Pedagogical Strategy To Foster Readiness Of Future Teachers For Inclusive Volunteering

Abstract

The article substantiates the relevance of socio-cultural transformations in determining the strategy of future teachers’ professional training and increasing their professional competence in inclusive education. The socio-educational and educative environment of modern higher education is a resource for expanding volunteer inclusive practice and forming students’ readiness for inclusive volunteering. Mainstreaming the research problem is due to the fact that inclusive volunteering aims to assimilate social-subject experience, develop tolerance and social activity of the individual, can be considered as a task of professional training and enables its fundamentality strengthening. The possibilities of designing the socio-cultural space of higher education for the inclusive volunteering implementation, modeling the educational process of teachers’ professional training for inclusive volunteering regarding the socio-cultural capabilities of the socio-educational and educational space of the university have been identified based on theoretical research and empirical experience. The methodological basis of the research is represented by the aggregate of the system-activity, motivational-value and participatory approaches. The author’s model aimed to form readiness for inclusive volunteering is the integration of interrelated components being regulatory and legal, motivational-targeted, content-procedural and evaluative-productive ones. The study discusses the organizational, methodological and substantive aspects of inclusive volunteering and readiness for its implementation. The conclusion is drawn about the necessity and possibility of creating a professionally-oriented educational environment aimed to develop volunteer competence in future teachers.

Keywords: Inclusive volunteering, modern teacher, readiness for inclusive volunteering, volunteering

Introduction

The global transformations of Russian society initiate the consideration of various issues in the context of national interests, self-awareness and identity development (Gnatyshina et al., 2019; Tsilitsky, 2018; Zagladina & Arsenyeva, 2018). Sociocultural transformations contribute to the intensive introduction of inclusive education, expand the needs for pedagogical personnel training and increase a teacher’s professional competence in an inclusive educational space. In modern conditions, volunteer activity is considered in terms of developing students’ social and professional competencies (Averkina & Avchinnikova, 2018; Gorlova & Krasavina, 2018; Pilipenko, 2018; Rozhentseva, 2019). Undoubtedly, it is important to define a strategy in the development of the socio-educational and educational space of modern higher education aimed to form a culture of inclusive volunteering being a resource for social and moral education and professional development of future teachers.

Problem Statement

Numerous modern studies and personal experience convince us of the need for the personal inclusion of each student in future professional activities and the creation of an educational professionally motivated environment focused on the formation of readiness for inclusive volunteering (Filipenko, 2018; Palkin, 2019; Salavatulina et al., 2021; Sorokoumova et al., 2021). In our opinion, inclusive volunteering should be considered as an important task of professional training at a university and be aimed to assimilate and develop socially subjective experience, professional competencies, and social activity of an individual. However, we believe that higher education does not fully realize the possibilities of fostering an active civic position among students, which is the basis of volunteer competence; insufficient opportunities are provided for the manifestation of social initiative; the leading role of socially oriented processes in education is not fully identified; pedagogical tools for managing this area of activity have not been sufficiently developed. Thus, the scientific task of the research is to resolve the contradiction between the growing need for the formation of the readiness of future teachers for inclusive volunteering and the insufficient development of the means and methods of organizing this process in the university.

Research Questions

The subject of our scientific research is modeling the educational process of teachers’ professional training and defining pedagogical strategies for the formation of their readiness for inclusive volunteering based on the socio-cultural capabilities of the socio-educational and educational system of the university.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose is to discuss the rationale for the construction of a subject-oriented educational environment for the professional training of future teachers for inclusive volunteering and to define methodological tools based on the socio-cultural transformations of the didactic environment.

Research Methods

The theoretical and methodological analysis of the literature, which revealed a scientific understanding of the concept “readiness of future teachers for inclusive volunteering is a significant method of our research. A substantial contribution to the development of this problem was made by Kiseleva (2017), Martynova and Gavlo (2019) Shumilova et al. (2021). Having studied theoretical studies, we have concluded that readiness is an integrative personality trait including motivational-value (motivational readiness of the future teacher to implement volunteer activities), cognitive-operational (mastering volunteer competencies, skills, actions), personality-reflexive (introspection and self-assessment of inclusive volunteering results) components necessary for the implementation of volunteering in an inclusive space.

To develop a model for the formation of the future teachers’ readiness for inclusive volunteering, it is important to identify the fundamental orientation of the research expressed in a combination of the system-activity, motivational-value and participatory approaches.

The system-activity approach enabled to define the process of the formation of readiness for inclusive volunteering as a system that provides the activity and pedagogical interaction of the subjects of the university educational space. Based on this position, it is significant to designate the design features of the process under study and consider it as follows:

- a subsystem with organizational and substantive characteristics;

- activity carried out in an open system responding to changes in the external socio-cultural environment;

- interrelated actions of the subjects of the educational space of the university;

- a pedagogical system that includes components of pedagogical activity and components of readiness for inclusive volunteering;

- specialized methods and means of interaction between subjects of the educational space (team building, trainings, motivational meetings, building a resource map, creating individual volunteer projects, tutorials, mapping, event-resource technologies, and others);

- a component of the professional training of future teachers, which has the following properties: integrativity, openness, integrity, controllability.

The motivational value approach implies the study of the phenomenon under study on the basis of a relationship that contributes to the development of motivation for future professional activity, the actualization of the value attitude towards the achievement of the educational goal, the disclosure of the content of education based on professional values, the acquisition of socially subjective experience. This approach enables to 1) present the result of the activity in the form of a measurable goal; 2) to develop the content of training future teachers with regards to the motivational and value components; 3) identify the features and structure of the activities of the subjects of the educational system; 4) carry out guided design and goal achievement regarding the characteristics and specifics of the educational process; 5) organize control and correction of the results obtained in accordance with the purpose of the study.

The participatory approach focuses on the formation and development of a person’s subjective experience in the process of his/her active participation and self-realization. In the process of forming readiness for inclusive volunteering, it allows the following: 1) to substantiate the importance of volunteering from the perspective of subject-subject relations; 2) construct professionally oriented content with the involvement of each participant in the educational space in participatory interaction; 3) substantiate the subject position of the future teacher in the process of inclusive volunteering; 4) to include methods, means, technologies aimed at active interaction, reliance on personal experience, interests and needs in the content of training future teachers for inclusive volunteering.

Thus, the complementary set of the above approaches identifies the essential properties of the subject of research, which form the basis for designing the process of forming the readiness of future teachers for inclusive volunteering.

Findings

In our opinion, the readiness for inclusive volunteering is a value-semantic basis in the structure of the personality whose purpose is to provide support in the social space and individual assistance to people with disabilities. The support ensures the development of moral values and professionally significant personal qualities in future teachers.

The motivational and need-oriented approach towards social and inclusive interaction, which implies the development of a social and pedagogical educational space at the university, the organization and involvement of students in socially significant activities, and the provision of an opportunity for the future teachers to participate in socially-oriented projects are rather important (Surovneva & Kohan, 2019).

The presented methodological strategy in the aggregate of system-activity, motivational-value, participatory approaches enabled to design and determine the content of the process of forming the future teachers’ readiness for inclusive volunteering. It is an integration of the following interrelated components: regulatory and legal, motivational-target, content-procedural, evaluative-productive.

regulates the process of the future teachers’ professional training for inclusive volunteering, its relevance and social significance. Its main function is to reflect the content, the purpose of training in accordance with the social order of society and the state enshrined in the Federal State Educational Standards and Professional Standards of a Teacher.

reveals a system of motives and incentives benefiting future teachers’ social interaction, providing space for the development of their personally significant qualities, cultivation of moral values and humane attitudes, which represent behavioral and activity norms of a sociocultural nature. In the context of professional training, it is possible to implement the following stages: 1) actualization of the needs in the formation of readiness for inclusive volunteering through understanding its essence and content; 2) understanding the personal significance of inclusive volunteering in future professional activities; 3) search, selection and consolidation of the motive for volunteering; 4) the formation of sustainable motivation for inclusive volunteering. We believe that basing on the implementation of the motivational component, it is advisable to define volunteer competence as a component of professional competence within the framework of interpersonal subject-subject interaction.

is the basis for the formation of readiness for inclusive volunteering, and it represents an integral process of future teachers professional training including the acquisition of knowledge about volunteering and inclusive activities as well as their use in the framework of socially oriented practical activities.

The program to develop the readiness for inclusive volunteering whose substantive and procedural content is the special course “Development of a culture of inclusive volunteering among future teachers” is a substantive core of this component.

The professionally oriented stage of the program aims to form a motivational and value component of readiness for inclusive volunteering. At this stage, the level of readiness for volunteering is assessed, the needs, motives and interests are identified, the social interaction and awareness of the need for inclusive volunteering in teachers’ professional activities are actualized; there is a transfer of knowledge about the volunteer movement through the combination of educational and professionally oriented activities and the interaction of all participants in the integrated social and educational space of professional training.

The theoretical and informational stage aims to update the knowledge necessary for the manifestation of this type of readiness in accordance with a single personality-oriented goal of volunteering based on individual motives, interests and aspirations of future teachers.

The practice-oriented stage aims to update and implement the body of acquired knowledge and master the methods of activities for inclusive volunteering in the conditions of the social and educational environment and in various situations of volunteering.

The educational and professional stage aims to consolidate knowledge, skills and integration of practical experience into a theoretically grounded socially-oriented activity that meets the requirements of the future profession, and ensures the development of professional and social competencies, as well as the experience of volunteering in inclusive teams amid social and cultural events.

Each program stage is implemented by means of methodological tools based on the socio-cultural transformation of the didactic environment. It requires the search and implementation of new approaches to the organization of the educational space providing educational interaction in all types of activities and regarding the high level of subjectivity of the future teacher.

provides feedback with the normative-target, motivational and procedural-technological components and controls the process of forming readiness for inclusive volunteering. It implies the assessment of the current level of readiness through diagnostic and analytical actions and subsequent correction through reflexive corrective actions. Thus, the timely tracking of the shortcomings of the process is implemented and measures to eliminate them are taken.

Thus, the process of forming the readiness of future teachers for inclusive volunteering projected as a result of theoretical comprehension and practical experience includes four structural components (specifically, they are as follows: normative-target, motivational, procedural-technological, evaluative-productive) and possesses the properties of integrability, openness, integrity, controllability.

Conclusion

Our study determines that the following can be distinguished as the main provisions being the basis for the formation of readiness for inclusive volunteering in vocational and pedagogical training:

- competence-based rationale for determining goals, tasks, actions, content, results;

- motivational support of the process, which implies providing conditions for enhancing social interaction in an inclusive environment and building an individual trajectory for the development of personally significant and professional qualities;

- consistency and continuity of the stages of preparation, which involves organizing students’ activity in accordance with the requests and work plan regarding people with disabilities;

- variability of content and instrumental support in the development of practical skills in various situations of volunteer activity;

- reflexivity in terms of introspection and self-assessment of the results of inclusive volunteering.

Formation of readiness for inclusive volunteering among future teachers occurs in various types of activities: information, communication, organizational, teaching, training, consulting, volunteering ones. The didactic toolkit aimed at the formation of readiness requires the search and implementation of new approaches to organizing the educational process providing educational interaction in all types of activities and regarding the high level of subjectivity of the future teacher (Table 01).

An important condition, in our opinion, is the possibility of modifying the content, methods, and forms of organizing volunteer events aimed to translate the value of inclusion, remove communication barriers, master the competencies of interpersonal subject-subject interaction, implement active volunteer activities, and form an inclusive culture in the youth.

Thus, the influence of socio-cultural factors in building a professionally oriented educational environment states the importance of inclusive volunteering as an effective resource for realizing the social potential of students in order to form their volunteer professional competence.

We have established that the formation of the readiness of future teachers for inclusive volunteering requires an integrated approach, purposeful and planned actions for the manifestation of student initiatives and self-realization in volunteer inclusive activities.

References

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