PEDAGOGICS OF SPIRITUALITY AS THE SPECIAL DIRECTION OF THE HUMANITARIAN PEDAGOGICAL PARADIGM

Nikitenko S.N. (Russia, Volgograd)

The concept «pedagogics of spirituality» as the special direction in the modern pedagogical science in Russia has not exactly defined. In pedagogical practice creative teachers, teachers of additional education, high school teachers and professional skill improvement system often start to use definite ways, technologies and methods of pedagogics of spirituality which more and more persistently declares itself in modern Russian educational and cultural sphere. All of this makes to attempt the definition of theoretical and methodological bases of pedagogics of spirituality with a view of scientifically proved and its correct use in practice.

Since 90th years of XX century the expansion and deepening of democracy and publicity, the decision of economic and political problems, social contradictions overcoming have demanded reassessment of many values, have subjected to reorganization and updating the material and spiritual human life. At the beginning of XXI century the great Russian tradition of education and upbrining unity was broken, and education was quite often sacrificed to momentary pragmatical interests. Many people have no opportunity to join crucial and deep understanding of public and personal sense of human life.

In opinion of modern philosophers, psychologists and teachers the loss of the spiritual foundation has resulted to that the body and spirit of the person cease to interact. Moreover, not the spirit but a body becomes the organizing origin. The person loses the integrity - unity of biosocial, cultural, national, spiritual and moral origin.

The global problem – the loss of spirituality by the person - has caused a lot of concrete problems and the pedagogics of spirituality will help to solve them. Today for many teachers it is obvious that having addressed to the spiritual origin of the person, education becomes the base for original development of the person. Everybody agrees with the necessity of the manipulation to the person, but there isn’t common understanding of the concept. Therefore it is necessary to define the pedagogics of spirituality essence.

In changed social economic and political conditions there is a gradual accents from the state interests on the person interests. Thus the educational paradigm essentially varies, its purpose, problems, maintenance and technologies are reinterpreted, new processes and phenomena are appeared. A paradigm (from Greek - paradeigma) is the model of problems and their decisions statement, the methods of the research prevailing during the certain historical period in scientific community; the main idea which is used as a sample for scientific theories and concepts construction. In a humanitarian paradigm the accent is displaced from "private world" of the person to his interaction with the world, acquire the experience of suffer and feeling of valuable relations, his inclusion in the world of culture. The purpose of a humanitarian paradigm is the development «human in the person», that makes truly human essence, in his parity with the world of values, culture, human relations.

In a humanitarian pedagogical paradigm there is a new direction - pedagogics of the spirituality which describes the “inside” or “private world” of the person. This direction demands judgement and substantiation at theoretical and methodological level. Nowdays in pedagogics there isn’t enough information about education and upbringing problems from the traditional mental, physical and social point of view, it is necessary to investigate the person in all his integrity, in all variety of his communications and relations with the world, as make up the pedagogics of spirituality essence (V.A.Beljaeva, T.I.Vlasova, I.A.Kolesnikova, L.M.Luzina, I.A.Solovtsova). Common for these scientists is the spiritual level of person life, i.e. his valuable and semantic level while traditionally we pay attention on psychological, social and cultural aspects of education. The pedagogics of spirituality offers the ways of education directed on person spiritual sphere perfection and human essence development. The analysis of the pedagogical literature has allowed to define a number of theoretical problems which the pedagogics of spirituality is capable to solve: 1) to reveal laws of spiritual human life through system of valuable and semantic attitudes for nature, culture, values, other person, society and for person himself; 2) to prove principles of construction, the form and ways of spiritual person activity; 3) to develop new methods and forms of spiritual person education.

In pedagogics of spirituality the purpose of education is outside the limits of individual human existence and is found out in sphere of values and culture that allows to take into account spiritual person needs, need for understanding, meaning of the life, creative self-realization. The purpose of education should be outside of the person, behind his limits - only then it is possible to speak about intentional educational process. The person can be examined as doubtless value, but not the purpose of education; the purpose of education appears as something external in relation to the person. Education in pedagogics of spirituality is the inclusion of the person in a context of life. The pedagogics of spirituality combines theoretical and applied aspects: not only describes and explains the phenomena in practice, but also specifies optimum ways of its transformation.

The essence of pedagogics of spirituality is expressed through categories which are its the main parts and determining its specificity. Speaking about the basic categories in pedagogics of spirituality, it is necessary to mean, that the category is a form of comprehension in concepts of general ways of the person relation to the world, reflecting the most general and essential properties, laws of nature, society and thinking. Categories define the maintenance and form of all other concepts. According to V.V.Kraevskiy, the concepts system concerning pedagogics (we use this classification for pedagogics of spirituality), includes categories of different levels: а) philosophical categories - reflect the general features and causation, help to display laws and tendencies of pedagogics of spirituality development (the person, soul, spirit, spirituality, life, sense, essence, formation, development, relations etc.); b) general scientific concepts - differ from philosophical and are used in many scientific knowledge (system, model, level etc.); c) own categories of pedagogics of spirituality - are in interrelation (pedagogics of spirituality, spiritual education, purpose, situation, values, principles etc.). From this point of view it is typical for pedagogics of spirituality: wide use of philosophical categories (person, life, sense, true, spirituality, experience etc.); operating by the terms beginning with "co": co-present life, co-transformation, compassion, community etc.; use of symbols and metaphors: «Human in the person", "an image of life", “an ascention” etc. thus as marks L.M.Luzina, «the semantic structure of concepts - symbols are directed on giving through each private phenomenon a complete image of the world»; use of descriptive definitions, wider and complete in comparison with traditional definition. The sense of many concepts used in a context of pedagogics of spirituality «cannot be explained by unequivocal logic formula and it is only possible to clear, having correlated it with the further symbolical textures» (L.M.Luzina) and the use of descriptive definitions is not only desirable, but in many cases is necessary.

Literature:

1. Luzina, L.M. The theory of education: the philosophical and anthropological approach / L.M. Luzina. - Pskov, 2000.

2. Kraevskij, V.V., Methodology of pedagogics: a new stage/ V.V Kraevskiy. - Moscow, 2006.