Models Of The Modern Education Paradigm In The Context Of Culture

Abstract

The article deals with the paradigms and models of education under division of the history into epochs, cultural development of society and peoples. Cultural changes are always associated with economic, social, spiritual development of society, its members, social groups. Knowledge, values, norms, behavioral patterns, social changes affecting lifestyles, and education are absorbed by culture. During the Antiquity and Enlightenment eras, education focused on cognition, spiritual and cultural development of human. Secular and spiritual forms of education coexisted. A polytechnic paradigm developed in the New Age focused on professional skills, techniques, capabilities and advantages. The article pays attention to modern concepts of education which were formed in the context of globalization and socio-cultural modernization of Russia. The relationship with paradigms and educational models of the Renaissance and Enlightenment was revealed. Modern goals and objectives of education are conceptualized in “The Concept of long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020”.

Keywords: Cultureparadigmsmodelsuniversalizationhumanitarizationhumanization

Introduction

Development of culture is linked with economic and technological processes changes in human lifestyles, relationships, moral, spiritual, educational values. Closely related culture and education change their meaningful parameters and forms of manifestation. Educational, scientific, and humanistic values contributed to economic, social, cultural, informational transformations in society. The sociocultural development of mankind is determined by knowledge, science, technology, and education.

In accordance with the generally accepted division of history into the Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the New and the Newest eras, Romanenko (2003) distinguishes intuitive-discursive, exegetical-apologetic, rational-experimental and existential-personal educational paradigms. Some philosophers distinguish between humanitarian, polytechnic, and sociocultural paradigms (Dobrenkov & Nechaev, 2003). From the Antiquity to the Enlightenment, the humanitarian educational paradigm dominated. It oriented education to the human and his spiritual destiny. This paradigm was embodied in secular and spiritual education. The polytechnic paradigm existed in the New Age. It oriented education to the natural and social world and prepared him for one of the professions. The purpose of education was to teach a human to master a technology and be able to use its advantages. There are other grounds for the classification of paradigms. Bilalov (2015, 2017) classified then according to the historical forms of cognitive cultures.

The Renaissance epoch was a boundary between religious and secular education in Europe. The modern type of education developed during the Enlightenment era. The goal of education is a human, development of universal culture in which a free person creates himself and the world. The human is in the center of education. He strives to “involve the younger generation into the national culture, language, and literature” (Dolzhenko, 1995, p. 27). Religious education existed as well. It was based on the bourgeois slogans on freedom of conscience. However, the basic public spirit of the era was aimed at shaping values of free citizenship.

In the new education system, liberal educational concepts were dominant. Democratic pedagogical concepts took into account interests of people. Diderot, Rousseau and other thinkers of the epoch advocated the enlightened state policy of the leading powers in the interests of the people, while Kamensky (1982) proposed popular pedagogy embracing "the whole human race".

These philosophical messages contributed to the formation of several autonomous models of education. The first model directed education to the use of knowledge gained by that time giving priority to scientific and technical education. The model of education formation of a universal culture had the opposite vector emphasizing social and moral activities. There was also a third model of education aimed at developing a logical universal way of thinking (Kuszhanova, 1999).

Modern models of education develop the concepts of the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. Education is considered as a process of learning.

The first model is scientistic. It is aimed at developing a scientific picture of the world.

Another model focuses on professionalization, training for production. Noble attitudes of the previous paradigm are ignored. The nature of this model is described in “The Concept of the long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020” which defined the strategy of innovative development of Russia and key principles of modern educational policy. The strategic goal of the state education policy is to enhance availability of quality education that meets requirements of the innovative development of the economy which will affect the lifestyle, cultural, ideological values of a person and society.

The need for a new image and style of thinking is reflected in the modern education models. The representatives of “developing” education oppose the transformation of learning into a process of knowledge and information accumulation. They advocate methods of creative knowledge generation and skill acquisition, pay attention to the development cognitive abilities - thinking, effective attention, conscious memory, etc.

A model of “lifelong education” is popular. It aims to transform a person into a subject of knowledge throughout his life. The need for the modern system of continuous education, training and retraining programs, external independent certification, corporate training and retraining programs, the system of support for organizations providing high-quality continuing education services is urgent. This position reflects complex socio-economic processes occurring in the context of globalization, the need to train highly qualified personnel that can successfully respond to crises.

Problem Statement

The development of culture is a phenomenon that depends on the historical epoch, the educational system, scientific and technological knowledge orienting people, social groups to improve lifestyle, economic and technological achievements. Education development models predetermine cultural processes. Culture contributes to the formation of various educational systems.

Research Questions

Historical and cultural development in the Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the New and the Newest eras determined various types of education, educational paradigms aimed at acquiring speculative-intuitive ideas, achieving church-apologetic, experiential-rational, existential-personal educational models. The new education system was formed on the basis of liberal ideas of education, popular democratically-pedagogical concepts that expressed interests of people. Under the influence of the ideas of education, the state policies were developed. Kamensky (1982) developed popular pedagogy embracing "the whole human race".

The Enlightenment philosophical thought contributed to the formation of a number of autonomous education models. The first model aimed to use all knowledge gained by that time giving priority to scientific and technical education. The model of education formation of a universal culture had the opposite vector emphasizing social and moral activities. There was also a third model of education aimed at developing a logical universal way of thinking (Kuszhanova, 1999).

Purpose of the Study

The article aims to reveal features of education models formed in the course of historical and cultural development of society, while interacting, giving impetus to mutual development. It pays special attention to the modern educational paradigm in the context of global sociocultural processes.

Research Methods

The historical-philosophical analysis made it possible to identify educational models that were formed in the Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the New and and Newest Eras. These models were associated with cultural processes in social systems. The system-structural method made it possible to consider culture as a holistic phenomenon for which education plays an important role.

Findings

Modern education models developed the concepts of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment into a new paradigm. Education became a process of learning. The first model is scientistic. It is aimed at developing a scientific picture of the world.

Another model focuses on professionalization, training for production. Noble attitudes of the previous paradigm are ignored. The nature of this model is described in “The Concept of the long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020” which defined the strategy of innovative development of Russia and key principles of modern educational policy. The strategic goal of the state education policy is to enhance availability of quality education that meets requirements of the innovative development of the economy which will affect the lifestyle, cultural, ideological values of a person and society.

Conclusion

The modern model of education based on openness of the world, diversity of cultures, and cognitive values is aimed at their free development, involves mutual enrichment of peoples, integration development. The most important task of the modern education paradigm is preparation of a young man for life. The new millennium requires qualitative changes in the education paradigm consistent with the concept of "new humanism." Neo-humanism focuses on the development of human capabilities and abilities rather than on the satisfaction of needs. Consumerism has been criticized since the Antiquity (Drach, 1999). In the middle of the twentieth century, Maslow (2008) built a pyramid of needs where ethical and spiritual values are leading. The core of “new humanism” is humanization. In terms of modern existential philosophy, the attitude towards a person as a subject implies recognition of his rights to uniqueness, activity, inner freedom and spirituality (Sevruk & Yunina, 2000). The meaning of modern education is changing. Humanitarization requires orientation of education on the human material of the educational process - literature, history, philosophy, etc., on the development of both the humanitarian and natural-scientific world of culture. Russia has to be considered in the context of ethnic and confessional diversity, as a source of cultural development and formation of a completely unique intercultural communicative space in which each culture receives a powerful impetus for its development while interacting with other cultures (Mustafayev, Mustafayev, & Mustafaeva, 2015).

References

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