The socialcultural context of the formation and implementation of the sociological education models in Russia

Abstract

The article considers historical aspects of the formation and implementation of the sociological education models in Russia. The model developed by N.I. Kareev and M.M. Kovalevsky at the end of the 19th century was to teach sociology to students of all areas of university training. In 1901, sociologization of social sciences started at the Russian School of Higher Social Sciences in Paris, and in 1908 it was improved at the departments of sociology of the V.M. Bekhterev Psychoneurological Institute and A.L. Shanyavsky Moscow City People’s University. In 1918, P.A. Sorokin developed a professional model for training sociologists; until 1921 this model was implemented at the faculties of social sciences of the Moscow, Petrograd and Yaroslavl State Universities. In 1922, the implementation of both models was suspended due to the introduction of centralized plans to teach the basics of MarxismLeninism to students. The creative potential of two historical models became in demand during perestroika , in the late 1980s - early 1990s, and new versions of the educational and professional models were introduced in the higher education in favorable conditions for the reinstitutionalization of sociology. However, since 2010, there has been a gradual reduction in the number of sociological departments and faculties in Bachelor’s-Master’s programs. Today educational and professional models are unevenly represented in the Russian higher education; their implementation remains questionable due to the idea of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education to return to training students on the basis of the enlarged groups of specialties, i.e. sociology curriculum will have to be coordinated with curricula for regional studies, international relations, tourism and political science.