Article
Russian Education in 2020: a Model of Education for Innovative Economy. Material for Discussion
The article offers a platform for professional and public discussion of a long-term model for Russian education and what it will look like in 2020. The article does not pretend to give an ultimate description of this model, and presents only the most basic ideas. These ideas are meant to be discussed, but they can also serve as the basis for creating a road map for the realization of the new program. The purpose of the authors is to present their vision for Russian education and determine what changes are needed in Russian education so that it can successfully rise to the challenges from: the innovational model of the development of the Russian economy (Russia’s strategic choice); the social demands of the Russian population and the need to consolidate Russian society; the need to compete globally on the markets for innovations, labor and education.
The authors analyze the data of the representative survey of the Russian citizens carried out by Levada Center in April-May, 2009 (N=2000) and compare them with the findings of the Center previous researches. The Russians nowadays mention money as the main value, deficiency and hypothetical factor for solving all the problems including education and employment (the authors speak about this super value of money as of the poor society mythology). The paper shows extremely little concern of urban population and urban youth for quality education per se and lack of real efforts aimed at increasing this quality. It refers mainly to high school but to a considerable degree to higher educational institutions. The leading motive for acquiring higher education is getting a good (that is, well-paid) job. The core problem of higher school 118 for the majority of population and its younger part is excessively high payment for training and its discrepancy with the quality of education received by students, and correspondingly new inequality that has appeared in recent years in access to higher education, infringement of the rights of less well-to-do or provincial applicants.
On May 7th, 2018, enhancing the global competitiveness of Russian education was declared a national goal for the development of education. In light of this situation, the purpose of this analytical report is not only to offer an outlook of Russia’s positions in various international monitorings, seen as the most obvious indicators of global competitiveness. This analytical work also critically analyzes various aspects of the development of Russian education, comprehended from the international comparative perspective. Moreover, in each level of education it observes existing methodological approaches to determining the global competitiveness, with full account of the specifics, existing in the particular sector. The presented report is a first step in discussions about 105 indicators and methodology for assessing a national education system from the point of global competitiveness. Without solving this problem, it is impossible to choose directions for concentrating efforts to develop education in times of scarce resources. The analytical report will be of interest not only for researchers and practitioners from the sphere of education, but also for all those who are interested in the ways of development of Russia as part of the global world.
The paper explores the Russian concept of “vospitanie” and the history and methodology of the Communards’ movement. The author argues that educational communities based on positive peer cultures, common activity, and collective reflection represent a viable direction for education. Moreover, educational institutions with elements of civic engagement remain not only guarantors of democracy in democratic countries, but also an important agent of social change in authoritarian countries.
Article is devoted to modern content and format of educftion in various disciplines and its relationships with social reality as a condition for the success of modernization and innovation. The result of a content analysis of three textbooks for secondary schools was shown. The analysis was conducted to identify the nature and extent of actual reality in the historical context of the textbooks.
Institutions affect investment decisions, including investments in human capital. Hence institutions are relevant for the allocation of talent. Good market-supporting institutions attract talent to productive value-creating activities, whereas poor ones raise the appeal of rent-seeking. We propose a theoretical model that predicts that more talented individuals are particularly sensitive in their career choices to the quality of institutions, and test these predictions on a sample of around 95 countries of the world. We find a strong positive association between the quality of institutions and graduation of college and university students in science, and an even stronger negative correlation with graduation in law. Our findings are robust to various specifications of empirical models, including smaller samples of former colonies and transition countries. The quality of human capital makes the distinction between educational choices under strong and weak institutions particularly sharp. We show that the allocation of talent is an important link between institutions and growth.