Образ школы сегодня и завтра в контексте системы ценностей российских школьников

Abstract

The image of the modern and future school in perception of high school students is examined in the context of understanding the system of their values and life views. Empirically the paper is based on the results of the field research undertaken by the author in September-October 2021 among the 9–11 grade students of St. Petersburg schools, followed by further investigation among the same target audience in January-February 2023. New questioning of the students was accompanied by the questioning of teachers, which allows us now not only to analyze the data in dynamics, but also to compare the views of students and teachers. Theoretical background of the research is based on the current sociological and psychological academic discussion about the concepts of happiness and meaningful life. We argue, that during the recent year and a half the image of modern and future school has significantly changed and this change bears the value-oriented character. First, the move from the values of life stability and comfort towards the values of personal and professional growth and achievements has been identified, i.e. from the consumer values to the values of development. Second, high school students demonstrate almost entire indifference towards the values of common good. And, third, the teachers’ perception of the teenagers’ values is significantly different from the reality in two important aspects: firstly, according to the teachers the students are much more oriented on consumer values, than it takes place in fact. And secondly, in the teachers’ perception students prioritize successful learning of curriculum disciplines much less than they actually do. According to teachers’ opinion friendship and communication are much more important to students than studies as such. This in fact may mean the attribution to the students the system of values, spread among the teachers, which causes major difficulties in identifying the optimal combination of teaching and upbringing.