Lipskaya L. А. Social and Cultural Dynamics of Higher Education in Russia

(The Ural State University of Physical Culture)

Abstract ♦ The article presents a theoretical and methodological analysis of transforming the higher education in social sciences and humanities within the sociocultural context of Russia since the late 1980s. The author outlines the characteristic features of higher education in Russia at various stages of its development. These features reflect the process of cooperation between Russian and European cultures and its influence on how the public sees the educated person and his/her social and humanitarian background.

The change in value priorities of higher education in Russia led the public away from the socially centered model of higher school working on social mandate to educate citizens. Instead, the prevalent model is the liberal and anthropocentric one, which takes into account professional interests, variegated demands and individual features of a learner’s unique personality.

In the most recent years, a new economic-centered competency-based paradigm has appeared. As the author believes, it significantly narrows the fundamentality of social and humanitarian education, replacing it with fragmentarity and the idea of utility.

To overcome the shortcomings of the latter paradigm, general cultural competencies can be filled with a range of informative content, thus realizing an integrative approach to competency building and cultural knowledge. It will help enhance the humanization and humanitarization of higher education, as well as of the society in general.

Social and humanitarian education based on this approach will strive to preserve and transmit the cultural and historical heritage of Russian society, encourage students’ moral development and help fight destructivity and social anomie among the youth.

Keywords: social and cultural dynamics of education, modernization, cultural borrowings, competency model of education, cultural pluralism, competency-based cultural approach.

Lipskaya Larisa Alekseevna, Doctor of Pedagogy, Professor, Head of the Social Sciences and Humanities Department, the Ural State University of Physical Culture. Postal address: 1 Ordzhonikidze St., Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation, 454091. Теl.: +7 (351-23) 7-54-67. E-mail: Lipskayala@mail.ru

Citation: Lipskaya, L. А. (2014) Sotsiokul'turnaia dinamika vysshego obrazovaniia v Rossii [Social and Cultural Dynamics of Higher Education in Russia]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, no. 3, pp. 31–37. (In Russ.).

Submission date: 29.10.2013.

RUSSIAN VERSION

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