Ethnic And Cultural Supplementary Education For Children: Professional Development Of Creative Person

Abstract

The article examines the issue of developing creative competencies among high school graduates entering artistic higher education institution. The attention is drawn to the activities of supplementary education organizations for children showing the ability and motivation in the artistic field. The analysis of the types of creative activities for children who develop artistic abilities, as well as the influence of pre-vocational training, a portfolio of school graduates’ achievements on the choice of artistic higher education institution was carried out. There were defined recommendations for artistically gifted children, motivation of future applicants in choosing their profession in accordance with their abilities and pre-vocational training in the institutions of supplementary education for children. The methodological base involved theoretical and practical research methods, among which was a review analysis of scientific and theoretical works, legal documents, statistical analysis of data in the activities of the system of supplementary education, students’ survey of artistic high school, in-depth interview.

Keywords: Supplementary educationchildrenartisticcreative competence

Introduction

The cultural paradigm of Russian educational policy is described in the RF Law N 273-FZ “On Education in the Russian Federation” stating that “the development and implementation of regional programs for the development of education, taking into account regional social and economic, environmental, demographic, ethnic and cultural as well as other features of the subjects of the Russian Federation” (Federal Law "On Education in the Russian Federation" no. 273-FZ of December 29, 2012 (as amended in 2018)). The introduced federal educational standard at all levels of education does not take into account these features and does not guarantee the enforcement of human rights regarding ethnic and cultural identity in the educational process. In the Russian Federation every person is ensured to receive education which is provided in the in the state language. As far as the choice of a language is concerned, the process of training is carried out based on the education system opportunities. This opportunity can mainly be provided by the institutions for supplementary education, whose core activities are factored in supplementary education programs. The Federal Educational Standard of General Education, Basic State Examinations (BSE) and Unified State Examinations (USE) do not assess the creative competencies of high school graduates. Moreover, the Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia No. 831 of November 2, 2015 “On approving the list of the 50 most demanded in the labor market, new and promising occupations that require secondary vocational education”, where priority occupations are described, lacks the description of professions of an artistic and ethnocultural direction. Both International and All-Russian WorldSkills Championships are aimed at identifying competencies in technical and engineering fields. At the same time the researchers note that universal skills and metasubject competencies, i.e. creativity, cooperation, readiness for lifelong learning, and ability to adapt are becoming the main competitive advantages (Podpovetnaya, 2018). At the same time ethnic and cultural diversity as well as the demand for creativity are the spiritual braces of social and federal relations. These requirements can only be met by school graduates who have developed their creative competences in the system of supplementary education for children. At the same time, the results of activities of the system of supplementary education for children in the form of pre-vocational education are not examined from the standpoint of continuous art education.

Problem Statement

The field of creative competencies includes ethnic and cultural artistic competence manifested in the combination of knowledge and skills. The teachers of supplementary education for children are involved into the development of educational and methodological support, mechanisms of development of ethnic and artistic trends in classes, as well as identification and development of talented students in corresponding professions.

At present, in the Russian educational system, ethnic and cultural artistic competences have found their niche in the system of non-formal education and, figuratively speaking, have become twice “continuing”, referring to classes for artistically gifted children in the institutions of supplementary education.

This article traces the contribution of the system of supplementary education regarding the development of professional outlook of applicants entering the artistic university, i.e. the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts located in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The accessibility of the system of supplementary education allows us to raise the question of continuity of the system of ethnic and cultural artistic education and readiness for admission to the Institute of Culture and Arts.

Research Questions

Professional identity is one of the main choices of a person determining his or her life success, satisfaction, his or her place in the social world. As the studies of Moscow high school students show, the majority of adolescents lack the desire to make an adequate professional choice. The school does not conduct systematic work on preparing young people for professional self-determination. At the same time the researchers of the problems of vocational orientations of students do not single out creative occupations in the list of preferred occupations (Atabieva, 2019).

Organization of professional festivals, i.e. Ticket to the Future seems to be promising, within which a student’s digital portfolio is being formed as a participant in this project. However, even in this innovative All-Russian project there are no creative professions in artistic fields.

The purpose of this study is to identify both theoretical and practical issues of introducing ethnic and cultural prevocational training into the system of continuing artistic education, tracking the effectiveness of existing models, practices and technologies of ethnic and cultural education.

The main objective of the research is aimed at connecting dots between the goal setting aimed at mastering the creative profession and the opportunity to develop creative abilities in the system of supplementary education for children.

Purpose of the Study

The researchers of the world educational systems Barber, Donnelly, and Rizvi (2012) undertook an intergenerational, intercivilizational, intercontinental synthesis of system-based innovations in the education of mankind in the last millennium and revealed that the 300-year superiority of the Atlantic was achieved by the colonial economy, that is external resources, and the culture of law, and the growing power of the Pacific countries comes from the nature of Asian society, which survived the colonial period through the culture of responsibility, which is their core feature. The authors of this study developed a model of a global generation, i.e. individuals rooted in their cultures, however, open to the world and confident in their ability to create this world. According to the authors the success of global generation of personalities rooted in their cultures implies the ability to take responsibility for their own destiny and open innovations of the world.

In fact, Barber, Donnelly, and Rizvi (2012) refer to ethnic and pedagogic features of the educational systems of the Pacific region arguing their effectiveness. These ethical requirements of responsibility combined with the openness, require the personality of creative pluralistic world view based on ethnic and cultural values of self-expression of a person.

Cheung and Mok (2018) identified factors of teacher’s creative ability, among which the cognitive ability of a creative personality was noted as the strongest predictor of creative pedagogical activity that may reflect the cultural characteristics of indigenous peoples. Briceno and Mohedo (2017) also note that there is a growing understanding of the importance of encouraging creative problem solving in the field of higher education and a lack of understanding of the process of creative problem solving as the basis of pedagogical competence.

Asmolov (2015), the Academician of the Russian Academy of Education noted the following: “standardization of education acts as a trend describing the system of restrictions imposed on the variability of education due to the need to ensure equality of opportunities for students in the educational space as a space of “unity of diversity” (p. 57). Diversity can be achieved through the development of professional qualities of creative personality. A creative person is a person endowed with a special creative consciousness (Karavanova, Samokhin, Kachayev, & Demidova, 2018). Creativity is a quality of a person aimed at creating new solutions for well-known or new tasks (productive creativity) and generation of new ideas (expressive creativity) (Bos, 2008). Creativity is understood as a general creativity, which describes a person as a whole and manifests itself in various forms of activity (Tikhomirova, 2010).

Ethnic and cultural creativity is understood as competences for creating new ethnic and cultural samples based on special knowledge and skills in the respective creative field. It is formed in the process of learning creative activity based on the assimilation of the images, meanings and values of the culture of corresponding ethnic group.

Research Methods

The methodological base involved works devoted to the analysis of state and development opportunities of all levels of vocational education. Both theoretical and practical research methods were used, among which was a review analysis of scientific and theoretical works, legal documents, statistical analysis of data in the activities of the system of supplementary education, students’ survey of artistic high school, in-depth interviews.

Findings

The concept of development of supplementary education for children in the Russian Federation establishes a wide range of supplementary education in the areas of personalization of supplementary education as the leading trend in the development of education in the 21st century and the creation of cultural and formative environment. The field of supplementary education for children is outside the state educational standard, including the study of those areas of culture and science that are not included into school curricula. A sociological survey of students of 9-10 grades of general education institutions in Moscow revealed that children show interest in creative activities, however, the researchers did not manage to identify a separate group of creative activities (Atabieva, 2019).

Following the request of parents and students, the system of supplementary education for children in Yakutia focused on three areas, i.e. mastering the skills of engineering thinking through the creation of quantoriums, technological parks, mastering intercultural multilingual competences and disclosing creative thinking, creative abilities of children regarding different types of self-creation and self-identification. Every fifth pupil of the system of supplementary education is engaged into artistic programs, which requires a personal educational path. The emerging trend of modernization of supplementary education as a mechanism of personal education was also clearly manifested in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (Petrova, 2017).

The Yakut supplementary educational system for children provides trainings aimed at preservation and continuity of unique traditions and technologies of the peoples of Yakutia for children with imaginative type of thinking and creative abilities, showing an interest in the material and spiritual heritage of the Russian peoples (Vinokurova, 2018). Upon the initiative of the first President of Yakutia, M.E. Nikolaev the interdepartmental projects Music for Everyone, Drawing for Everyone, Chess for Children are implemented in the Republic. The value of music education is recognized in the Republic at the state level. The concept of the project Music for Everyone was approved’ international congresses were held with the participation of musicians, leading specialists in music education, and the representatives of UNESCO. Due to the project the number of children involved into music is growing.

An effective form implying the involvement of children in the development of national culture, folk crafts, customs and traditions is the system of republican creative competition projects, i.e. an exhibition of decorative and applied arts the Rainbow of the North, the festival of children’s theaters and fashion studios the Glow of the North, the contest of children’s song and dance Sir Bihik (Earth is my cradle), the vocal competition among boys and young people Yllaa-Tuoy, Wal Obo! (If only the Men of the Earth ...), the competition among boys and young men Wal obo - noruot keskile (Young men is the future of the nation), the competition of children’s choir groups Palette of dance, the conference of local student research works Doydum (Fatherland), the children folklore festival Dance of Friendship, the competition for vocal instrumental ensembles, the contest of young journalists Tya sire - min doydum (My small homeland), the animated film competition in Yakut language about native ulus (city), etc.

Craftsmen and craftswomen have developed 810 certified educational programs, almost half of which have an artistic focus. Certification of programs influenced the quality development and implementation of continuing general educational programs, provided timely control over the expenditure of budget funds for supplementary education.

In order to define professional identity of applicants, we conducted a survey among 149 students studying in creative fields of the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts. It was revealed that all the students were part of the supplementary education system for children, i.e. art schools, children’s art houses, sports schools, and studios. When these supplementary classes were not available, the future students of creative HEI attended extracurricular activities organized by the cultural centers, multifunctional centers of the Ministry of Culture and Spiritual Development. All the applicants were getting ready for creative exams and collected their creative portfolio. On average the applicant for admission had 5-6 certificates of the laureate, winner of regional competitions and festivals in the chosen area. Usually they start adding stuff to their portfolio from their preschool. To identify creative abilities, the events are usually organized by institutions of supplementary education for children jointly with the centers of culture and arts. It turned out that none of the students surveyed doubted the right choice of their professional path and was not going to drop out from HEI.

In the past three years, the Arctic Institute of Culture and Arts has initiated the creative Olympiads and opened the AGIKI School for children, which helped them to identify their professional path. It has also become the resource base for personal guidance of winners of AGIKI Olympiad and events.

Conclusion

The study revealed that most applicants entering the artistic institutes come from the system of supplementary education, revealing the artistic creative abilities and developing vision of future personal path. Generally accepted training programs in the primary and secondary educational institutions do not develop sufficient competencies in the creative areas of future occupation.

A child’s creative abilities develop at an early sensitive age. With this in mind, it is proposed to develop programs of preschool education for creatively gifted children.

Both social and state forms of development of creative abilities of children can be effective provided the continuity at all levels of education.

References

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