Formation of the goals of general education as part of the social system

Abstract

The subject of this research is formation of the goals of general education. The majority of modern authors correlate formation of the goals of education with the traditions and trends existing in pedagogical practice; some authors formulate the goals of education based on the expert opinion; others rely on the futuristic forecasts of social development; and only few of them obtain educational goals from the science-based theories dedicated to personality development of a child. Such divergence of opinions allow speculating the goals of education, since the concepts of “social procurement”, “world traditions”, “harmonious personality development”, and “expert opinion”, although being virtually indeterminate and susceptible to personal fluctuations and political trends, are ultimately enshrined normative documents. This defines the relevance of the topic of formation of the goals of education regardless of personal, political, or other attitudes. The research problem is formulated in the following way: whether there is an invariant basis in the concept of the “goals of education”. This article explores the question of formation of the goals of general education from the perspective of systemology. Leaning on the theory of complex systems and the theory of signal transmission, the author outlines the goals of general education, which are interconnected by society and the state. The author describes how these goals are reflected in pedagogical practice and the Russian law “On Education”. The acquired results testify to the fact that the goals of general education are focused on the three aspects: inclusion of a child into the “social norms” subsystem; child’s development for effective resistance to the “external environment”; child’s development for effective interaction within the “educational structure” subsystem. All the identified goals are crucial, as they resemble the structure of relations between society, the state, and external environment. All other goals of education either correlated with the three aforementioned goals, or are not related to education. A hypothesis is advances on the hierarchy of goals: 1) preservation of society; 2) relationship with the external environment; efficiency of such relationship in the society. All these goals are reflected in the modern pedagogical practice, which may suggest the triviality of the formulated conclusions. In the scheme described by the author, they are not obtained empirically, but rather indicate systemic relationship with society and the state. The novelty of this research lies in justification of reasons for forming the goals of education. The provided formulizations allow to accurately and logically outline the strategy and structure of educational policy, both on the federal level and on the level each individual pedagogue.