On Formation Of Professional Identity Of Future Teachers: Methodology Of Integrity

Abstract

The article discusses philosophical, psychological and pedagogical aspects of issues related to the formation of self-consciousness of future teachers as an important goal of modern pedagogical education in high school. The concept of professional self-consciousness of teachers is studied in the context of a person’s holistic education and a humanitarian model of education. The authors propose ideas of the model development based on the methodology of integral. This psychology considers a person holistically, helps to understand the dynamics of internal processes. It demonstrates how it is necessary to build the formation process of professional self-consciousness. The authors focused on the methodology of integrity to develop a humanitarian model of professional education, which ensures the formation of professional self-consciousness of future teachers. The methodology of integrity allows organizing the process based on the subjective reality of the individual and seeing the inner side of education. The authors show development vectors of modern pedagogical thoughts. They connect the consolidation of knowledge about a person and clarify the identity of a professional in relation to the evolution of his “languages of consciousness”. The article considers the humanitarian education ideas, process peculiarities of professional self-consciousness of the future teacher as a basic pivotal process of his holistic professional education; the concept of professional self-awareness, which includes the experience of self-awareness in personal development, communication and professional activities; the basics of designing the formation process of self-consciousness of future teachers. Some results of working with students at the first stage are presented.

Keywords: Professional identityhumanitarian model of educationmethodology of integritylanguages of consciousness

Introduction

The development trends are associated with the increasing gap between the subject- technocratic competence of people and their humanitarian lack of education. They make researchers go to the heart of the matter of human consciousness. A humanitarian underdevelopment means human experience, other words, self-awareness experience. The lack of human knowledge about himself and the ability to manage his own inner world cause all existing conflicts in the world. A human of a new level of consciousness and thinking, who is ready for adequate solutions to emerging problems, can be brought up by a new type of teachers.

Problem Statement

Slobodchikov (2009) notices that the main function of teachers is not relevant. They can not be sources of new information and subject knowledge only.

In the conditions of the information society, the role of a new teacher is also to help students in finding and mastering knowledge, cultural values and information resources, to lead their learning activities, to organize discussion and evaluation of the results achieved. Teachers have to create a socio-psychological atmosphere and a communicative environment conducive to the conscious choice of each student about his future life and professional path. (Slobodchikov, 2009, p. 7)

More than ever, the statement is still relevant today: to bring up a person, who has harmony in all spheres, you need to know him well. And to know other people, you must first understand yourself as a human being. The turn of an education development on a “side of man” requires an understanding of hidden connections of living systems (Kapra, 2004), the vision of a teacher’s professional culture in the innovation environment (Kachalov, 2011), the clarification of a humanitarian expertise, a humanitarian knowledge, a humanitarian education model (Tulchinsky, 2010; Serikov, 2012). It requests a new methodology of pedagogical research.

Research Questions

The analysis of research (Belova, 2007; Slobodchikov, 2009) as well as a teaching practice in schools and universities shows that the level of self-awareness among teachers is not sufficiently developed. It explains what happens in the pedagogical environment: facts of professional burnout of teachers, their aggression towards children, the lack of emotional rationality, a decline in interest in their profession, and а non-mastery of humanitarian educational technologies. One of the reasons for this is that at university teacher training comes mainly to the subject-methodical side of a professional activity. Graduates of pedagogical faculties do not understand the most important “element” of their pedagogical system – themselves.

It is important for modern teachers to be able to create educational situations, in which pupils or students have the opportunity to multidimensionally develop their consciousness, a culture of thinking, a reflection, and an experience of self-education. And such a teacher becomes an “anthropologist” (Slobodchikov & Isaev, 2014), who has developed a professional self-consciousness and formed the “basic pedagogical position of an adult”. Modern studies draw attention to a teachers’ self-awareness in the context of shaping his positions (Senko, 2017), mastering textual and dialogical activities (Belova, 2007), anthropotechnical skills (Slobodchikov & Isaev, 2014, p. 41). The relevance of determining the scientific basis for the preparation of future teachers is obvious. It implies an understanding of their own personality as a “pedagogical tool” and the formation of a professional self-awareness. The article raises the question of a new research methodology for such training and possibilities of building an educational process with the methodology.

From a position of the methodology of integrativity the formation of professional self-consciousness of teachers should be viewed as a multidimensional process. In addition, it requires the above-subject, transpersonal area of knowledge. It is necessary to get into the new space of thoughts about a person and go beyond the usual pedagogical methodology focused mainly on the “object” perception and a one-sided construction of a pedagogical reality. Pedagogy needs an understanding of integrity in relation to man at its stage of ascent to integrity (Serikov, 2012). In psychology integrity is a central psychological category, synthesizing an objective and a subjective. At the level of individual free consciousness, it is recognized as the highest degree of possible integration, correlated with the reality of the universe (Maikov & Kozlov 2007). Integrative psychology asserts the idea of ​​a “dual” integrity – a holistic study of a person as a holistic system (Maikov & Kozlov, 2007). Changes in the orientation of state and social construction experienced by Russia since the 1980s, the intensity of interethnic relations, the search for new ideologies, the crisis in the humanities and psychology, a return to the traditional sources of spirituality, the emergence of psychotechnical and psychotechnological psychology, the diversity in understanding the subject, tasks and conceptual content of hundreds of psychologies require efforts that would contribute to the emergence of an integrative psychology.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to show what knowledge is pedagogics based on to form a consciousness of future teachers. It is necessary to know a whole array of psychological knowledge for understanding complexities in the study on self-awareness. The development of pedagogy should be associated with an increasing integration of different approaches. On the one hand, they are contradictory and incompatible, and on the other, they are complementary. Then the integrative approach can be described as an “evolutionarily adequate” (Maikov & Kozlov, 2007). The principle of integrity is an ideological basis of the integrative methodology in the study on pedagogical problems. Pedagogy must rely on the methodology today, if it works with “the whole person” as a bio-psycho-socio-spiritual system.

By the beginning of the third millennium, the knowledge about human psyche is supplemented not only by scientific research, but also by hidden esoteric and spiritual knowledge. Then “we can talk about a more holistic understanding of what a person is and about his consciousness” (Maikov & Kozlov, 2007, p. 17). As concerns an integrative point of view, researchers should remember of interpersonal and transpersonal megastructures (Maikov & Kozlov, 2007; Grof, 1994), which are somehow connected with a human system. Psychology realizes that a person’s personality and its content, the whole multidimensionality of a person, are not determined by some specific characterological features. People are a whole “problem field”, in which unconscious structures are often hidden: gestalts, subpersonalities, root structures of consciousness, cognitive schemes, integrity of mental reality. It is important to clarify what ideas of the methodology of integral psychology should be taken as a guideline in pedagogical research, which is devoted to the formation of professional self-consciousness of future teachers

Research Methods

In the study we pay attention to methods of studying literature. They allow cover all the phenomenon. The method must be adequate to the object essence and to the intended result. As concerns an education possibility, which ensures the development of the professional identity of future teachers, the methodology of integrity appears as a support. It proclaims a person as a full human being. This methodology provides the “divine purpose” of a person, his initially healthy core “in-se” (Meneghetti, 2009) as well as an understanding of his personal freedom, independence, abilities to self-regulate and development. It is necessary to remember that there is “a truth about a person”, about his education is inside the person. A truly “human” education helps to find this truth inside him. This is the experience of self-awareness and how to fix it. In this regard, we needed to understand what constitutes the experience of self-consciousness as the content of education.

The method of empirical research, especially the method of observation, is also important. It is known that it is associated with the direct perception of the phenomena and processes under study, which are often hidden. The real picture can be fixed by some indicators. In the monitoring of development processes of self-consciousness, we rely on the fundamental integrative thesis. There the world is understood as not a complex combination of discrete objects, but a single and indivisible network of events and interconnections (Maikov & Kozlov, 2007). Based on the methodology of integrity, which must help pedagogy to overcome the narrowly fragmented vision of pedagogical problems, we have identified situations, in which the network of events and interconnections reveals itself. These are situations where a person, by manifesting and analysing his attitude towards something or someone, learns to see the “spiral” of his consciousness and its position. These levels are described in the spiral dynamics model. They allow see a person holistically in the context of the evolution of his needs, values, attitudes, characteristics of perception and thinking. The method of spiral dynamics is a basis in the study.

Findings

The literature analysis shows that consciousness and self-awareness have been studied pretty extensively (Zinchenko, 2006; Leontev, 2005; Bodalev, Stolin, 2006; Subbeto, 2005). They continue to attract the attention of researchers from different fields. A professional self-consciousness is defined as a complex of ideas of a person about himself as a professional. It includes an understanding of the whole image of oneself as a professional, relations and attitudes towards oneself as a professional. As regarded teachers, this is the teachers’ awareness of themselves in a pedagogical work. It is believed that such a space is situated in three systems: a professional activity, a pedagogical communication and a personality. To have a sufficient level of professional self-awareness means to have such awareness that allows be the subject of activity, communication and development.

However, what does the fact of “awareness” mean? How to find it? What to deal with in practice? It is important to understand the essence of consciousness. In the study, consciousness is as a quantum-wave and a holographic process. Researchers of cognitive psychophysics made attempts to understand the phenomena of consciousness and self-consciousness (Dubov, 2006). They study such a dynamic structure as the “field of consciousness”. It is submitted that a human thought is the main element of consciousness. It is a “universal substance of the virtual type; it can transform and interact with the space and time around us” (Dubov, 2006, p. 201). Berner and Draut (2002) advance the theory of “non-physical agents”, which is the basis of everything in the world.

Why does pedagogy need to know all these “subtle matter”? If pedagogy studies not the formation of a human function, which should become a skilled consumer and clearly fulfill its social functions, but ensure the formation of its integrity, it should understand what should be taken into account when working in an “inner” person. Nowadays pedagogy needs a broader view of things and an update of the language. It needs a metaphorical understanding of phenomena that cannot be grasped only by a scientific concept. The methodology of integrity can help with the task.

The research is based on the integrative methodology (Grof, 1994; Wilber & Patten, 2008), which implies the unity of a huge variety of areas, directions and levels of knowledge about a person in the general field of psychology. It is necessary to explore the possibility of understanding “languages”, in which a man is able to speak or think in pedagogy. This is about languages ​​of consciousness, such as sensations, emotions, images, symbols, sign systems. These languages ​​ are necessary to study as a part of the task of forming the professional self-awareness for future teachers.

As shown by an interview of students of pedagogical departments of universities of the Republic of Kalmykia and the Chechen Republic, many of them have no idea about the “language” of sensations and emotions. In particular, they could not see the difference between the questions “What do you sense?” and “What do you feel?”. The future teachers practically do not fully realize themselves in different situation. They do not understand the role of their physical body and the emotional-sensual sphere as the “tools” of creating an educational situation. Their reflection concerns the thought processes associated with the study of a school subject.

The development of a person’s self-consciousness is the unfolding of his essential forces. Then education focused on such development implies not just the mastering of some separate knowledge and competencies, but the accumulation of experience in managing one’s own inner world. A future teacher is important to understand their subjective reality. A subjective reality presents as an “abstract designation of the existence form and the general principle of the human reality organization, as the immediate self-being of man” (Slobodchikov & Isaev, 2014, p. 61). From birth every person begins to enter into conditions that already existed before him. He enters gradually into the objective world, figurative-sign systems, nature, and the social space of relations (Mukhina, 2006). So, his personality as a subjective reality consists of an objective world reality, a natural reality, a reality of figurative-sign systems, a reality of social space. To be the subject of the subjective reality means to see oneself in the whole variety of connections with such realities, at the same time keeping in the attention of the perceiver, the perceiving and the perceived.

It needs to clarify how a teacher can “approach” such a multi-level, multidimensional person? He is able to do it through indirect forms that develop the personality’s self-consciousness and unify various areas of knowledge into complete semantic spaces. Then the teacher needs to know his self-awareness and his development process at the level of his own individuality. The content of professional education should include an experience of analysing the “languages” of self-expression. It should be an experience of creating, perceiving and analysing texts as a sign system with an author and an addressee. In this case, texts are any acts and action products, in which the purpose of the relationship between the author and the addressee (Belova, 2007). Who is sending the message to whom? What is the meaning of it? What are the features of the language? Such questions allow reflex and track facts of their self-consciousness. Here, the speaker and the listener can be combined in one person. Through the attention to such texts, students learn to perceive themselves as a source of inspiration for children. This is directly related to the formation of professional self-awareness.

In the methodology of integrity, it was necessary to consider the issue of educational situations that would ensure the formation of self-consciousness of future teachers. The methodology of integrity shows that the answer to this question must be sought in hermeneutics. This is about the meanings that are dynamic and can be born in a particular situation, in the reality of a particular personality. There are three entities that organize the educational process associated with the formation of professional self-awareness of future teachers: meanings (what texts are created from using language), texts (what is created from meanings using language), the language (used in text creation from meanings). All these components form a triad that becomes a synonym of consciousness (Nalimov, 2000). An analysis of texts, which have meanings and their own language, create situations that allow gain experience of self-awareness (Belova, 2007).

Conclusion

The methodology of integrity was used to develop a humanitarian model of professional education of future teachers. The model ensures the formation of professional self-consciousness of future teachers.

Self-consciousness is a special form of consciousness, which is aimed at the feelings and experiences of a person himself. It is they who become an element of the professional education content of future teachers in the humanitarian model. The conditions for the formation of professional self-consciousness of future teachers are connected with the holistic situation of personal development. Such a development does not always imply a full set of “environments” and “processes”. “The practice shows that a significant process, a factor, an event, eventually a feeling, a spiritual impulse can be enough ... to form or turn the whole world of a student” (Serikov, 2012, p. 76). In our opinion, the leading event is the “meeting” of the individual with himself, with the world of his own experiences, arising in a given situation or activity.

In the work with students aimed at developing their experience of professional self-awareness, the spiral dynamics model was used as a basis (Bek & Kovan, 2010). We drew attention to the reflection of their behaviour, thoughts and actions in different moments of educational situations.

The methodology of integrative psychology (methodology of integrity) gives pedagogy research vectors, concerning the humanitarian orientation of education. These are provisions on the unity of people and the world, spiritual and physical, internal and external, individual and social; on the original integrity of human consciousness; on the possibilities of self-movement and self-development; on the developing situation. The integrative methodology involves the consolidation of many areas, schools, directions, knowledge levels about a person in the semantic field of psychology. As a result, the prospects of pedagogical research on the issues of the effectiveness of professional education should be connected and with it.

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