The Position of a Teacher as a Factor of Forming Students’ Socio-Cultural Identities (On the Example of the Russian Civil Identity)

Marina V Shakurova

doi:10.5539/ies.v8n1p125

Abstract

The article presents experience of structuring and description of teachers’ position in the process of forming socio-cultural identity of the person, detailed in regard to the process of formation of one of the subtypes of socio-cultural identity–Russian civil identity. We identified and described real subjective, nominally subjective and non-subjective positions. Based on the author's vision of the essence of socio-cultural identity of the person, its relationship to personal and ego-identity, it is argued that educational organizations, teachers can play a significant role in shaping socio-cultural identity, and development of personal identity can be effectively accompanied. As invariant characteristics defining the teacher’s position as the subject of the formation of pupils’ socio-cultural identity we considered: level of information skills; importance of the teacher for students and/or “support” on the other significance; taking into account personal experience of pupils, their formed attitudes and preferences, referents’ influences on choices and self-determination; ability of the teacher to organize students’ activities and stimulate certain attitudinal reactions; the teacher’ reflection of his/her own characteristics of socio-cultural identity. For detailed descriptions, definitions of variant traits we considered the teacher’s position as the subject of forming the Russian civil identity and illustrated it with the results of empirical research conducted on the basis of schools in Voronezh and the Anninskiy district of the region, Voronezh State Pedagogical University.

Highlights

The present stage of development of scientific and pedagogical knowledge is estimated by experts as a period characterized by manifestations of a paradigm shift
Based on the author's vision of the essence of socio-cultural identity of the person, its relationship to personal and ego-identity, it is argued that educational organizations, teachers can play a significant role in shaping socio-cultural identity, and development of personal identity can be effectively accompanied
Definitions of variant traits we considered the teacher’s position as the subject of forming the Russian civil identity and illustrated it with the results of empirical research conducted on the basis of schools in Voronezh and the Anninskiy district of the region, Voronezh State Pedagogical University

Summary

Introduction

The present stage of development of scientific and pedagogical knowledge is estimated by experts as a period characterized by manifestations of a paradigm shift. “Shaping the research program of education identity” is among them (Methodological consequences of a paradigm shift in the theory of education, 2011). Introducing the concept “identity”, which has interdisciplinary nature and multi-level semantic content, into the pedagogy makes us deploy a separate line of research, and revise the already well-established scientific-pedagogical positions. In Russian educational research of the last decade, it is obvious that attention is paid to the study of developmental processes of identity and subjectivity, self-determination, personal growth (Bratchenko, 2001; Kulikova, 2003; Nikitina, 2005; Student’s personality as the goal, object, subject and the result of education, 2004), which in some cases led the authors to the need to resorting to the notion of “identity” and related concepts. The problem of identity has not been developed in the Russian pedagogy to the extent that would allow selecting and retaining the originality of this phenomenon in descriptions, research and practice, and adequately accompanying the process of identity development, preparing teachers for the formation of various types of schoolchildren’s identities

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion