A Vital Question: The Quest for Bildung in Russia, 1860s-80s. (original) (raw)
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QUADERNI DI STUDI INTERCULTURALI #3, 2017, 2017
The beginning of the XXth century in Russia was marked by a rise in interest in childhood. Different aspects of childhood were analysed by professionals and discussed by the public. The urgent need for democratic education reforms became obvious to both society and the state. Between 1900-1913 the budget of the Ministry of Education had increased fivefold. Political parties made education reforms an important issue in their programmes. Throughout Russia hundreds of educational societies and pedagogical circles came into being and thousands of public libraries were opened. Various aspects of childhood and education -social, philosophical, psychological -were discussed at numerous pedagogical conventions and conferences on public education, women's education, people's universities, etc. To promote progressive ideas exhibitions such as the "Child Development and Education" (April 1914) exhibition were organised. Publications on education, pedagogical theories, and child psychology were in great demand. Professional, as well as popular periodicals, the number of which had increased considerably during that period (304 pedagogical periodicals in 1916), provided information on various aspects of education. Humanistic pedagogical theories and progressive practices from all over the world aroused great interest, became subjects of discussion and gave the impulse for pedagogical experiments. For example, two of the most popular pedagogical magazines were launched in 1890 -Vestnik Vospitanya (Bulletin of Education) and Russkaya Shkola (Russian School). Both aimed at a wide audienceschools and families -and maintained a high and professional level of publication. Articles were published on social and experimental pedagogy, vocational education, and international practices. While Vestnik Vospitanya devoted much attention to child psychology, pre-school education, and paediatric hygiene, Russkaya Shkola dealt mostly with the most urgent problems in Russian education. Children's reading also became an important topic for consideration -both as an educational tool and as a medium for cultural development. Two new magazines devoted to children's reading appeared in 1911 -Novosty Detskoy Literatury (Children's Literature News) (Moscow) edited by A. Kolmogorov and Chto I Kak Chitat Detyam (What and How to Read to Children) (St.-Petersburg) edited by Eugene Jelachich. Both magazines published reviews of children's books, as well as literary critiques and articles on children's reading and education. Due to historical reasons -the social revolution of 1917 that resulted in crucial changes in Russian society and a revised attitude to historical matters -the First World War had not, for a long time, been the subject of proper scientific research and it is only in the last decades that evidence based research of this period has been thoroughly investigated. Periodicals from that period provide important information on the epoch of the Great War. Articles from pedagogical magazines present a diversity of educational and cultural policies, and of opinions in Russia, and could be used as a source of knowledge on the topic.
The paper reviews the project of reforms in the Don education, which were proposed by prominent public figures in the early 1860s., namely by A.M. Dondukov-Korsakov, Kh.I. Popov and N.I. Krasnov. Based on archival materials and publications by these authors, which in some cases have not been previously used in scientific studies, the paper shows that it was the different visions of the future Don education, which revealed a very clear and representative distinction between Don conservative “Kazakomans,” (from Kazakomanstvo – Cossack-mania) and liberal “Progressists”. Kazakomans counted on consistent reforms addressing the most pressing and obvious issues of the Don education. Contrary to them, Progressists believed that these issues would sort themselves out following the system reforms of the Cossack society, which would eliminate it as a purely military estate. Unfortunately, due to the political struggle, neither Progressist nor Kazakoman version of the reforms saw the light of the day, which had a negative impact on further development of the Don education.
Recent years have seen the publication of a plethora of articles covering the distinct features of education in various regions of the Russian Empire. However, most of these publications mainly focus on sharing statistical information (e.g., number of schools, number of students, etc.). Issues relating to the theoretical pedagogical beliefs of major provincial instructors and the characteristics of their instructional activity remain underresearched. This paper examines the experience of the Novocherkassk Gymnasium, a major center for science and education in the Don region in the 19 th century, whose teaching staff included a number of major local figures. Note that much of the material on the actual pedagogical process in the above gymnasium was gathered back before 1917, mainly in conjunction with the celebration of its 100 th anniversary-with much attention, due to a lack of documents, devoted to collecting information from former students of the gymnasium. Consequently, most of the information on the educational process in said educational institution is based both on official documentation and on oral, often critical, accounts by contemporaries about its teaching staff, which included individuals proven significant to the history of the Don region. The first part of this paper covers the activity of two of the gymnasium's seminal first-cohort instructors. One of these men, A.G. Popov, the gymnasium's principal and author of one of the first-ever books on the history of Don Cossackdom, was an eminent practician who was the first in the Don region to endeavor to have instructors get the learning material across in an accessible and consistent fashion, for which reason he would even regularly attend classes. However, he still did underestimate the significance of special pedagogical talents and skills, keeping in the gymnasium well-educated yet incompetent instructors, some of whom spoke poor Russian. This, in large part, was associated with the distinct theoretical pedagogical beliefs dominant in the gymnasium. Some of these beliefs were born and propagandized by another seminal pedagogue-protoiereus A.G. Oridovsky, who asserted the beneficence of any education. Yet, while beliefs like these did little to motivate pedagogues, A.G. Oridovsky's being an eminent person and an eloquent speaker did help to attract students into the gymnasium, which was a far-from-perfect educational institution.
2002
A responses to this article has been written by Natasha Artemeva and has been published in the next edition of AE-Extra The nature of the Soviet educational system has been developing in accordance with the Soviet Union's 70-year history. During these years that the Soviet Union was controlled by the communist party, it developed an ideology centered on communist party doctrine. Also, under the leadership of different rulers the system of Soviet Education passed through many changes and reforms. Consequently, it is difficult to describe the entire history of soviet education in brief since it is such a broad topic and comprehensive from its political and ideological perspective.
2017
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, a renowned Russian psychologist, whose immediate family, academic surrounding, and scientific findings are typically scrutinized by scholars of past and present (Feingenberg, 1996, Kotik-Friedgut, 2008, 2011, Kuzmich, 2006, Vygodskaya & Lifanova, 1999, Yasnitsky, 2011, 2012) was the first to emphasize the holistic multidisciplinary approach to child development of pedology (child pedagogy) and distinguish two equally meaningful components of child education: obuchenie (teaching/learning process) and vospitanie (fostering). Even though Vygotskian theories are extensively employed in modern educational practices the intricacy of a complex unity of obuchenie and vospitanie in the process of education was overlooked as both were unified under an overarching English translation of education which distinctly demonstrated the existing issues in academic translation as well as cultural adaptation of the content (Nord, 2005, Smith, 2011, Snell-Hornby, 2000). To eluc...
The paper reviews the project of reforms in the Don education, which were proposed by prominent public figures in the early 1860s., namely by A.M. Dondukov-Korsakov, Kh.I. Popov and N.I. Krasnov. Based on archival materials and publications by these authors, which in some cases have not been previously used in scientific studies, the paper shows that it was the different visions of the future Don education, which revealed a very clear and representative distinction between Don conservative “Kazakomans,” (from Kazakomanstvo – Cossack-mania) and liberal “Progressists”. Kazakomans counted on consistent reforms addressing the most pressing and obvious issues of the Don education. Contrary to them, Progressists believed that these issues would sort themselves out following the system reforms of the Cossack society, which would eliminate it as a purely military estate. Unfortunately, due to the political struggle, neither Progressist nor Kazakoman version of the reforms saw the light of the day, which had a negative impact on further development of the Don education.
Landmarks and Choices of Modern Russian Education
Asian Pendidikan, 2021
Education is one of the movements of a person towards self-realization as a biological and cultural being. The dialectic of these "pillars" of his being forms tasks at a specific stage of individual, group and human development. At the same time, two ways of understanding can be distinguished as two ways of connecting, paths, between oppositions: "inversion" and "mediation". Inversion is the logic of non-reflective throwing between the poles-absolutes, ignoring the meaning-forming "middle". It is very typical for Russian culture. Mediation is the logic of creative search, finding and realizing a new meaning between the poles, not typical for Russian culture. Inversion creates a "historical trap" of adaptation to the split, the collapse of culture, into which Russia has fallen for centuries of almost total ignorance of some and the arbitrariness of others.