Ethno-Pedagogical Potential And Experience Of Moral Education In Educational Institutions

Abstract

This article discusses the education of the younger generation as one of the main tasks classified as initial needs of human society and a necessary condition to live and develop. Spiritual values ​​of the people, their traditions, customs and rituals played in the past and are playing now a decisive role in personality development, in formation of spiritual and moral qualities of younger generations. The revival of material and spiritual values ​​of the national culture, respect for the cultural heritage of the past, the idea about influence coming from masterpieces of folk art on spiritual and moral culture contribute to young people preparation to life. The article deals with complex and contradictory processes occurring in spiritual and moral life of the Chechen society. We analyze means, forms and methods of moral education in ethno-pedagogy of the Chechens and how they are used in educational activities of educational institutions in modern age. Requirements towards the moral code for children and young people in the Chechen national pedagogy are revealed in the context of the universal morality. They are characterized by the humanistic orientation, reflect the national peculiarities of social life of the Chechens and testify about the high pedagogical culture of the people. This has not lost its vital functioning in modern conditions in Russia. The study revealed a number of problems awaiting their solution. Many questions related to prolific spiritual pedagogical heritage of the Chechen people can and should become the subject to consider in new ethno-pedagogical research.

Keywords: Ethno-pedagogymoralityculturetraditions and customs

Introduction

The idea of ​​developing the national education in the spirit of ethnic traditions is universal and it is contributed with the pedagogy typical to a certain ethnic group, which collected in its concepts the original many century experience that developed within the national education including the elements of folklore art, national art, religion, folk customs and traditions.

It is known that the loss of the historical and spiritual values ​​of the peoples’ past can lead to the spiritual loss among individuals. Therefore, the reason for rethinking pedagogical and ethnic traditions and the essence of education is becoming very important issue to consider. Currently, in vein of the absence for the single state demand relating to children education and upbringing, to weak understanding the regional and national-cultural interests, this problem is becoming more and more topical. As known, the national traits of a child are shaped as he or she is mastering the cultural and historical experience, family traditions through direct learning and active communication in their national environment. National perception of the world gives to a person the strength and contributes to creative abilities development. As rightly noted by Volkov (1985) in his monograph (Arsaliev, 1998) ‘The Ethno-pedagogical Heritage of the Chechens’ the decent place in pedagogy is to be awarded to multi-century experience of education in Sparta, Athens, the tradition of samurai education in Japan, the priests in Egypt, and the educational system of Confucius. The results in educating the Chechens, the verification of which is currently taking place in the conditions of forced crisis, show the reasoning to attribute the historical experience of the national traditional pedagogy to the crucial phenomena of the world civilization, respectively, to the world pedagogy.

Moreover, the educational system of this Caucasian people, in more careful consideration, could become the property of all mankind, the different ethnic parts of which equally dream of being happy in conditions of freedom and equality (Arsaliev, 1998).

Sukhomlinsky (1988) deeply analysing the essence of the national pedagogy, emphasizing the necessity and importance of studying its ideas and views of the people believed that despite its wealth and great practical value, it is not being adequately studied, no in-depth studies have been conducted: ‘... Nobody has ever seriously thought about the national pedagogy and, apparently, this has brought many troubles to its understanding. I am sure that the national pedagogy is the treasure collected through people's spiritual life. In the national pedagogy the features of a national character and a face of the nation are revealed’. The important role in studying the heritage of the national pedagogy was given to the works of Volkov (1985), in which its content and essence were determined, the methodology was justified, and the concept of ‘ethno-pedagogy’ was introduced.

The pedagogical heritage of representatives belonging to various nationalities was studied by Gashimov (1970), Izmailov (1991), Khataev (1993), and others. In addition, the issues of ethno-pedagogy are reflected in the works of famous scientists of the North Caucasus (Mamkhegova, 1993; Arsaliev, 1996; Basayeva, 1985), who had the scientific and practical importance in improving upbringing and education of children in the national school. The Chechen thinkers, publicists and writers (Aliroev, 1990; Akhmadov & Khasmagomadov, 2005) made an important contribution to the study of the spiritual culture of the nation.

Teachers-innovators, such as Ilyin (1996) and others, who introduced the accumulated pedagogical experience of the past in their works, considered problems and difficulties, experiences and aspirations typical to teenagers. Relying on the experience of the national pedagogy, emphasizing its significance, they proposed the methods assisting to resolve conflicts and overcome the difficulties associated with adolescence.

The spiritual life of any nation is determined by its work, talent and humanity. These personality traits involved in the formation of a national character are the basis of ethno-pedagogy. History knows many examples confirming how difficult it was for the Chechen people to survive in conditions of language discrimination influencing to some extent the customs and traditions - the ruling authorities systematically carried out some measures aimed at destroying their ethno-cultural origins. The political events of the last 15–20 years in the Chechen Republic have served as fertile ground for the loss and deformation of many fundamental principles in upbringing and education (Ekhaeva, Masaeva, & Azhiev, 2014).

At present, when the government of Russia and Chechnya are making attempts to return the republic to the mainstream of normal life, the question of the moral education to younger generation is so relevant, as never been. The scrutinized analysis of the ethno-pedagogical heritage of the Chechens, a synthesis of experience, traditions and continuity in upbringing of a child, was conducted in the work of Arsaliev (1996) with the focus on the role of the national culture in educating a teacher. To study this problem, affecting the issue relating to school education development, pedagogical thought and ethno-pedagogy of the North Caucasian people, Khataev (1993) conducted a series of research.

However, as the literature review has shown, the life experience of working in schools, the national pedagogy methods and progressive national traditions and customs are practically not used in educational processes of the modern educational system, due to the gap in their knowledge.

Problem Statement

The study towards the heritage of every nation is strengthened with the problems arising from the growth of self-awareness and the national and cultural revival of the nation, the country unpreparedness to resolve inter-ethnic and inter-confessional conflicts. All these issues have been under strong focus for a long time (Arsaliev, 1998; Albakova, 2000; Aliroev, 1990; Alikhanova, 2004).

Research Questions

The subject of the research is the process of using progressive national traditions and customs in the educational process of the modern school.

Purpose of the Study

The aim of the research is to theoretically develop and practically test a system of moral education in the conditions of a comprehensive school based on the traditional culture of the Chechen people.

Research Methods

The study is based on a set of interpenetrating and complementary research methods: theoretical analysis of conceptual provisions using philosophical, pedagogical, psychological, sociological and methodological literature on the issue under study; comparative analysis of historical, ethnographic and folklore materials; study and analysis of the works of pre-revolutionary and modern authors, who worked with folklore, ethnography and pedagogical thought of the peoples of Russia.

Findings

In the ethnic potential of the Chechen family when working with schoolchildren, the large role is played by interaction between school and family, which includes: the functional duty of teachers, educators and parents; parenting in families; pedagogical education for parents in mass media via efforts of school.

The pedagogical aspect towards interaction of all these aspects involves organizing an educational environment in schools, in families and public places, which leads to creation of a holistic regional unity.

The family and the school have the primary responsibility to ensure that from early childhood children have an interest in public life and the ability to participate in it.

First of all, parents are responsible for a child social communication, for how he/she will understand and appreciate human qualities and relationships. No one doubts that the effectiveness of raising children in a family largely depends on the pedagogical literacy of parents.

Since we educated children in the traditional culture of the Chechen people, the attitude of teachers to the national pedagogy is of greater interest.

The results of our experiment largely depend on the knowledge of teachers and parents of the national traditions and customs, the ability to use them when educating modern younger generation.

To this end, the following work was carried out, we:

- studied school documentation (plans), educational work of class leaders, methodical associations, school hobby groups, as well as, the creative potential of teaching staff;

- surveyed and interviewed the class leaders and subject teachers;

- studied the educational work in schools;

In the course of our study, 68 educational plans were reviewed, 112 educational events organized by teachers in urban and rural schools were analyzed. In the analyzed plans of educational work, only 28 plans highlighted topics for moral education based on the traditions and customs of the Chechen people.

In other plans the educational work and pedagogy methods implementation is often formal. Also, from view of a psychological impact on personality development, where the most important points are - the traditions of hospitality, mutual aid, respect to elderly people, respect to bread (food), and attitude to nature – are not mentioned in educational plans. The schools introduced the course ‘Vainakh ethics’, which gives the basics of knowledge about the national pedagogy. But only parents can constantly influence, direct, and convince their children, arising their awareness to the national traditions. Close contact between parents and teachers in upbringing process is the most important condition for the effective use of the national traditions and customs in family education. In order to find out how parents understand what popular traditions are, what their role in educating adolescents is, we conducted a survey.

The survey consisted of two stages. At the beginning of the experiment, out of 135 surveyed parents of city schools, only 48 people (36%) knew the traditions of the Chechen people, mostly due to the fact that parents live together with their grandparents; 69 people (51%) knew the traditions partially, 18 people (13%) knew about them from the media.

Out of 105 parents (villages) support the Chechen national traditions as a means in upbringing children, 87 people (82.9%), 10 people (9.5%) do it partially, 8 people (7.6%) have the media support in it.

The results obtained allowed to conclude that parents have some superficial knowledge about the means and methods of the Chechen pedagogy. As can be seen from the survey materials, some young parents are familiar with the customs and traditions of the Chechen people, but do not use them in raising their children.

After the survey, the parent conferences were organized included the topic ‘Family education in Chechen national pedagogy’, ‘Emergence of simple moral norms and national moral traditions’, ‘Spiritual and moral education of students in national traditions’.

When discussions ended up, the following outcome was revealed: out of 105 parents of rural schools, the overwhelming majority of respondents want to know the essence of the Chechen national pedagogy. 83 people (79%) support the Chechen national traditions as a means of raising children, 19 people (18.1%) find the questions difficult to answer and 3 people (2.9%) have the support from the media.

Out of 135 surveyed parents of city schools, 96 people (71.1%) support the traditions of the Chechen people, 31 (23%) find the questions difficult to answer, and 8 people (5.9%) use the media as a support for it.

The study towards difficulties observed in moral education of younger generation confirmed the need to preserve and support traditions in the national pedagogy and their promotion among parents.

Many pedagogical groups do not pay insufficient attention to raising parental education in upbringing process, to their learning the innovative traditions in the national pedagogy and its application in practice.

The teacher should be socially active in the revival of the national culture. Despite the serious professional training offered to future teachers in universities, we observe insufficient training towards learning and developing the national and cultural heritage. Folklore art is a limitless source of moral rules and actions. Therefore, teachers must have good theoretical knowledge about the national traditions and customs, as well as, their application in practice.

The analysis of the answers to the questionnaire gained through the surveys showed that out of 127 teachers (urban/city schools), 42 people (33.1%) know but do not use the national traditions and customs of the Chechens, and 85 people (66.9%) do not know the national traditions and customs.

Out of 70 surveyed teachers from the rural schools, 18 people know but do not use the national traditions (25.7%), and 52 people (74, 3%) do not know the national traditions and customs.

The results allowed us to conclude that the majority of teachers have a low level of knowledge in the national pedagogy. They cannot give the necessary directions to parents and children in compiling pedagogically right recommendations for improving the effectiveness of educating children within the national traditions.

To solve this problem, we have developed and proposed the teaching aids, with inclusion into curriculum in the framework of the special course ‘National Pedagogy of Chechens. Some seminars for teachers were organized. The interviews of teachers during these seminars showed that they all recognize the need of using the progressive traditions of the people and see the reasoning to rely on them in educational work. At the seminars, the teachers were given some lectures on the themes ‘National pedagogy and pedagogical science’, ‘Ethno-pedagogy as pedagogy of inter-ethnic harmony’, ‘National etiquette and problems of its revival’, ‘National traditions - is it past or present?’

After the survey of the teachers and the parents, the children were interviewed with the aim to identify the level of their awareness of the national traditions and customs, the level in skills and their application.

When processing the surveys, we took the following indicators in levels: low – the answer was not given, medium - the question was difficult to answer, high – the answer was given.

Out of 85 respondents surveyed, they were children studying in 5-9 grades of urban schools – out of 44 of them 15 pupils (17.6%) gave the answer, 19 pupils (22.4%) found the questions difficult to answer, and 51 pupils (60%) did not give an answer.

Out of 95 surveyed schoolchildren, 26 (27.4%) gave the answer, 21 (22.1%) found the question difficult to answer, 48 (50.5%) did not give an answer.

The prevalence of low ethno-cultural awareness was noted.

Based on the results of the survey, some correction works were conducted. It was organized in the format of seminars titled ‘Voice of the Heart’. The seminars implied meeting with long-livers, storytellers, songwriters, musicians (we invited them to school or visited them at homes); topic-based evening ‘Mother in a person's life path’; concerts, games covering learning tongue twisters and folk games; a stand design ‘Our Republic Yesterday and Today’.

The results of the experiment showed that due to the purposeful work, schoolchildren began to understand better the traditions and customs of their people, to show the interest and curiosity towards the history of their ancestors.

The answers showed that schoolchildren awareness of the national culture in rural schools is higher than in urban ones.

In rural areas, there is a more frequent appeal to the national traditions in upbringing, they more and more often provide support to older people who maintain the respect towards the national pedagogy and continue to help its implementation in educating and upbringing young people. In rural schools, they often turn to the eldest residents of a place where they are living for a help, and they persistently support the authority of their elders.

The most important and most effective method of education in this rural place is the approval coming from the elders/parents to children’s actions. The help coming from parents and elderly people in raising children reaches within the school walls. The oldest - the most respected people in the village often come to school and meet with children. The comparatively small population of the village (about 2500 inhabitants) favors a rise in awareness of the national and family traditions. Since a child’s life is going ‘at eyes’ of the whole village, it creates the opportunity to observe it and, to a certain extent, to control the behavior of children not only at school, but also when they are outdoors. Owing to this, there is a possibility of to create a common space for good interaction between parents and teachers and this possibility is large.

Many of the parents living in a city use or seek to use the national traditions in raising children, however, most of them (young parents) do not have enough knowledge about ethno-pedagogical culture, ability to use their ‘meager’ knowledge in practice. Many of them give a respect to the traditions and customs of the people, approve a role of a school in educating children, and try to keep in touch with a school. It should be noted that there were also such parents who knew little about the ethno-pedagogical culture and did not want to use its elements in raising their children, shifting the responsibility for educating the younger generation to school.

Studying and analyzing the interaction between parents and teachers in raising children within the national traditions and customs helped to identify a number of shortcomings in it. And, above all:

- experience of the best families in raising children within the national traditions is not studied and promoted;

- teachers rarely involve parents in activities that allow raising children within the national traditions;

- teachers practically do not possess techniques that allow them to study a family and work with it;

- teachers are poorly aware of the traditions and customs of the nation.

The solution to existing problems can be found through:

- a wide dissemination of the advanced experience of families who have managed to preserve and adapt the progressive traditions of the national education to modern conditions;

- taking into account the structural features of ‘Vainakh’ large family and strengthening the individual work in overcoming the influence of conservative traditions and customs that might be met in family life with younger generation;

- active involvement of parents to public work with the aim to clarify the meaning and content of the national traditions and customs in family education;

- propaganda and adaption of new national traditions and rituals in family life.

Teachers can give the necessary direction to parents, make pedagogically substantiated recommendations to improve the effectiveness of parenting based on the national traditions.

In implementation of some progressive traditions, the important role is given to hobby-group activities. It allows to further explore the oral folklore art, to grasp and assimilate the progressive ideas and traditions of the national experience of education. Such a feature of hobby-group activities as voluntariness creates some additional opportunities to develop interests towards oral folklore art. Schoolchildren themselves choose a type of activity and do what they like to learn. Taking into account these characteristics of hobby-group activities, this form can be taken as extracurricular one. Education, in our opinion, is the central point in teachers’ career, since it is the young people who give a historical assessment to the life of previous generations and form the personalities who will soon take responsibility for the current stage of the society well-being. It means that they will take key positions in industry, business, science, culture, education and will determine the content of the spiritual and moral sphere of society individuals (Arsaliev, 2015).

Conclusion

Consequently, the content of moral education, the requirements towards the moral code for children and young people in the Chechen national pedagogy are revealed in the spirit of universal morality. They are characterized by a humanistic orientation, at the same time, they reflect the national peculiarities of the life of the Chechens and testify to the high pedagogical culture of the people. All these have not lost its vital activity in the modern conditions of Russia.

In the course of the study, the main means, methods and techniques of moral education created by the people were identified and analyzed. Among the most effective means of moral education are fairy tales, proverbs and sayings, legends and parables, historical – heroic, lullabies, and ritual songs.

The pedagogical functions of the folklore art of the Chechens were bottomless pit from which they drew great moral and spiritual strengths, innumerable variety of images and ideas.

The study conducted allows to conclude that the ideas and the experience of moral education in the Chechen pedagogy have a rich potential for moral upbringing towards younger generations, since they have a wide distribution of very specific educational traditions and valuable thoughts about education. The empirically created system containing the goals and objectives, content, means, methods and techniques of moral education reflect the characteristics of the social, economic, spiritual, moral and religious life of the Chechen people, their national character. The process of moral education was carried out on the basis of interrelation of the social and spiritual life of a person, taking into account the individual characteristics of children and young people. It was directed at developing their independence, full-fledged and social activity, at shaping up humane behavior. However, the foundations of the past should not be idealized, there are many contradictions for the rising generations. But at the same time, the national pedagogy has retained the ideas and means that helped it in the past to educate high-moral people and can find application in organizing some educational processes in the conditions of the national (Chechen) school.

The study revealed that deep understanding of the national pedagogy, mastering the experience of parenting accumulated during the historical development of the ethnic group, act as the urgent needs of the modern school, family and society. Knowledge constructed within the folklore wisdom about education, skills and abilities possession in educational activities in the spirit the national pedagogy achievements are necessary for teachers, class leaders, parents, educators, since it enriches their pedagogical and general culture.

The study made it possible to develop exemplary pedagogical recommendations helping a teacher to be more aware of the past traditions with the materials relating to the national pedagogy in the framework of the course ‘The National Pedagogy in the Chechen Republic’. The course was approved in the department of Pedagogy and Psychology, at Chelyabinsk State University.

These recommendations are needed to teachers because they equip them with the experience of propagating pedagogical ideas, with providing methodological assistance in order to familiarize the younger generation with the national culture, customs and traditions, spiritual and moral values ​​of the Chechen people.

The study revealed a number of problems waiting for their solutions. These include, first of all, the issues of using ethno-pedagogical material in out-of-class and out-of-school educational activities, in the system of increasing professional qualification. Many questions of the richly spiritual pedagogical heritage of the Chechen people can and should become the subject of new ethno-pedagogical research.

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