Sociological education: between standards and realities

Abstract

The article examines the influence of processes which in different measure determined the development of the Russian sociological education over the last decade. Tendencies of changing the scale and distribution of sociological education in the regions of the Russian Federation and in tiers of education, as well as the complexity of its interactions with the labor market, are revealed. The purpose of the article is to obtain quantitative data and logical arguments that support the thesis of optimizing sociological education in its volumes, structure, professional capabilities and graduate positions. The analysis was based on empirically measured realities of sociological education in Russia for the last 10 years. As a subject, the professional identity of graduates in sociology was determined. The authors proceeded from the fact that the tendency to reduce sociological education is due to objective demographic and economic processes, as well as state policy on the modernization of the education system in the Russian Federation. The research hypothesis consisted in the assumption that the system of interaction between sociological education and the labor market is not provided with the necessary tools, which actualizes their creation and implementation. In this regard, it was suggested that attention be drawn to the inadequacy of the professional standard of the sociologist to address the problems of harmonization of relations between sociological education and the labor market. As a more general instrument of such harmonization, the authors suggest using foreign experience in the creation and application of a sectoral framework of qualifications that involves the development of the necessary professional standards. As an empirical basis for the analysis, the official statistics of the contingent and the admission control figures for the period were used. The search for opportunities for linking labor functions in the workplace and the competencies formed during training is carried out by comparing the capabilities of the draft professional standard of the sociologist and the model of the sectoral framework of qualifications. The authors come to conclusions about the presence of a tendency to reduce sociological education in general and its concentration in the capital cities and central regions of the Russian Federation. In addition, a very positive role of the project of the professional standard of the sociologist which fixes the main types of professional activity of sociologists, to which sociologists in universities should be prepared and the opportunities that open to harmonize with the labor market of social and humanitarian education through the sectoral framework of qualifications are noted.