Calling as a Motivating Factor of the Development of Education in Ukraine

Abstract

The article raises importance of the topic of mission in contemporary philosophy and educational sciences. Mission is a basic idea for building up of civil society as a community of responsible and committed people. Mission has a special significance for teaching professions. Ukraine as well as many other countries experiences a shortage of teachers. Many successful students of pedagogical professions prefer to get other jobs because of low salaries and prestige of teaching. The problem of motivation in educational sphere needs political, public and scientific awareness.
 The skeptics and pragmatics are not sure that mission is a vital idea of our days. That is why it was important to find out whether the phenomenon of mission exists in the consciousness of contemporary Ukrainians and how it appears to them. In the focus of the article are opinions of secondary school graduates, students, whose area is educational sciences and professional teachers. The method and strategy of the presented research is hermeneutic phenomenology. The relevant experience of people was examined and interpreted by in-depth interviews. Before in-depth interviews there was conducted a quantitative survey which provided the statistical data about the choosing factors of future professions and the share of those who declare having the experience of mission.
 The result of the survey is that at least half of Ukrainian youth think that the idea of mission is important for their choice of profession. Mission as a phenomenon shows the unity of structural elements: Desire – Talent – Realization – Social or Spiritual Benefit. The aim of transpersonal goodness is the core of the phenomenon of mission and the integrity of its structure. Teaching as a career definitely needs mission, even though it is not true for some teachers. That is undoubted thesis for Ukrainians. Teacher’s mission is to bring young people to their own missions. If the essence of education is a rising people to the level of spirit out of the level of matter, the task of a teacher is to bring up that ability of that rising in the youth. People of mission are those who have to be in the center of the development of education system reforms in Ukraine.