Balalayeva V.I.

E.A.Buketov Karaganda State University

 

The problem of polycultural education in Kazakhstan in the system of higher education

 

 

Polycultural education (gr. - multicultural) is education built on the ideas of preparation of the younger generation for life in a multinational and multicultural environment. The aim of such education is the formation of ability to communicate and collaborate with people of different nationalities, races, creeds, education of understanding of the originality of other cultures, and to eradicate the negative attitude towards them. Modern man must be tolerant, patient, with a strong sense of respect towards people of other cultures, able to live with them in peace and harmony, willingness to actively cooperate.

At the end of the twentieth century there was process of rapprochement of countries and peoples of the world, also there was a powerful migration of population (2000 peoples and more than 200 countries in the world) turning the planet into a «global village». This required to change the value of orientation and to reorient from monocultural education to multicultural, i.e. polycultural when their own culture is saved.  Polycultural also is a quality of the individual. In these circumstances the most popular became a folk pedagogics [1].

In Kazakhstan the problem of polycultural education has taken a special importance and complexity in the 90s. Today polyculture and polycultural education is due to the state national language education policies. Its principles are reflected in the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the law «About languages in the Republic of Kazakhstan» and «About education», «About State program of functioning and development of languages for 2011-2020 years».

According to the president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev "...Kazakhstan is unique and strong with its multinationality. On its land formed a unique multicultural space... Polyculture of Kazakhstan is a progressive factor in the development of society. Eurasian roots of the peoples of Kazakhstan allow to combine the Eastern, Asian, Western, European cultures and to create a unique variant of development of Kazakhstan polyculturalism"[2].

Polycultural education in the Republic of Kazakhstan as one of the main directions is in search of its fundamental basis. In the conditions of formation of new state education it is reformed into the socio-cultural institute based on the traditions of the national pedagogical culture of Kazakhstan mentality and which is produced the universal values of education. [3]

Today polycultural education in the Republic of Kazakhstan is one of the main directions in the system of higher education. In the State program of development of education for 2011-2020 years is described that the higher school of Kazakhstan should strive to reach the world level of education and to enter the common educational space. Mechanism for achieving these goals is the implementation of the Bologna process [4].

Polycultural education in higher school must solve the following problems:

• formation of knowledge about the diversity of cultures and their interrelation;

• using of knowledge about the cultural diversity for the personal fulfilment;

• formation of positive attitude towards cultural differences;

• training skills of interaction with different cultures on the basis of mutual understanding.

The goals of polycultural education are realized through the recognition of the human and national culture, a factor of education and the necessity of its implementation in the context of the dialogue of cultures. For the implementation of polycultural education is necessary to create a polycultural educational space, i.e. the creation of conditions for integration of the personality in culture through education [5].

In particular, university is an important stage in the process of formation and development of polycultural personality when consciously formed the basic values and principles of life. Just an university is able to provide the student with a favorable environment for the harmonious combination of development of humanistic universal qualities of personality with the ability to fully implement its national, cultural, ethnic needs.

Polycultural education gives an opportunity to study and understand the diversity of peoples, inhabiting the world deeply. Cultural differences that define the belonging to one group or another are the most obvious manifestation of the diversity of values and perspectives.

The teacher should help students to realize that there are many values in the world that differ from their own. All values are rooted in the traditions of a people and for them the values are natural result of historical development.

Polycultural education is an important part of modern education that promotes the absorption of students ' knowledge about other cultures, understanding of the general and the specific aspects in the traditions, way of life, the cultural values of the peoples, upbringing of youth in spirit to respect the systems of other cultures. It should be noted that the upbringing of tolerance in the process of polycultural education is the most important condition of ethnic integration. On the one hand polycultural education is intended to eliminate the contradictions between the systems and cultural norms of the dominant nations, on the other - of the ethnic minorities. It involves the competent adaptation of ethnic groups to each other [6].

Consequently, in the conditions of polyethnic society of university the polycultural education becomes an integral part of the pedagogical culture of the future specialist and a significant part of its moral upbringing. Polycultural education acts as an element of its outlook and attitude to the Motherland and the other nations and peoples.

 

Reference list:

 

1. V.S. Bezrukova. Foundations of spiritual culture (encyclopedic dictionary of teacher), 2000.

2. N.A. Nazarbayev. The strategy of transformation of society and revival of Eurasian civilization. – M., 2000. - P.16-18.

3. V.V. Lezina. The development of multicultural education in the Republic of Kazakhstan// Modern high technologies ¹3, 2008.

4. State program of educational development of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020

5. L.P. Bogacheva , M.K. Omarova. Some of the issues of multicultural upbringing and education of future specialists // Vestnik of KSU. - 2009. - ¹1. P. 79-84.

6. V.P. Borisenkov. Challenges of the modern age and the priority tasks of the pedagogical science // Pedagogy. - 2004. -¹1.