Index: Pedagogy

In the interview some problems are discussed regarding the present situation in the system of higher education. The recent trends are considered as well as the values which are implemented in the framework of educational programs. The comparative evaluation of students in the Anglo-Saxon and Russian universities is presented, and the higher independence and self-sufficiency of English students is stated. It is also observed what is happening with the system of education in the process of transition from public funding to private one, and how this is affecting the students’ approaches to education. Particularly the role of business in education is discussed, how the interaction has to be organized, and what is the relationship between the acquired specialty and the future career of the graduate. The pros and cons of distance learning are observes, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of broad and narrow education.

In the interview Prof. Shadrikov speaks about the recent educational reform in the Russian Federation. Its shortcomings are discussed, and the problem how it should be organized. The modern pre-school, school and higher education should be tailored to age and take into account the uncertainty of the cultural characteristics of different social groups and individuals. The difficulties of developing the contents of education and training are also under analysis, which is a very serious challenge in the new informational environment. The need is emphasized to get away from the fiscal targets and not setting the task to save, but rather to achieve high quality education. The situation with the standards is also touched, especially in the area of higher education, and the important conclusion is given that the standard is proposed in the terms of competencies yet the results are checked in terms of knowledge, and this situation determines the discrepancy between the opportunities provided by well-developed standards, and the real possibility to implement them. The situation in higher education connected with the realization of Bologna process, from which in recent time only two-level educational system is borrowed, yet everything else, basically the spirit of the Bologna process, is thrown away and forgotten, including the good financing and development of national education systems.

Globalization has seriously influenced the system of higher education. As a result the concept of the university role has also changed. Such concepts as “Entrepreneurial Universities” by Clark B., “A Triple Helix” by Etzkowitz H., “The Third Generation University” by Wissema J. came into being. All these concepts change our traditional understanding of the impact universities have on the social and economic development of our society. The term “academic capitalism” appeared at the end of the 1990-ies. Slaughter S. and Leslie L. define it as the market activities of the research and educational institutions as well as the staff aimed at attracting the money from outwards. University becomes the subject of the market economy with all the consequences. Russian universities today mostly have a hierarchical management structure, modeled on a big corporation. In the conditions of academic capitalism, which is not only highly competitive but also dynamic and volatile, the management system must be able to quickly respond to emerging challenges that the bureaucratic structure cannot always meet. The article shows that the network methodology of management decision-making has many advantages, as well as a number of restrictions.

The existence of the fictitious and hidden competences in the structure of educational standards is the problem of the Higher Education Reform implementation. The object of research is reconstruction of a number of the competences which are absent in the regulating documents, but they are important for subjects in professional socialization and they are really incorporated into it. During methodological study of the project of reconstruction of the young specialist model we assumed that the existence of the hidden competences is not a secret for students; and also – that many competences, declared in educational programs, have a fictitious character for them. This assumption became a basic hypothesis for the empirical research “Professional Socialization in the Conditions of Competence-Based Reconstruction”. Readiness to use official position for personal enrichment, ability to join false conventions, to manipulate interlocutors, to strike up useful acquaintances and to derive benefit from them (in P. Bourdieu’s terminology – to create and use social capital), ability and readiness to use gaps and contradictions in the legislation are referred to the hidden competences. The research has revealed that these competences are real and pressing for all levels and social subjects comprising the system of higher education.

The reforms carried out over the past fifteen years in the RF education system are not related to the discoveries in pedagogy, but to the changes in social orientations, which are imposed by external “Bologna commitments”. The forcefully introduced “competence approach” to the planning of education in higher education gave rise to many difficulties, because it was actually incompatible with the Russian educational tradition. The development of “competence” rhetoric at the reporting level had almost no effect on the methodology of teaching in domestic universities, but the goals and ideals of education have radically changed. Now they are formulated not by the society and the state, but by perspective “employers”, transnational corporations are usually meant by them. Instead of “comprehensive harmonious development of the personality,” the competence approach actually involves preparing a person for the labor market with the subsequent sale of human qualities. Expanding of the buying and selling sphere is the result of the globalization processes, today only state sovereignties can prevent this expansion, and within traditional societies only “family and school” have to stop this expansion. The author considers this gradual transformation of traditional pedagogy into “market pedagogy” from the point of view of modern inter-civilizational confrontation. The triumphant “economic dominant” is not a universal “innovation”, but the result of the expansion of Western civilization. The author substantiates the idea that introducing this competence approach, borrowing the goals and ideals from alien cultures hamper the natural development of our national educational system.