Education can be viewed as a sociocultural phenomenon from the point of view that this process was formed and directly disseminated by society. After all, it is continuously associated with the life of people, their skills, which play an important role in the progression of human development.
The concepts of education and the pedagogical process
As stated in many scientific works, education is training and enlightenment, as well as students gaining socio-historical experience. Here you can add the assimilation of certain skills by them. Moreover, all informational materials indicate that education as a sociocultural phenomenon appears in the form of a phenomenon created by society, and regulated by it. In the legal norms of the Russian Federation, the term is considered as a complex phenomenon, which includes not only the learning process, but also the education of a new generation.
That is why it is safe to say that pedagogy is a science about the features of education. It covers a wide range of methods of forming personal qualities in a person and consolidating knowledge. The very concept of the pedagogical process is very simple - it can be represented as a focused and regular interaction between the teacher and his students.
Education as a public value
For the formation of society requires certain norms, principles and requirements. In accordance with them, society is developing, undergoing constant changes in accordance with the fluctuations of the surrounding conditions - technical, natural, historical. Education as a sociocultural phenomenon and the pedagogical process is considered the most important component of socialization. It is aimed at the comprehensive development of the personality, the formation of stable moral qualities in a person along with his physiological formation. The vocation of this phenomenon is to educate the state, so to speak, an ideal citizen that meets all modern value guidelines.
Depending on how developed the education system is in the country, the level of cohesion of its society is determined. And vice versa - the particularities of the political system, the economic and political situation have a direct impact on the image of the humanistic ideal, which the corresponding schools strive to recreate.
Values of the educational process
As already mentioned, education is governed by social norms, which, in turn, are formed gradually and can also depend on many external factors. Under the influence of technical and economic progress, the current and most effective educational process is being created. In it, in fact, education manifests itself as a sociocultural phenomenon. The value priorities of education are still not fundamentally studied by any science.
If you delve into the study of this issue, you can find a huge number of orientations that stimulate the pedagogical process in the form in which it is supported by the culture of society at a given time. In general, all value priorities can be divided into several groups. There are five of them:
- Values for social approval.
- Communicative values.
- Creative values.
- Values aimed at self-realization.
- Pragmatic values.
The characteristics of each individual group are discussed below.
Values for social endorsement
It is no secret that in every society, a teacher is considered a prestigious and highly respected profession. Therefore, we can talk about its cultural significance in the social environment. The teacher is accepted by the environment as “his” person, a person who plays an important role in the formation of an ideological society. This group of values is one of the general combination of priorities, revealing the multidimensional nature of education as a sociocultural phenomenon.
Communicative values
Speaking in a scientific language, communication can be considered a communication process. In a narrower sense, this is the exchange of certain information, which includes the emotional interaction between people. Communication is embedded in each individual as an instinct, therefore, without it, no participant in society can normally exist.
The communicative values of education are directly related to the previous group. Social approval of the teaching profession leads to the fact that the individual feels himself a full-fledged link in a single society, gets the opportunity to constantly contact with other people and regularly expand his circle of communication.
Creative values
In the modern world, creativity has become an integral part of the full development of any person as a professional in his field and simply as an individual. Education as a sociocultural phenomenon and its current state are based on the need for a creative approach to any type of activity, in particular the learning process. Raising his students, the teacher should look for an individual approach to each of them. Any child is a separate person, therefore it is impossible to apply one teaching method to all children. With the teacher’s individual approach to learning, the effectiveness of the process itself is noticeably improved. At the same time, the personal qualities of each student are actively being formed, that is, the stake is not on educating society according to a certain model, but on constructing a multifaceted and comprehensive society.
Values ensuring self-realization of personality
As for the influence of this type of values on the teacher’s activities, they stimulate his professional, as well as moral and spiritual self-development. The teacher not only learns the basics of teaching, but also regularly improves in this area. In this context, education as a sociocultural phenomenon is revealed quite widely.
An important aspect of this group of values is the teacher’s dedication to his work. The more the teacher is interested in the educational process, the more he realizes himself as a competent and professionally competent person.
Pragmatic values
An example is the foreign educational system. Abroad, the teaching profession is not only prestigious and highly valued by society, but also very promising. A young teacher, rising to the first stage of the educational sphere, already has great prerequisites for a successful future. That is, in addition to spiritual development and professional realization, he will receive satisfaction of his pragmatic needs: striving for career growth, decent wages, etc.
As for the domestic states, the level for them characterizing the monetary value of employees in such fields as education is not so high. The sociocultural phenomenon, however, can be expressed in the fact that the teacher is not just a type of activity, but a stable paid profession. That is, by teaching children certain skills and abilities, the teacher not only realizes himself, but also gets the opportunity to provide for his life needs.
Education Functions
Any activity is always aimed at achieving a goal. This also applies to the educational process, since it cannot exist on its own, but only if society needs it. Therefore, this phenomenon has two main functions: training and education.
In the first case, the purpose of educational activity is to help the child acquire certain knowledge, master skills and form skills, as well as determine life guidelines and future profession. Thus, the foundation is being built for the development of a full and diverse personality in the future. The learning function reveals education as a sociocultural phenomenon in the context of a process that is significant for the state and humanity in general.
Parenting serves to give the child motivation to obtain the necessary knowledge. Indeed, not every student understands the importance of the learning process for his future. Therefore, the task of the teacher is to push him to this.
The main paradigms of the educational process
To begin to consider this issue, for a start it is worth describing its essence. A paradigm is a set of specific attitudes, theoretical or practical methods adopted in the scientific community as a model for actions in a certain field. Such standards are also available in the educational process. Scientists distinguish four types of paradigms of this phenomenon:
- Cognitive (focus on the development of thinking).
- Personally oriented (individualization of learning).
- Functionalistic (compliance with the moral standards of society).
- Culturological (perception of a person as a subject of culture).
Education as a pedagogical process
It is the activity of educating a socially significant personality that defines education as a sociocultural phenomenon. The pedagogical system and the process of its application are aimed at achieving this goal. As a result of purposeful and systematic interaction of the teacher and his students, the knowledge necessary for the further development of the personality is formed. It is this contact of the teacher with his pupils that is considered within the framework of the pedagogical system.
This concept cannot be limited to any specific structural components. The pedagogical process is a mixed system in which a huge number of elements of education are placed. Moreover, no matter how independent any of these components may be, it will still be considered secondary. The pedagogical system cannot be equated to any substructure — rather, it acts as a connecting link.
Patterns of the pedagogical process
Education as a sociocultural phenomenon and the pedagogical process is characterized by certain laws, namely:
- Flow dynamics.
- The interconnection of theory and practice in learning.
- The unity between cognition and teaching.
- Personal development in the process of training education.
- Manageability.
- Stimulating students for activities.
Pedagogical process and its elements
Structurality is an important feature that distinguishes education as a sociocultural phenomenon and the pedagogical process. Briefly about this, one can say as follows: this phenomenon consists of various components that are generally combined into one combined system. The structural elements of the pedagogical process include:
- Determining the goals and main tasks of future educational activities.
- Establishing contact between the teacher and his students.
- Correct application of teaching methods, tools and forms.
- Creation of such conditions in which students will be most comfortable to perceive information.
Complex of educational institutions
If the state seeks to create an ideal society, then it should use the means to achieve this goal. As such, there is a complex of diverse educational institutions. In each of them, certain training programs and educational directions are presented. In this interpretation, education as a sociocultural phenomenon and universal value acquires a certain state or, rather, organizational and legal meaning.
There are several types of educational institutions:
- Preschool.
- General education.
- Special
- Professional.
The first type of organization is represented by kindergartens, nurseries, early development schools and other similar structures. In such institutions, an introductory program for raising children is carried out, which is largely aimed at the psychological preparation of the child for further education.
General education of citizens of the state is carried out in schools, gymnasiums and lyceums. As a rule, they are divided into 3 stages: initial, main and secondary.
Special institutions (boarding schools, correctional schools) are designed to enable children with physical disabilities to become full members of society. This just clearly reveals education as a sociocultural phenomenon.
Briefly about professional educational institutions: they make up for the shortage of necessary personnel in the country by training certain specialties. These include institutions of primary (vocational schools), secondary (colleges, technical schools) and higher (universities, institutes, academies) level.
Education is an integral part of human society. This fact defines it as a sociocultural phenomenon. That this is a phenomenon generated by humanity, or an instrument for its existence, is a rather controversial issue. But, in fact, both options are correct.