Professionalismas The Unchangeable Purposeofhighereducation

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to consider the aim and social functions of higher professional education and to argue that professional competence of a higher level can be obtained if only higher education continues to be quite a certain level in the system of education as a whole and will not be identified with elementary levels of enlightenment or practical skills. In order to argue that higher education is neither a privilege or destiny of the few, nor the sum of elementary knowledge and skills such research questions are considered as: the differences between higher education and enlightenment; the special purpose of higher humanitarian education and its functions in the development of the spiritual culture of university′s graduates; the type of identity formation of which is included in the scope of social responsibility of higher education. It is asserted by the author that higher education is connected with the knowledge of such a level of complexity that requires from a student considerable force, constraints, and persistence to cope with. Higher humanitarian education is associated with significant changes in the level of understanding and in the ability to analyze the information, in the degree of awareness and critical perception of reality. Scientific knowledge, on which formation of specialist with higher education is based, carries in itself universality and intersubjectivity, which are going beyond any social role or type of socio-cultural identity.

Keywords: Higher educationhumanitarian educationmetaidentity Professionalism

Introduction

Professional mobility of the population is the essential feature of a high-tech and sustainable economy. This means that in the coming years an increasing number of people forcibly or voluntarily will be changing the specialty, which they received at the university. Yet the idea of inevitable changes as of working places as of professions widely spread in modern ideology of higher education and in public consciousness leads to the effect that not only students, but the universities themselves increasingly focus on preparing graduates who are not initially seeking to work in the specialty according to the diploma of higher education. This trend only increases an uncertainty of the term “higher education” as it is, since higher education, say, in pedagogy does not make the holder of the diploma of pedagogical university a specialist of higher qualification in the field of trade or navigation, and vise verse: the holders of diplomas of any other kind of higher education do not become qualified teachers.

The notorious “successfulness” of graduates, proposed to the system of higher education as a goal, in fact, based on the criterion that destroys the very meaning of higher professional education. Since, if “success” means a “self-realization of personality”, a university is neither the only, nor even the primary means of achieving this objective. As the subject of personal culture university′s graduate can be successful in various forms of social activity. But for the universities themselves “successfulness” of their activity cannot be measured by the level of personal success of its graduates carrying out professional activity incompatible with their academic specialty and qualification confirmed by the diploma. So, if some graduate of pedagogical university does not work in accordance with the specialty, then, whatever the causes of this situation would be, she/he did not become a “successful” teacher; and the graduates of technical universities devoting their lives to the art museum, whatever their achievements in this field may be, are the fiasco of their alma mater since they did not become “successful” engineers or scientists.

The real level of education of the majority of young people entering universities nowadays is not sufficient for mastering a profession based on a study of many scientific concepts and methods. It means, that higher education gradually, but steadily are entrusted with the tasks of not only preparation of a narrow circle of specialists of higher qualification, but also of socialization (socio-cultural adaptation) of as many representatives of the young generation as possible.

The fundamental social significance of the both tasks is beyond any doubt, but the time has come to realize that their simultaneous accomplishment in the framework of classical higher educational system is impossible. The motivation to gain specialized forms of knowledge, which higher education relies on, is based on the more developed spiritual needs than the basic need to know the world, which is quite successfully satisfied by modern mass media not only all together but even each of them separately.

Problem Statement

The fact that many practitioners do not have a special education illustrates only that there are many professions and jobs in demand on the labor market, mastering of which requires no special and especially – no higher education. But this fact cannot be used to justify the false notion that a university ought to give not knowledge, but practical skills, or that a teacher has ceased to be a translator of knowledge. The system of universities can offer a wide range of educational services, but the fact that these services are offered by institutions of higher education does not transform any services in the process of getting just “higher” education. The main problem which ought to be resolved in order to put some reasonable sense in the multilevel system of education is to mark the real boundaries of different levels and to determine the place of higher education in its classical, university′s sense in the modern educational process.

Research Questions

To determine the place of higher education in the modern educational process we ought to consider such questions as: the differences between higher education and enlightenment; the special purpose of higher humanitarian education and its functions in the development of the spiritual culture of university′s graduates; the type of identity formation of which is included in the scope of social responsibility of higher education.

Purpose of the Study

The aim of the study is to consider social functions of higher professional education and to argue that professional competence of a higher level can be obtained if only higher education continues to be quite a certain and really “higher” level in the system of education as a whole and will not be identified with elementary levels of enlightenment or practical skills.

Research Methods

The research is based on the methods of content and logical analysis, interpretation, comparison, generalization and theoretical deduction.

Findings

Conclusion

Since different professions require different levels of fundamental scientific knowledge and different levels of involvement of a specialist in the processes of organization and management of production, the allocation of different levels (stages) in the whole system of education is an objective necessity. Would these stages be organized as autonomous institutions (secondary and higher) or as sublevels of university's “multilevel system of education” – the essence does not change: all students in the system of education get a profession that gives them an opportunity to participate in the social division of labor, but not all professions require just the higher education. Many jobs existing in the modern system of social division of labor requires skills acquired by man in the process of practice exclusively.

Higher professional education is neither a prerogative of the elite nor a combination of basic knowledge and skills. Diploma of higher education certifies not the identity, citizenship or the rights and freedoms of a person, but solely the level of qualification in a specialty requiring a fundamental scientific training. Professional education unlike enlightenment provides people with the knowledge, skills and abilities required for the substitution of certain places in the social division of labor. So, the higher education should not seek “to enter into every home”, like electricity in the recent past or the Internet in the near future. In the early stages of professional orientation it is necessary to explain that there are many occupations that are in demand on the labor market and vital to society, mastering of which does not require university education, but allows individuals to realize their abilities fully.

Higher humanitarian education becomes an important factor of development of spiritual culture of specialists precisely because it is not limited to erudition and acquaintance with the masterpieces of art, but is expressed in the development of analytical, critical and reflective qualities of consciousness allowing person to realize different value-content activities and to achieve mutual understanding with other people.

The content of professionalism is changeable, but the purpose of professional education – unchanged: the formation of the experts perceiving their role as the primary way to self-realization and performing their civic virtues. The percentage of true professionals is, obviously, not great, but they embody in their lives the fundamental paradigm of professionalism as a creative activity of man.

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