Dialectics Of Contradictions Of Educational Space Of Russian Society

Crisis of global educational space

American political scientist and sociologist Khantington (2003) in his work spoke about the moral decline of the West, he saw its manifestation in a public interest decrease in the field of education. He associated this process with the development of a phenomenon called “mass culture”.

Even originated in the second half of the XX century the concept of human capital was not able to smooth out the general idea of the decline in the culture of the population and that in the value of education. According to this theory, one can benefit from the development of educational and cultural institutions. However, the benefit comes down to the material side of the value of the so-called human capitalization. The problem of human moral development remains a weakspect.

Thus, Aleksashina (2002) sees the reason for the current situation of the education system in global problems. These problems are manifested due to conflicts, the cause of which, according to the researcher, lies in different approaches to understanding the vector of world development and disagreements on how to solve this issue.

Both foreign and domestic researchers have not developed a unified approach to the issue of the impact of globalization on education. For example, Chernikova (2003) notes the positive impact of globalization on the educational space, thanks to which “a single educational space is being formed, expressed primarily in the harmonization of educational standards, approaches, curricula, specialties in different countries of the world” (p. 65).

On the other hand, Dobren'kov, (2005), emphasizes the negative role of globalization processes. In his opinion, their destructiveness is manifested in a decrease in the spiritual and moral qualities of society. In turn, the American scientist Altbach (2016) also speaks about the negative impact of globalization on the educational space, the negative side of this phenomenon is characterized by an increase in inequality, particularly in higher education.

The American researcher Garz (1989) notes the fundamental paradigm shift that has occurred recently in the field of education, as a result of which many theories have arisen that claim to be comprehensive. Harz characterizes this state as crisis, due to the fact that postmodernism has a negative impact on the development of science, also the destruction of subjectivity in education takes place.

Postmodernism promotes continuing education and the diversity of educational programs. There is an increase in the importance of the activity of students themselves, the Internet is widely used for educational purposes, the percentage ratio between the learning and self-learning is changing (Papi, 2015). Postmodernism does not require giving up heritage, it recognizes the value of both positive and negative experiences. One of the properties of postmodernism is eclecticism, it manifests itself in the possibility of combining various teaching techniques in the field of education.

We base on the opinion of Kedrov (1979) that a person cannot know the real contradiction as directly given and that nothing but a vague idea of the contradiction cannot be directly obtained. In order to form an understanding of it, it is necessary to divide the contradiction into its two component parts, try to isolate them both mentally and physically, then the content of these opposite sides that contradict in the educational space of Russian society should be revealed.

The unity of contradictions will be possible if the opposing sides are movable for each other, moreover, they should have the ability to interpenetrate and be interconnected.

It is important to note that the training and upbringing programs that conflict in the educational space have little in common with scientific knowledge and often rely on unverified, and sometimes even mystical, teachings. Confirming this thesis, the American philosopher McClellan (1976) emphasized in the Philosophy of Education that the process of learning is characterized by the “birth” of its own distinctive “philosophy”, which is more like a parody than true philosophical reasoning.

Fejerabend (1986) also pointed to the possible strengthening of the position of parascientific knowledge, the evolution of scientifically based knowledge “does not mean that defeated rivals are deprived of their strengths and are not able to contribute to the development of our knowledge, they simply have temporarily exhausted their strength. They are able to be reborn and defeat their victors”.

Thus, the crisis in the global education system influenced the Russian education system. In addition, the development of the crisis in the education system is affected by the presence of pseudoscientific educational programs, and therefore the need for the ability to distinguish true knowledge from false one is actualized.

The state of education in modern Russia can be characterized by the following phenomena:

It should be recognized that over the past two decades, these contradictions have not yet received a sufficiently clear and deep theoretical understanding, and even less resolution. This fact and the contradictions described above reinforce the idea that there is an acute crisis state in the Russian educational space.

Contradictions of the educational space of modern Russia in the framework of the moral-axiological and procedural-organizational approaches

There are various positions in determining the contradictions of the space of education. Thus, the teacher and priest Shestun (2002), defending his spiritual and axiological approach, believes that the contradictions in this area are closely related to the process of changing the value system in Russian society, which actualizes the following contradictions:

Teacher Pakhotin (2010) in modern education focuses on the procedural and organizational approach, in which he distinguishes the following as the most significant contradictions:

between the preservation of the external attributes of education forms traditional for Russia and the credit-modular system for organizing the educational process within the framework of the Bologna agreement with a violation of the priority of most credits, which leads to asynchronization of the educational process, the destruction of horizontal and vertical intersubject communications, necessary for the formation of a diversified specialist;

between the declared mobility in a single educational space, requiring the observance of uniform teaching standards in accordance with certain professions, and the almost complete absence of real opportunities for our students to continue their education in leading universities of the European Union, the impossibility of large-scale correlation of training programs in different states;

Contradictions in the educational space of modern Russia at the civilizational, state, public and personal levels

It seems that for a more meaningful analysis of the existing contradictions in the Russian educational space, several levels should be designated: civilizational, state, public and personal, at which the contradictions in the space of Russian education will have their own specifics. Based on the presented approach, the following contradictions can be distinguished at the indicated levels.

At the civilizational level, the following contradictions appear:

between world, national-cultural and ethnic demands. Since, on the one hand, it is possible to comply with global standards in the field of education, it is imperative to follow this provision in connection with the adoption of the Bologna educational system. On the other hand, it is important, despite the processes of globalization, to preserve ethnocultural characteristics (Cankay, Kutlu, & Cebeci, 2015).

There occur contradictions at the state level:

between the education management system, which is moving from administrative management to the legal regulation of the processes and conditions of education, and the lack of a single consolidated attitude among education officials toward the nature of the reforms, which was especially evident in the adoption of the federal state educational standard of the third generation and the preparation of the new Law “On Education”;

In particular, in Art. 5 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On Education” this principle is formulated as “the general accessibility of education”, but in fact it is accompanied by an increase in inequality in terms of access to education, which is manifested particularly in the impossibility of proper preparation for passing a unified state exam, especially for rural residents. At the same time, the Constitution of the Russian Federation indicates the availability of secondary vocational education, and the Law of the Russian Federation “On Education” indicates the possibility of obtaining free secondary vocational education on a competitive basis. Thus, its general availability is not confirmed.

At the public level, contradictions should be identified:

At the personal level, the following contradictions actively influence the educational space:

So, the educational space of modern Russian society combines various kinds of contradictions, because of which there are conflicts in the educational space.