Педагогические науки/ 2.Проблемы подготовки специалистов.

Irina V. Kyunkrikova

Candidate of Science (PhD, Pedagogics), Associate Professor

Margarita A. Shurginova

Kalmyk State University, Russia

The use of the regional component

in the educational process at University

Nowadays culture and education, preserving spiritual values of the people and giving them hope for the future, are consolidating factors. Real processes of strengthening the ethnic mobilization, ethnic identity, which are increasing all over the world since the 1960s, are accompanied by the progressive unification of the spiritual and material culture and the processes of globalization.

At present, it is almost impossible to find a single ethnic community, which would not undergo the influence of other nations’ culture. It is this tendency of cultural globalization that is of particular interest in cultural identity. The depth, multifacetedness, and exceptional socio-cultural significance of the ethnic problem have not been realized in our society yet. The fact, that interethnic and international conflicts can be solved only situationally, mostly by political, economic or military means, testifies for the lack of such understanding of this important issue. Alongside with the fundamental nature of education, educational and humanitarian solution to the problem, which should be connected with the purposeful shaping of modern ethno-cultural consciousness, is not taken into account to a considerable extent. Social and economic development of Russia nowadays makes the issues urgent which are being developed not only at each region’s level but also at the national one. Taken steps in recent years to revive ethnic and cultural values will not bring the desired result without the restoration of the national education system, traditions of ethnopedagogics. This in its turn suggests the scientific understanding of the content, methods and means of education in relation to the realities of today. The appearance of a regional component in the federal standard of general education is viewed as a condition of reproduction of national, cultural and historical roots of national identity.

The use of traditional folk pedagogics in the educational process of a higher educational institution is a means to improve the efficiency of the educational system. Criteria and indicators of the educational system can determine the level of the internal system formation of values as a result of education, and to conclude the personal development of students in the teaching system with the traditions of folk pedagogics. Experimental verification of the proposed model of this educational system proves the possibility of its use in teaching practice.

 The present educational system tends to make a productive use of the possibility of the regional component in the whole educational and learning process. Practice shows that the teaching process in the university should be organically fill ethnic traditions and regional specificity. The teaching staff immerses the student into the area of the national culture as an active subject, who can understand its values in a choice of life position. Also, tutors accept the identity of ethnic culture in the general cultural development of each student as one of the most important elements of the system to develop knowledge about the world. It is necessary to determine the features of the content of ethnopedagogical regional component as a factor in education and training. The training process reveals the effectiveness of students’ education on the basis of national traditions. The realization of etnopedagogical traditions in regional component of education contributes to formation of a personality who can be considered as the ethnic ideal of the perfect man. Etnopedagogical goals of education determine the content and mechanisms of regional educational component. The effectiveness of the educational process in the ethnic and cultural students’ development is enhanced by the inclusion of organic material, spiritual, art and ideological ethnic culture in the content of education. The learning process of students in University based on folk traditions is the determining mechanism of etnopedagogization of the integrated educational process, contributing to the harmonization of relations between different generations.

The system of values and interests of individuals, their social characteristics are certainly determined by the social-cultural environment where the process of socialization has been carried out. In this situation cultural traditions can be one of the most important means of socialization which is very important for education at University.

Associating oneself with a particular culture, an individual is often unaware that its crucial values are formed in the process of the direct contact with a national environment which includes family, mass media, and education.

This article states the present educational situation at the Faculty of Education in the Kalmyk State University due to the introduction of new Federal State Educational Standard. In the Republic of Kalmykia as well as in other republics of the Russian Federation, the process of regionalization of education reflects the specific features of the region, and namely social, economical, geographical, climatic and historical development of the region.

The analysis of traits of the Kalmyks’ ethnopedagogics as a key factor in the training of the younger generation allows to conclude the following:

A variety of living conditions, which include climatic, social, economic, historical and other factors are “the spring”, enriching the content of education of the Kalmyks. Folk customs and traditions of the Kalmyks cover all the aspects of these people’s. Familiarizing the young generation with the traditional way through original folk pedagogics contributes to the forming of national identity foundation. In the traditions and customs of the Kalmyks there is a moral ideal of the perfect man, contributing to the spiritual education of young people. The collection of the Kalmyk folk traditions as a means of education is a social and psychological system that is organically linked to the national culture, national identity and a common culture of humanity.

An important feature in the Kalmyk people system of education is the continuity, the relevance of which increases in the national revival. In this article, we distinguish the physical continuity, the spiritual succession, the one in labor and art, and the family succession.

Through such features as the continuity of ethnic education, variation and inertia of the traditions it is possible to transfer the core values in education from one generation to the next.

Education on the basis of traditions is a purposeful interaction of generations, in which young people form the national consciousness, appropriate attitude to themselves as to the subject of the ethnic group. The national consciousness of the student is considered not only as a result of the educational process, but also as an integrative quality of the person. We identify four components that make up the essence: cognitive, emotional, evaluative, and behavioral. Ethnic identity in more general terms is not simply an awareness of belonging to this or that particular people but also an awareness of its culture, language, region, history, and the most important thing – the awareness of the national interest.

Considering the practical and teaching experience in this sphere, we highlight the following areas of teaching improvement in the implementation of the regional components:

- The enrichment of the educational process with the ethnocultural content, and region-specific facts, materials, phenomena, which are the most familiar and close to students, reflecting the features of one of the ethnic regions of the Russian Federation - Republic of Kalmykia, ensures their integrative relationships.

- The correlation of the content and the process of teaching with the humanistic values of the humankind as timeless criteria.

- Educational objectives of the lesson are primarily implemented through the content of the material being studied. A particularly important challenge is that the content of any topic idea should include ideological, moral, and aesthetic position.

The problems of teaching University students on the folk traditions in the implementation of the regional component are being solved by the Kalmyk State University teaching staff constantly. There is a systematic approach of the solution to the problem. Tutors in the classroom focus on the material of the national regional orientation. For example, the curriculum of “Primary education” bachelors includes the study of the subject “Ethnopedagogics”, which is the central component and the main conductor of the subject, forming the national consciousness of students as future professionals. In the context of the communicative competence, young people study English with simultaneous introduction of the regional specificity topics. For example, the best way of teaching speaking, reading and writing is through such texts as: “Kalmyk festivals”, “Kalmyk customs and traditions”, “The Kalmyk cuisine”, “The Kalmyk folklore”. The appearance of a regional component in the federal standard of general education is viewed as a condition for reproduction of national, cultural and historical roots of person’s national identity. The present educational system aims at making a productive use of the possibility of a regional component in the whole educational and learning process.

The study of traditional culture gives reasons to believe that folk pedagogics of the Kalmyks is the spiritual foundation for the revival and establishment of national culture, language, traditions and customs.

The peculiarity of modern ethnocultural and educational situation in the Republic of Kalmykia is the loss of the practical relevance of the Kalmyk language and the lack of sufficient incentives to its study, and as the result we have a significant loss of interest to the national culture. Therefore, only traditional methods and means of public education are not effective enough. Under these circumstances, the history of the Oirat-Kalmyk people can take one of the leading places in the system of folk pedagogics, which allows from a broad history and ethnic culture to choose the aspects affecting the personality immensely. The appeal to the history and ethnic culture is a path that allows us to solve the problems more harmonically, not imposing any settings, but including the student in the process of interaction with a variety of historical values, ideals and models.

The presence in the curriculum of Bachelor’s “Primary education” at the Faculty of Education the discipline (subject) “The History of Kalmykia” generates and supports the interest of students. But this happens only if the younger generation is directly involved in any activity. It gives opportunities to use creatively the acquired knowledge and skills in the process of independent and scientific research, for example, while doing creative projects: “The Heroes of My City”, “The Book of Memory” (where the information about the defenders of the Motherland is collected), “The Writers of Kalmykia”, “The Teachers of Kalmykia”, “The outstanding statesmen of our Republic”. Also, in the curriculum there is a subject “Ecology”, which also forms the ecological culture of bachelors. This subject is realized in studying the following themes of national and regional character: “Tulip is the symbol of Kalmykia”, “Saiga is an endangered species”, “ The Animals of Kalmykia”, The Flora of Kalmykia”, “The desertification”, “The Reserves of Kalmykia”, “Lake Manych is a protected zone”. The research being studied allows to come to the following conclusions. Using the regional component of education increases the efficiency of formation of individual and ethnic ideal of the perfect man.

The guidance in the implementation of the regional component is aimed at familiarizing the individual to the material and spiritual values of the people, the formation of art, moral, and ethnic culture.

Education on folk traditions is the basis of ethnopedagogical integral educational process, forming the feeling of respect for the customs of the people and at the same time fostering a culture of intergenerational relations.

The widespread use of active teaching methods involving also interactive problems (individual and collective forms of work) introduces the student to a situation of dialogue with culture, provides the formation of personal relation to spiritual ethnic values.

Thus, it can be stated that the educational values coming from the folk traditions, have not lost their relevance in the modern world.

References:

1. The Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Professional Education

2. Drobizheva L.M. Sociological response to the “national question”: the case of the Republic of Bashkortostan. – Moscow, 2012, 124p., URL:http://www.isras.ru/publ.html?id=2459