people born in a certain age period. They were influenced by the same events and characteristics of upbringing with the similar values (Howe, Strauss, 1991). As a rule, one does not realize the effect of these factors. They affect one imperceptibly. But in a significant part they determine human values, worldview and behavior, in particular, the specificity of human communication and social integration, the features of setting and achieving professional goals. There are such groups in the modern Russia according to the "theory of generations":

• The Generation of Winners (1900-1922)

• The Generation of the Silent (1923-1942)

• The Baby-Boomer Generation (1943-1962)

• The X Generation (1963-1982)

• The Generation of Millennials or the Y Generation (1983-2002)

• Some experts identify the Z Generation (since 2003).

It should be noted that this division is rather conditional. It would be incorrect to speak about the absence of intersections between the six generation groups value orientations (Sultanov, Voskresensky, 2014). However, the authors should emphasize that they are particularly interested in the last two generations because they are included in the modern educational situation. Actually, these generations formulate requests for the state educational policy, taking into account their own motives, goals and expectations from receiving an "educational product".

Research Questions

The specificity of the modern teenagers is connected with the fact that their birth, childhood and the first stages of socialization, professionalization and enculturation occurred in the highly unstable period of the 1990s in cultural, economic and value-oriented aspects. However, it would be an excessive simplification of the matter to say that this is a purely Russian problem. Of course, the millennials of different countries differ from each other. But thanks to the social networks, globalization and high speed changes, a young person from one country has more much in common with the young people from another country than with older generations inside his own country. All countries have similar difficulties in determining the value environment of the «Y Generation». But this situation has its own specifics in Russia. At least two facts determined the ideological values of the millennials in the Russian Federation. First, there was fundamental instability of the period of the 1990s (a political upheavals, a sharp change in the economic course, the devaluation of the traditional for the USSR values, the emergence and aggressive broadcasting through media the alternative lifestyles of the West Atlantic civilization and etc.). but there was the stability of the first decade of the 2000s (Solomin, Sultanov, Voskresensky, 2016). In this connection, the question of the fundamental value orientations of the «Y Generation» arises. There is no fundamental theory that allows one to highlight the complete, exhaustive picture of the teenagers’ world in the modern Russian-language scientific literature.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to substantiate the content, nature, factors, features of the post material values formation in the conditions of transversality of educational paradigms in the educational space of the modern Russia. These values are considered as fundamental life guides in the study. It should be noted that several educational strategies (cultural-creative, functional-pragmatic, information-technological etc.) operate simultaneously in the conditions of the Russian educational space. In this regard, it is necessary to answer the question: what models of education correspond to the Y generation, which enable it to be better incorporated into multilevel communication with the other generations in the context of the modern society?

Research Methods

The methods of comparative, hermeneutic, structural-and-functional analysis are used in the study. Some facts, data and materials from sociological and statistical researches are attracted. The following methodological approaches are used in the analysis of the complex problem of the educational strategies transversality: phenomenological, paradigmatic, socio-psychological. The basic concepts of the "philosophy of everyday life" are also used in the research, in the problem field of which social actors are formed in the situation of the formation of their ideals and value preferences.

Findings

The authors should outline the following characteristics of the «Y Generation» summarizing the data and materials of these investigations of the recent years:

• At first, one should note the orientation to today’s problems. It means the life in the regime "here-and-now". The extreme instability of the period of the 1990s formed the reluctance to construct long-term plans and an extremely poorly expressed concern for the future among teenagers, whose first steps of socialization had fallen at this time. It was replaced by the orientations to quickly achievable goals. In this connection, the development of the start-ups ideology in the modern youth environment is quite understandable, which makes it possible for them to get rich quickly making a rapid rise in the social elevator. Sociological surveys confirm that a typical teenager rather wants to become an adult and independent today. Teenagers according to the last researches accept and absorb the information consciously or spontaneously if it is relevant, emotionally colored, relies on their specific life experience. Teenagers’ interest in the present is very specific. It is important for them to know everything about themselves and their friends, about the teenagers’ society and their subcultures (Miroshkina, 2014).

• One should also mention the following characteristic: it is a life in social networks where it is possible to communicate horizontally with a multitude of participants simultaneously and where the need for social recognition through various likes, subscribers, reposts etc. is clearly expressed. A modern young man does not imagine and present himself as a person tuned to one communicative act. The weak and declining interest of teenagers in the lectures as a form of pedagogical work was noted in many studies. It is difficult for teenager to focus his attention on one information flow. Usually he prefers to maintain a dialogue with several respondents at the same time talking with one, answering the social network to another, "like" photos of the third etc. In this regard, it is appropriate to raise the question: to what extent does the traditional educational system, in which participants passively or even actively absorb the material, correspond to the value-motivational environment of the «Y Generation» as the main participant of the modern educational process? The representatives of this generation do not want to be objects of broadcasting. They want to communicate, do different things and arrange something together. However, when they come to school they see the old methods that are used by their teachers as well as the old approaches of education coming from the past centuries (Shipunova, 2014). However, it can not be stated definitely that interactive technologies of the 20th and early 21st centuries: business and developing games, cases, presentations and interactive whiteboards allow one to solve this problem.

• The next characteristic of the millennial generation is the closeness with his family. It was repeatedly demonstrated in empirical psychological studies (Khomyakova, 2011). At the same time, one should note the peculiarity of the representatives of this generation. They feel great closeness not with their parents, but with grandmothers and grandfathers who often took on educational duties in the situation of instability of Russia's economy in the period of the 1990s. While the parents at the same time solved the problem of the family survival and earning money.

• The authors should also point out the expressed interest of the youth generation in the digital technologies, in particular, computer games which influence on the cognitive, emotional and psychological abilities of a young person is very ambivalent. Definitely, it is not reduced to a simple entertainment and "burning time". In particular, S. Johnson notes that computer games teach gamers to define short-term, medium-term and long-term goals, to fix their attention to their implementation in the game process. Achieving the goal gives the gamer a quick and visible encouragement, which immediately becomes visible to the other participants in the game process raising his level of social recognition in the gaming community (Johnson, 2005).

• The «Y Generation» does not imagine life outside the social networks and Internet. To the traditional ways of communication - telephone conversation, "live" communication millennials clearly prefer Skype, SMS, correspondence in social networks etc. Besides this, they are convinced that the access to the information is more important than owning the information. Researchers note the "superficiality" of the teenagers’ interests in the network. But in practice it turns into multitasking (Zvyagintseva, Mukortova, 2015). The user can simultaneously correspond with friends, do homework, listen to music, make and edit photos doing all the actions at the same time. Such multitasking in practice does not reduce the effectiveness of the main task implementation, for example, the implementation of lessons. But it also significantly increases the efficiency of the main work for which a person went online. However, the youth does not go online today. It lives in the Internet and feels comfortably there.

• The consequence of orientation to post material values is high self-esteem and orientation to extremely flexible professional mobility . "Work where you are demanded in" — is the rule that guides the modern young professionals. This means high demands that a person makes to himself. Hence the rapid development of start-ups, venture business (in which all the risks are borne by the entrepreneur) and the emergence of a new image of a specialist — a "business angel" flying around the world and working where he feels comfortable at the moment. (Tsymbalenko, Sharikov, Zhilavskaya, [and others], 2013).

Conclusion

It is easy to see that a personal-oriented education answers the requests of the «Y Generation». However it is not difficult to notice that the educational situation of the modern Russia is characterized by some transversality of educational strategies (cultural-creative, functional-pragmatic, information-technological etc.) where they operate simultaneously (Bogatyrev, Romanenko, 2016; Shmonin, 2013). Now one should answer the question: is it effective to use one of these models for learning the "millennial generation"? In the real practice, one must take into the account the following circumstances and challenges of the time.

Firstly, it is the creation of a highly professional environment of an educational institution where the creative moment of working with the «Y Generation» will be expressed promoting self-development, self-disclosure and self-actualization of the individual. Millennial needs to "live" the broadcasting values ​​in such way that they would become "his" own values.

The second point is a significant increase of the humanitarian disciplines, which form the skills of interpersonal and intercultural communication.

The third point, the creation of individual "road maps" and "routes". This will require the replacing of the traditional role models of the teacher, lecturer, professor with others - the coach, the tutor, the facilitator who will be able to guide the student to his own goals.

The fourth point, this is a significant increase in mobility both within the educational institution and in the field of interaction with other "players" of the educational space.

And, finally, the fifth point, a more active introduction of the applied baccalaureate system into the existing educational environment. This will allow graduates to receive, along with theoretical and practical academic knowledge, the set of the personal knowledge and skills necessary for the future successful and effective work in the context of Russia's transition to a knowledge-based economy.

All these factors make one think about creating a fundamental theory that allows one to organize effective interaction with young people who are the main participants of the modern educational process modeling for them those educational strategies that will become relevant in the 21st century.

References

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