The Study Of Teachers Readiness For Ethno-Regional Pedagogical Activity

Abstract

The article examines the problem of readiness of teachers who work at schools with native (non-Russian) language of instruction for the implementation of ethno-regional pedagogical activity. The need for taking into account the national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region in educational organizations is recognized by various researchers both in Russia and abroad. The author's definition of ethno-regional pedagogical activity is given in the article. The description of various diagnostic methods for determining the level of ethno-regional pedagogical activity of schoolteachers with native (non-Russian) language of instruction is described. The conducted research of schoolteachers of the Sayano-Altai region has shown great interest of teachers in teaching children taking into account the national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region. At the same time, teachers note difficulties in carrying out such activities at schools: the lack of knowledge of the history of their own people and the peoples of the region, their ethno-culture and ethnic cultures of ethnical neighbors, ethnopsychological and individual characteristics of children, and the basis for a culture of interaction in various ethnic groups. Also, the dependence of teachers' responses from their formed ethno-regional identity has been revealed. The article gives a description of the levels of ethno-regional identity, the results of its diagnostics are given. The article presents the data of the teachers’ self-diagnostics on the levels of motivational, cognitive, affective and activity components of their ethno-regional competence.

Keywords: Ethno-cultural peculiaritiesethno-regional pedagogical activitynationalregional

Introduction

Ethno-regional pedagogical activity is the active interaction of the subjects of the educational process aimed at mastering, accepting and actively using the educational process of the ethno-cultural values of all ethnic groups living in the region by all participants and contributing to the implementation of programs and technologies that ensure the trainees to achieve planned (personal, meta-subject and subject) results in the multicultural environment of the region, country and world.

A great number of researchers, both in Russia and abroad, have dealt with the issues related to the consideration of national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region. Thus, the need for taking into account the characteristics of ethnic groups living in the region in the organization of the education is revealed in the works of  Beysenov and Musaeva (Beysenov & Musaeva, 2015), Blattberg (Blattberg, 2006), Mowbray (Mowbray, 2006), Riggs (Riggs, 1985); compulsory consideration of regional peculiarities in the preparation of future specialists at the university are presented in the works of Ilyin, Leonidova, and Golovchin (Ilyin, Leonidova, & Golovchin, 2017), Mukina, Sokolova, and Mukin (Mukina, Sokolova, & Mukin, 2018), Bendermacher, Egbrink, Wolfhagen, Dolmans (Bendermacher, Egbrink, Wolfhagen, & Dolmans, 2017); improvement of the quality of specialists in the regions through the strengthening of international integration in education are given in the studies of Arutyunova (Arutyunova, 2018), Rogacheva & Slepukhin (Rogacheva & Slepukhin, 2015), Charron & Rothstein (Charron, & Rothstein, 2016), Almazova, Khalyapina, & Popova, (Almazova, Khalyapina, & Popova, 2017; Popova, Almazova, Khalyapina, & Tret'jakova, 2017) and others.

Problem Statement

The task of this study is to examine the teachers' readiness for the implementation of ethno-regional pedagogical activity at schools of the Sayano-Altai region;

Research Questions

It is necessary to answer the following questions: how do teachers evaluate their own level of ethno-regional pedagogical activity? What problems are there in organizing such activity at native (non-Russian) language schools? What are the reasons for the low efficiency of such activity at schools?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to determine the level of ethno-regional pedagogical activity of teachers working at schools with native (non-Russian) language of instruction in the Sayano-Altai region;

Research Methods

The effectiveness of ethno-regional pedagogical activity is revealed through a series of various diagnostic techniques. When developing authors’ methods, we relied on the works of Apollonov and Tarba (Apollonov & Tarba, 2017), Drobizheva (Drobizheva, 2017), Marcinkovskaya and Siyuchenko (Marcinkowska, & Siyuchenko, 2014), Erikson (Erikson, 1956).

Let's describe the main results of the diagnostics of the teachers.

The coverage of teachers was 47 people, out of this number: school principals (10 people), primary school teachers (14 people), teachers of native language and literature (15 people) and subject teachers (8 people).

The survey has shown that 61% of teachers have had the experience in organizing and implementing ethno-regional pedagogical activity. There are only 48% of them who have a special higher education ("Teacher of native language and literature). Only 23% of teachers have got training in additional professional development programs on the problems of organizing and implementing pedagogical activities, taking into account national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities.

The analysis of the teachers' questionnaire about the need for organizing a pedagogical process taking into account the national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region has shown teachers’ positive attitude towards the inclusion of ethno-regional material into the content of education. According to teachers, such material plays an important role in the cultural self-determination of schoolchildren, in the education of ethnic and interethnic tolerance, respect for cultural and historical experience, traditions of the ethnic groups in the region (68%). In our opinion, such teachers’ attitude is connected with the intensification of various public associations in the country and the region, the revival of national holidays held at the level of the village, city, republic, region and Russia.

The inclusion of the question of the correspondence of the school curriculum to the needs of students in the development of ethno-regional content into the questionnaire was due to the Federal State Standard (FSS) of the General Education Law of the educational institution for the formation of the part of the educational program. The content part of each of the main implemented educational programs, formed by the participants in the educational process, should reflect the educational needs and interests of the students, including studying the national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region. All this should be reflected in the curriculum of the basic educational program being implemented. At the same time, the analysis of teachers' responses has shown a high percentage of those ones who found it difficult to answer this question (89%).

When asked about the possibility of implementing ethno-regional content through the taught disciplines, 84% of respondents have answered that they consider it necessary to include the information related to the place of residence and the economic, ethno-cultural and other potential of the region into the content of the subject. 55% of teachers have noted that the inclusion of ethno-regional content should follow the partial model, which involves the introduction of ethno-regional material into all topics of the training courses. 32% of respondents adhere to the modular model, which means that there are separate topics on History, Culture, Linguistics, etc., as well as the possibility to apply normative or elective courses on regional issues. And, finally, 13% of teachers adhere to the integrative model, i.e. a separate training course, which presents information from various areas of knowledge reflecting the characteristics of the region and ethnic groups living on its territory.

Some respondents (28%) do not see the necessity to include information about ethnic groups living in the region or their culture into the educational process, considering that this will overload the content with “extra” material. According to our observation, the majority of respondents, who are neutral or negative about the inclusion of the ethno-regional material, are teachers of the Science subjects at urban schools, that is, where the ethnic manifestations of the behavior and mentality of schoolchildren are fewly presented.

11% of respondents have answered positively to the question “Does the work program on subjects that you teach contain ethnographic material?”. Moreover, they listed specific topics. Enriching the content of the taught disciplines with the materials of regional and ethno-cultural content, that are familiar to the child in his everyday life surrounding his reality, undoubtedly makes the study of the material interesting, meaningful and emotionally colored.

Analyzing the results of the questionnaire, we drew our attention to the fact that under the full understanding of the necessity and the possibility of carrying out ethno-regional pedagogical activity, conditioned by the contemporary socio-cultural context of the region, teachers have been experiencing difficulties in implementing the regional component of the discipline content (60.6%). The overwhelming majority of respondents believe that their level of professional training is insufficient to solve such pedagogical problems. Self-assessment of the structure of the ethno-regional knowledge of a teacher has revealed the principal causes of difficulties in professional activity, which are faced mainly by teachers with little teaching experience. Thus, among the respondents there were 38.4% of teachers with work experience up to 10 years, 32.8% - young specialists working at educational institutions up to 5 years.

It was this category of respondents who evaluated their knowledge of the general cultural and professional categories of the university as insufficient (knowledge of the history of their people and peoples of the region, knowledge of their ethnoculture and ethnic cultures of their ethnic neighbors, knowledge of the ethnopsychological and individual peculiarities of children, and the basis for a culture of interaction in various ethnic groups). This fact testifies to the insufficient readiness of young specialists for the implementation of ethno-regional pedagogical activity.

Not all young teachers understand the applied nature of general subject and psychological and pedagogical knowledge. They do not perceive them as a guide for action. Once alone with the class, they do not always use this knowledge. They do not connect it with real pedagogical practice. This largely explains the low level of effectiveness of the ethno-regional education of students. With an average level of special (subject) knowledge, not all teachers consider it necessary to link the content of the academic discipline with ethno-cultural values (teachers who have worked for more than 10 years), since they believe that there is enough circle, facultative and extracurricular work for this direction of schoolchildrens’ education. A certain part of the practitioners don’t always understand that the scientific thought is continuously developing, new technologies of teaching and upbringing are emerging, the content of education is being modernized, and the teacher needs to master the new content of education without waiting for the correction from above. Self-assessment of methodological knowledge (methods, forms, means of interaction with students in the educational process), professionally significant skills (skills directly influencing on the success of pedagogical activity, the management of the educational process – communication in various ethnic groups of a multicultural community) shows that this task is relevant not only for young researchers.

Many of the responses of the teachers we have interviewed depended not so much on their ethnic affiliation as on the formation of their ethno-regional (national-regional) identity and the extent to which the teacher is “immersed” into a specific ethno-regional environment where his or her professional activity takes place.

The identification of the teachers’ ethno-regional identity formation was examined by us according to the criteria and indicators proposed by Shcherbina (Shcherbina, 2007):

• a high level of ethno-regional identity was characterized by a clear understanding of their ethnic and regional affiliation, knowledge of ethno-differentiating and ethno-consolidating peculiarities, and the characteristics of ethnic and regional culture; psychological peculiarities of the personality type formed in a given territory; knowledge of ethnocultural and ethnopsychological peculiarities of their ethnos; the formation of independent evaluative judgments about the representatives of various ethnic groups, including their own, the presence of a positive attitude towards their own ethnic and regional affiliation, tolerant attitude towards the peoples inhabiting a particular region; orientation to the ethno-regional value system, readiness to interact with people of a different ethnicity (students, their parents representatives, the public), to conduct an intercultural dialogue. There have been distinguished 14% of teachers with a high level of ethno-regional identity.

• the average level of ethno-regional identity was characterized by the following indicators: a clear definition of ethnic affiliation when the regional one is uncertain; knowledge of ethno-differentiating, ethno-consolidating peculiarities, ethnopsychological characteristics of their ethnic group; ignorance of ethnocultural and ethnopsychological peculiarities of the peoples inhabiting the region; ignorance of the peculiarities of the personality type formed in a given territory; the presence of independent evaluative judgments about representatives of various ethnic groups, including their own, the existence of a relation to their own ethno-regional affiliation, characterized by a degree of deviation towards positive or negative; lack of tolerant attitude towards certain ethnic groups; orientation to the ethnic value system; aspiration to go into interaction with people of other ethnicity (students, their parents, the public); inability to conduct an intercultural dialogue. There are on average 40% of such teachers.

• the low level of ethno-regional identity was characterized by the uncertainty of ethno-regional affiliation; ignorance of ethno-differentiating, ethno-consolidating, ethno-integrating features, ethnopsychological peculiarities of their ethnic group; psychological peculiarities of the personality type, formed on this territory; the lack of independent evaluative judgments about the representatives of various ethnic groups, including their own, a positive assessment of their own ethnicity, tolerant attitude towards the peoples inhabiting the region; lack of orientation to the ethno-regional value system; unwillingness and inability to go into and conduct a dialogue with representatives of different nationalities (students, their parents (their representatives), the public). There are about 45% of teachers with a low level of ethno-regional identity formation.

• One of the forms of identifying teachers' readiness to carry out ethno-regional pedagogical activity has become self-diagnosis.

• Teachers have evaluated the level of the formation of the motivational, cognitive, affective and activity components of their ethno-regional competence, answering questions in the following directions:

• what I wish (I do not want to) to do when implementing the content of education on the basis of taking into account the national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region (the motivational component);

• what I know (I do not know) about the implementation of the content of education on the basis of taking into account the national, regional and ethno-cultural characteristics of the region (cognitive component);

• I correctly put into practice (I do not know how to put into practice correctly) (affective component).

• what I can develop (I do not know how to develop) (activity component).

According to the results of our study, it was found out that 41% of teachers understand the need to activate the system of educational and cognitive motivations of schoolchildren by associating with the nearest socio-cultural environment; formation of skills to accept and implement educational tasks on the national, regional and ethno-cultural material of the mesolevel. 36% of respondents realize the importance of work on the formation of knowledge bases and experience of interaction with the world of national, regional and ethno-cultural relations at the meso- and macrolevel: the history, culture and traditions of peoples and ethnic groups residing the region in the context of socio-economic and national cultural events; cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia.

According to the results of the study, 21% of our respondents say that they understand the regulatory framework for the education of their region, the main areas of work organization, taking into account national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities.

18% of them estimate their readiness to include subjects aimed at forming the basis of knowledge about the national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the meso- and macrolevel as sufficient into the curriculum.

On the average, 59% of respondents positively evaluate their skills in developing the curriculum, taking into account the national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region, thematic and by the lesson planning, the usage of a variety of ways to assess achievements, products of training and after-hour activities, reflecting the history, culture and traditions and heritage of the peoples and ethnic groups living in the region.

18% of the respondents have estimated their ability to organize extracurricular activities on a sufficient basis by involving schoolchildren into various types and forms of work on the development of various aspects of the socio-ethno-cultural life of the region at the mesolevel, providing conditions for self-esteem and self-reflection.

65% of teachers claim that they conduct lessons of various types in accordance with the FSS requirements, they can use modern bilingual (polylingual) psychological and pedagogical technologies.

22% are ready to apply psychological and pedagogical methods of diagnosing intra-ethnic and interethnic relationships to a group of children, as well as interact with parents in order to form humanistic values.

Studying the work experience of schoolteachers with native (non-Russian) language of instruction has allowed us to determine the reasons for the low effective organization of ethno-regional pedagogical activity. Our observations show that such activities are often aimed at using only certain types of traditional pedagogical culture. Teachers partially use the means of folk pedagogy (proverbs, sayings, riddles, legends, tales, folk songs, tongue twisters, nursery rhymes, etc.) in their professional work. Their activity is not always focused on familiarizing and assimilating the content of the traditional culture of upbringing not only of the peoples of the Sayano-Altai region, but also of their republic for the children.

In the system of the organization of ethno-regional pedagogical activity an important problem is the lack of steady motivation for pedagogical activity in the multicultural educational system of the region on the basis of taking into account the ethnic peculiarities of the place of residence, ethno-cultural environment of the region, traditions, folklore, etc.

As our studies have shown, only 20% of the interviewed teachers were able to represent the ethnic peculiarities of the classes. Only 36% of teachers resort to the examples that characterize the national and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region; 45% do not refer to the specific technologies that reflect national, regional and ethno-cultural characteristics; about 50% teachers do not know how to diagnose achievements, products of educational and extracurricular activities, reflecting the history, culture and traditions and heritage of peoples and ethnic groups living in the region.

According to the majority of teachers (94%), they need additional training in organizing the educational process, taking into account the national, regional and ethno-cultural characteristics of the region, especially on such issues as:

• development of work programs on the subject, taking into account the national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region;

• organization of extracurricular activities based on the inclusion of schoolchildren into a variety of types and forms of work to develop the ethno-cultural life of the region;

• application of modern bilingual (polylingual) psychological and pedagogical technologies.

Findings

Thus, studies conducted at schools with native (non-Russian) language of instruction have shown that teachers understand the importance of organizing children's education, taking into account the national, regional and ethno-cultural peculiarities of the region. Our study has revealed a generally positive attitude of teachers towards ethno-regional pedagogical activity, as well as the formation of individual skills in the framework of this activity. At the same time, there is fragmentation, the lack of a system of work in the organization of ethno-regional activities, and poor knowledge of the work organization on studying the characteristics of one's region by schoolchildren. The presence of ethno-regional identity and ethno-regional competence, formed by teachers, also affects the quality of the organization of ethno-regional pedagogical activity at native (non-Russian) language schools.

Conclusion

The results of the study have revealed the need for special teacher training for organizing such activities at schools in the region. The teacher training for the organization of ethno-regional activities can be carried out both at higher educational institutions and with the help of advanced training courses.

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