The New Education: Controversies and Solutions

Abstract

The article examines the consequences of the evolution of the national education system as a result and source of ideology, which is formed by two parallel paradigms of the development of modern society and the state – traditional and liberal. In Russian education, these paradigms are constantly changing: from state-bureaucratic socialism in the USSR (1917–1990) and liberal reforms in post-Soviet Russia (1990–2000) to educational counter-reforms of the first twenty years of the 21st century. In modern education, a number of solutions still appear, in which a certain ideological structure is laid. An example of this is the expert report of the Center for Strategic Research and the National Research University Higher School of Economics "Twelve Solutions for a New Education", the main messages of which boil down to reforming the national educational system according to the liberal model. We pay special attention to the controversy of the ideas of the report on the support of "elite" schools instead of solving the current issues of the development of the educational network and infrastructure; on the concentration of methods for solving the problems of teachers in terms of creating conditions for improving their qualifications (ignoring the financial difficulties characteristic of this professional group). Author comes to the conclusion that ideology is important for solving the problems of the education system and its agents, from the standpoint of which the national educational policy is formed. From our point of view, responses to modern challenges to education should provide for the interests and opinions of the scientific and educational community within the framework of “institutional bricolage” (the creation of institutions “from below”, at the expense of the resources of the educational community).