Methods And Forms Of Self-Organization Of Different Age’s Communities In Event Networks

Abstract

Non-formal education is considered today as a service sector aimed at meeting the population needs; flexibly reacting to a change of the sociocultural situation in nation; capable of promoting values, images, lifestyles, culture of conflict-free dialogue between different countries’ representatives and affecting the transformation of society. It is necessary to change the legislation and other conditions for the non-formal education development in the countries of Eurasia for the dynamics of the educational activity content in non-formal education structures and the training of its subjects. The search for ways, forms of subjects training capable of building of events educational network is very important. One of the effective ways to identify and prepare such entities is to create conditions for their (self)organization. The most used forms of (self)organization of non-formal education of different age’s communities: school non-formal communities (clubs, music groups), family (family education, leisure), hobby reader’s clubs, religious communities of parishioners, groups of travelers and participants of excursion routes. Among the methods of (self)organization of different age’s communities, we single out game and project activities. The independent group activities development, crowdsourcing, joining social network communities occupy an important place. Today, social networks are a priority way of (self)organizing youth communities. The activity of different age’s communities in the non-formal education field (the creation of event-based educational networks) requires significant changes in the activities of the formalized education system leaders: children and adults should have the opportunity and the territory for the application of creative forces and imagination.

Keywords: Event networksheterogeneous communitiesnon-formal education

Introduction

Based on the analysis of the role, place of non-formal education in state multinational educational systems of the countries of Eurasia (Smith, 2018), it should be noted that today various aspects are considered in the Eurasian educational space (Eraut, 2000), characterizing non-formal education. However, experts point out its wide opportunities in improving the quality of life (Carron & Carr-Hill, 2016), promoting culture of conflict-free dialogue between different countries’ representatives. On the one hand, experts consider non-formal education as a service sector aimed at meeting the needs of the population (Jeffs & Smith, 1999). Due to this fact, experts consider non-formal education as the most flexible sphere that sensitively and quickly responds to changes of the sociocultural situation in nation (Kedrayate, 2012; Lebedev, 2017). On the other hand, experts consider the ability of non-formal education to solve the problems of promoting new values, images, lifestyles (Zmeev, 2015) and, in fact, influence on the society transformation, on the development of its citizens (Pisareva, 2018).

Each particular nation, each state makes the function of non-formal education relevant to it at a particular specific moment (Cirul'nikov, 2016). One or another period of development of the national state system actualizes the availability of various benefits, the realization of the citizens’ rights (Asmolov, 2018); the involvement of citizens in solving socio-political and cultural-educational problems; the possibility of implementing various types of social and public activities, adequate actions in a multicultural, multinational educational space (Ivanova & Ivanov, 2015; Zavolokina, 2014).

At the same time, the non-formal education sphere still doesn’t have a sufficient regulatory framework for the intensive development and active training of its subjects. The continuous dynamics of the legislation and of the other condition of non-formal education’ promoting in the countries of Eurasia is necessary to change the content of the educational activities of non-formal education structures and training of its subjects. The search of methods and forms of subjects training capable of building event educational networks is relevant. Event networks are a dynamic complex of interconnected pedagogical events (significant for student meetings, activity) created in the environment of students being together, their dialogue through the efforts of group and individual active network creators. One of the most result ways to identify and study these subjects - the creation of conditions for their (self)organization.

We emphasize that both the processes of organization and the processes of relations self-organization are important for the formation of human relations in a group, community and collective. Organization processes are connected with the ordering of some elements (here - relations) by achieving a general result formulated in advance with the help of external forces. Internal factors cause self-organization processes. In the process of forming relations between participants of different age’s communities, it is difficult to separate the processes of organization and self-organization (Zavolokina, 2014), so we use the idea of (self)organization, assuming that these processes are inseparable. The formation of a new community, team due to the process of (self)organization by creating of external and internal conditions for the interaction of group members and the management of the interaction. External conditions: acceptance of conditions determining the activity of the community, awareness of the role of the leader, curator of the community, subordinate to the conditions, roles, and attitudes. Internal conditions: motivation, the ability to work effectively for the result, planning time and their actions. The process of (self)organization assumes that in the process of the formation of a new community a person can “learn” to perform some activity not by coercion, but proceeding from internal motivation, usefulness this activity in everyday life for himself and the community in which he is located. Ultimately, such processes contribute to the self-assertion of the individual (Knjazeva & Kurdjumov, 2018). At the same time, the community itself becomes stable for a while.

Problem Statement

The most significant resource for the development of social society is the human resource. Its reproduction is associated with the organization of education, which allows to combine use both creative of traditional and innovative social experience, and to build a sphere of lifelong education, including the sector of professional development and the sector of personal processes self-improvement of all population categories. The implementation of the field of lifelong education is inextricably linked with the support of social self-organization, the spontaneous restoration of violated norms and customs. The basis of self-organization is the eventuality of the educational process for its participants. The problem of searching for ways and forms of self-organization of the actors of the event network creation is actualizing. Prospective subjects are the different age’s communities. Mobile event network in the conditions of dynamism, unpredictability and complexity of the environment, is becoming an alternative to vertically integrated systems and the basis for the human resources development.

Research Questions

To substantiate methodological approaches to studying the process of modeling event networks for different age’s communities in the conditions of the formation of a space for the CIS continuous formation. Identify and characterize the methods, forms of (self)organization оf different age’s communities broadcasting network non-formal educational practices.

Purpose of the Study

The creation of theoretical and methodological foundations for modeling event networks for different age’s communities, aimed at developing human potential, which determines the readiness of a person and communities to realize the goal and strategy of activity that goes beyond the individual human existence.

Research Methods

To solve this scientific problem, a complex of the following research methods is used: analysis of Russian and foreign bibliographic sources on the aforementioned problem of research, modelling, systematization of the experience of professional activities of teachers in Eurasia (data on the activities of the СIS teachers are using), opinion polls, interviews, "included" observation, public examination of educational outcomes.

Findings

The research uses the following approaches. The аndragogical approach takes into account the students' understanding that they are subjects of education, of educational networks, an understanding of their educational needs and the planning of conscious active work to meet the needs. The pedocentric approach takes into account the interests and capabilities of children. The systematic approach allows, through the interconnectedness of the components and the integrity of the educational process, to overcome the fragmentation of educational activity, if all the components of the educational activity of a community of different ages are available (purpose, tasks, content, forms, methods of education, etc.). The synergetic approach allows us to rely on the idea of openness of a diverse age’s community in the research. In this case, as a result of the (self)organization processes, new components of the system may appear. The restructuring of existing relationships between elements of the system and the formation of new relationships with other systems may occur. The event approach allows us to consider the non-formal education space for different age’s communities as a dynamically developing network of mutually connected pedagogical events by the forces of the network's subjects in the environment of children and adults. Space is accepted as an integrated condition for the personal growth of children and adults. An ambivalent approach is very important. On the one hand, ambivalence from the position of supporters of the event space concept allows us to consider non-formal education in terms of its expected positive result. On the other hand, ambivalence allows you to take into account possible risks in the field of personality development of participants of different age’s communities.

It is justified: if there is an educational institution in which event-based practices of non-formal education (the basis of event networks) are actively developing, it is very important to turn the (self)organization of the child-adult communities into a dominant process (Knjazeva & Kurdjumov, 2018). The (self)organization of a child-adult community is based on the voluntary participation of each teacher in the community, its independence, responsibility and interest, self-determination and self-development. In a (self)organization situation, the school may demonstrate coherence of teacher and student’s actions without the direct action of the director. However, only some schools, unfortunately, are capable to (self) organization.

The most productive forms of (self)organization in the non-formal education field for different age’s communities: school non-formal communities (clubs, music groups, etc.), family (family education and leisure); hobby reader’s clubs; religious communities of parishioners, groups of travelers and participants of excursion routes and some others. Forms can meet different criteria characterizing the (self)organization, for example, hierarchy and pluralism, passivity and activity. Forms can be systematized according to (self) organization levels. General social level: a person perceives himself as part of a social group (stratum), ethnic group, etc. (for example, citizens of one country, representatives of a national minority, one religion, or one religion); as a specialist, professional, representative of one or another social institution (for example, a member of a professional pedagogical community, school community, family or clan). Managerial level: a person perceives himself as part of one job group (school directors). Group level: the individual perceives himself as part of a cultural society or interest group (political party, representative of the circle of amateur zoologists). It is possible that a person perceives himself (on a personal level) as an individual.

It should be emphasized that the object of this research is event networks of non-formal education for different age’s communities. Any outside interference in the development of such networks can lead to unplanned results: according to the “butterfly effect”, any insignificant external influence on a given object (developing according to non-linear, synergetic laws) can cause unexpected consequences and unplanned results.

Among the methods of (self)organization of different age’s communities in the non-formal education field, we can single out game and project activities, the development of independent group activities, crowdsourcing (Von Ahn, 2006), and participation in social network communities (Feiler & Kleinbaum, 2015). The purpose of this activity is the formation of common values and interests of the group (Panteleev, 2018). Obviously, these are values characteristic of a particular cultural, educational or socio-political situation. Today, social networks require special attention (Bahulkar et al., 2016), as they contribute to the (self)organization of youth communities (Parkinson et al., 2018).

One of the productive ways (self-organization) of organizing non-formal education (according to Koncevoj (2018)) is crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is a network organization of community activities created to solve a problem "for the sake of achieving common good"; or the practice of obtaining services upon request (under a cooperation agreement) of a large group of people (Solovejkina, 2019). It's essential that the phenomenon of non-formal education is associated with the same logic of change in communities’ activities аs the crowdsourcing phenomenon. "Co-creation of goods" and "user-generated content" are basic to the modern Internet. Crowdsourcing is the most important mechanism for the transition from traditional societies, communities to network (both information and event) communities. Crowdsourcing is actively using today even in the construction of interaction models between educational, cultural and other social institutions. The interaction of museums with each other, schools, universities, public structural formations is most effective today.

For the success of the joint activities of various institutions focused on the creation of the project, sometimes performed "guided self-organization." In this case, first, as a rule, set the compulsory programs, disciplines, courses, tours of various institutions of formal education. Employees of these institutions familiarize students with a particular platform, form a network community on this platform, post sources on the training course on the Internet resource, formulate questions, etc. Such training contributes to the processes of students (self)organization of in the non-formal education space. A formal motivation for education can turn into a non-formal one if the student continues his non-formal education already on internal motives. Today, the transition from formal to non-formal motivation is quite low. These processes can stimulate the allocation of the sphere of independent activity of non-formal education participants.

A self-acting person, mobile, daily confidently making his choice, guided by the changing sociocultural situation and capable of competition in the labor market, today has become popular in society. According to the order of modern society, the education system must create the conditions for mastering the learning skills to independently identify priorities and plan their educational, professional activities, set vital and professionally significant goals and achieve their goals, that is, manage their educational activities and their professional development. We consider independent activity preceding the process of (self) organization as a transfer of educational activity from memorization of information to the formation of experience of independent search for it and its further application, to the development of the student’s initiative, its activity in education, its competitiveness in the modern world. Independent activity in education forms the mechanisms of self-government in the field of the student’s personality development.

It is difficult to solve a similar problem by the efforts of a single educational institution. To solve the problem, social partners are involved in solving the problem. These are educational organizations (pre-school and school educational institutions, institutions of additional education for children and adults, universities, etc.), sociocultural institutions that perform an educational function and / or participate in creating conditions for upbringing individuals (libraries, museums, theaters, social movements and organizations, youth groups, family, etc.).

As a result of the various sociocultural (social) institutions joint activities, based on the principles of social partnership, a network is formed on the initiative of the of non-formal education institution. The network becomes the basis of the non-formal education space and a condition for the formation of independent activity, (self)organization of network participants (network interaction) (Jeffs & Smith, 1999). We can realize the potential of educational space in the process of transforming the environment into space in various forms and technologies of non-formal education for different age’s communities. We consider the educational space as a transformed environment, the subjects of which are communities formed to solve specific project tasks, built as part of the co-existence of various subjects. In this case, mutual adaptation and mutual enrichment of communities occurs.

(self)organization of independent activity in education is very complex. It includes the following processes: activation of motivation, formation of the position of a potential educational subject. (self) organization of independent activity promotes mutual understanding of different generations, the establishment of relations between their own freedom and responsibility, the coordination of the interests of subjects, the construction of an "educational (more broadly - educational) meeting-event" in the space where the personality is formed, develops.

We justified the stages of development of the independent activity of the space subjects. The first stage is the creation of a system of preliminary adaptation of students to the conditions of training and readiness for independent activity. The next is the removal of psychological and emotional stress in the context of educational activities. Next - the development of a system of tasks for the information reproduction. An important stage is the formation of value orientations. Next - the development of a system of tasks for productive activities; for formation of their own approach to creative activity; for active participation in the work of child-adult communities, in the work of project teams, etc.; for presentation of students' capabilities.

We have identified three levels of independent activity of subjects of the non-formal education space. First level. The development of tasks-tests aimed at assessing the readiness of any person to independent activity, i.e. an objective assessment of any specific knowledge. Second level. Development of game tasks for the development of educational space. As an example, we can consider the contents of the additional textbook "Games of the peoples of the world." It was created by school teachers on the basis of MAE museum collections. The manual includes tasks for children 6-12 years old, parents and teachers in the museum space. Games of the peoples of Azerbaijan, America, Africa, India, China, Russia, Japan, Korea, etc., included in this manual, realize the possibility of adults and children for joint independent creativity. The manual has become an effective tool to overcome passivity in the cooperation of children and adults. Teachers, psychologists, experts noted that working with the manual forms the following skills and competencies of students: concentration of attention, understanding of the technologies of applying a particular subject, development of imagination, creativity, the formation of spatio-temporal representations; ability to act in a team. Drawing is of great importance in training for the realization of the vital interests of the child, experienced situations, including the training for the (self)organization of different age’s communities. Drawing during the Childhood is a game activity. This game exists until adolescence. In the process of drawing, the child learns the world, acquires the necessary life skills, communication skills with other people - peers and adults. At the same time, the child forms new values in himself - health, work and love to the motherland, a desire to learn and create new things, to defend one’s opinion.

Training can become creative, visual, useful if the teacher uses actively game life situations - for children, professional situations - for adults. Such an experience is easily transferred to non-formal practice then. Third level. Independent research group work of schoolchildren and students traditionally boils down to conducting scientific and training seminars, conferences, performing specific research assignments, course and diploma projects. Sometimes in the organization of research work, schoolchildren, less often, students collaborate with parents, teachers, and specialists of non-educational institutions. The (self)organization of research and other creative groups contributes to the use of problem situations. This technique allows you to shift the emphasis from reproductive to creative methods of activity.

Creative projects provide for the implementation of the maximum degree of freedom for each participating in the project team activities (research projects have certain restrictions). The curator of the group outlines the general objectives of the project and ways to solve them. At the same time, a clear statement of the result significant for the participants in the design is necessary. The project participants carry out intensive work with primary sources, with documents and materials that do not have a clear answer. The Discussion Club often becomes a place to discuss a creative project.

This work should not be episodic. Programs of independent activity of students in an educational organization contribute to the creation of a field of dialogue in child-adult creative communities. Such communities can become group subjects in the development of new non-formal education trends.

The (self)organization is the significant factor in the development of non-formal educational systems and the expansion of their capabilities. An example is event educational networks. (self)organization allows in the process of understanding the goals, meanings, algorithm of execution and priorities of a particular job, the least cost of time and money to achieve the maximum effects and best results. (self) organizing processes contribute to the emergence and development of more complicated educational structures, but (self)organization can also lead to degradation. The phenomenon of (self)organization is significant for synergetic (Kedrayate, 2012). By a system, the formation of which is the result of self-organization, we understand the totality of elements united to one degree or another by stable connections, which has a structure and specific systemic qualities. Often, (self) organization refers to any complication of an existing system. (self)organization in the education system can exist at the level of personal pedagogical (self)organization, personal self-organization of the student, (self)organization of educational systems and educational communities, (self)organization (self-development) of the education system or of the educational space as a whole.

The logic of the synergetic approach can be the basis for the management of complex, dynamic, open, (self)organizing systems. According to M. Ozhevan, a manager who is knowledgeable in synergy builds equal relationships with an equal subject in a system managed by him. Its influence on the characteristics of the system depends on the level of its self-organization and on the ability of the leader to enter into dialogue with the participants. Managers would be able to avoid many risks if they take into account the subject-subject principle. Note that subject-object principle helps leaders have manipulated the participants of daily educational practices. This manipulation leads to a lot of negative consequences. A synergistic approach to the management of non-formal education in the region can contribute to the (self)organization of the region’s population and the decentralization of the non-formal management education. Hicenko (2014) notes that decentralized structures are more effective for solving complicated problems. The described above processes give rise to leaders who are able to influence the system at the bifurcation point, and teachers who are able to take on the functions of managing educational processes, including the formation of an educational request.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we note that the creation and activity of different age’s communities in the non-formal education field (the creation of event educational networks) requires significant changes in the activities of leaders of the formalized education system. Non-formal education in anyone form can be of high quality, meaningful and satisfying, only if children and adults have the opportunity and a properly organized territory for the application of creative forces and imagination.

Acknowledgments

This article was prepared as part of a research project supported by a grant from the RFBR No. 19-013-00012.

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