Psychology and Sociology / 5. Psychological and Upbringing Problems of Person’s Development under Modern Conditions

Assistant, Piontkovska Diana

Rivne State University of Humanities, Ukraine

Psychological Foundations for the Harmonisation of National Identity among Students

The revival of Ukrainian nation under modern conditions enables educational institutions to use new and innovative approaches to a growing person’s national upbringing. Besides, in accordance with the “State Conception of Students’ National Upbringing”, one of the relevant objectives of the educational process in modern Ukrainian higher educational institutions is the development of student’s national identity. The relevance of the specified task is stipulated by the need to preserve the young person’s national identity under conditions of non-stopping integration of Ukraine to the world's cultural and economic space. In this regard, under modern conditions special attention should be paid to theoretical and practical scientific research focused on the problem of harmonisation of students’ national identity.

Young age is the period when young Ukrainians study in Ukrainian and foreign higher educational institutions; it is also one of the most sensitive periods for the development of personal identity in general (E. Erikson, J. Marcia etc.), and national identity in particular (M.J. Boryshevskyi, O.V. Shevchenko, J. Phinney etc.).

We define the concept of national identity as a person’s understanding of his/her belonging to a certain nation with its own name, historic territory, common history and culture, language, economic and public status. In our opinion, the essence of national identity is most clearly represented by the structural components of this concept. Following M. Barrett [1], the structure of a person’s national identity includes both cognitive and affective components. The cognitive component of the national identity is formed by a person’s knowledge of a certain nation, its territory, symbols, customs, traditions, historical events and characters, as well as the sense of a person’s belonging to a certain nation and sharing the above-mentioned features with other representatives of this nation. The affective component of a person’s national identity is manifested in its subjective relevance, as well as in the degree of person’s attachment to a nation, i.e. in the significance of belonging to a certain nation. A person’s attachment to a nation can be described by his/her feelings about belonging to a particular nation and his/her residence in the national territory, feelings of national pride or shame, feelings of national self-esteem or contempt.

Taking into consideration the above-mentioned, the programme of harmonisation of students’ national identity should be directed towards the development of both cognitive and affective components of this complex concept. The participants of this program can be students, lectures and supervisors of student groups in higher educational institutions. An important condition for the organisation of such program is a formed positive national identity among lecturers and supervisors of student groups, as well as their knowledge of history and culture of their nation and the national character of its representatives. The main objectives of the programme for the harmonisation of students’ national identity are the following: the development of young peoples’ desire to learn about history, symbols, language, culture, literature, art, customs and traditions of their own nation; to understand the national character of representatives of their nation and other nations; the ability to identify themselves as the representatives of a certain nation; the nurturing of the feeling of respect towards national heroes, historical events and personalities; the development of desire to communicate in their national language, to live in their native land, to support the culture and traditions of their nation; the development of desire to respect and expand the history of their nation; the creation of a sustainable active understanding of their nation; the expansion of students’ outlook in the areas of their national history and culture on the basis of their own experience and on the basis of previously acquired knowledge and ideas that lay the foundation for understanding of new information; the development of subjective and constructive perception of events from the national history by the means of analysis; the development of tolerance towards the representatives of other nations.

The above-mentioned objectives can be implemented by: organising and conducting special classes with the focus on Ukrainians’ feelings of patriotism in the past and today following the examples of courage and valour currently demonstrated by the defenders of the state – the modern heroes who struggle for the integrity and independence; attending meetings with modern national heroes – soldiers and volunteers; visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals; conducting literature evenings focused the works of the classical and modern national poets and writers; attending theatrical performances based on the works of the classics of Ukrainian literature; visiting art exhibitions of Ukrainian artists; attending concerts and artistic performances conducted by local musicians and singers; participating in ethnographic and national events; observing national customs and traditions; organising debates with the focus on various events from the history of the nation, etc. An important instrument for the harmonisation of national identity is students’ active participation in the training sessions focused on the development of social identity in general and national identity in particular.

Thus, the development of students’ national identity is associated with the harmonisation of this kind of identity, which involves the implementation of a number of objectives dealing with a person’s national upbringing (formation of respect towards the national values; nurturing of national memory; development of love towards native language, land, culture etc.) and the implementation of an appropriate system of upbringing and training sessions. The definition, development and testing of programme focused on the development and harmonisation of young people’s national identity is an important issue of students’ national upbringing. The results of this research will be covered in our next publications.

References:

1. Barret, M. English Children's Acquisition of a European Identity. In: Breakwell, G. & Lyons, E (Eds) Changing European Identities: Social-psychological Analyses of Social Change. Oxford Pergamon Press, 1996. — 454 p.