Values, edusemiotics, and intercultural dialogue: From Russia with questions

Abstract

AbstractEven after the “perestroika” and “glasnostj” in Russia, and increased communication in the interconnected world, the state of contemporary education there remains relatively unknown to Western scholars. This paper aims to ameliorate this problem by examining some of the signs comprising the system of education in Russia against the problematic of the historically American pursuit of happiness. While formal education in the West explicitly focuses on academic disciplines, in Russia there always existed an element of “bringing up” as a sign of the value-dimension infusing, sometimes implicitly, both formal and informal (or cultural) education. The paper intends to demonstrate the ubiquity and the importance of the edusemiotic conception of values-education irreducible to inculcation but oriented to self-formation embedded in human experience. An edusemiotic perspective problematizes the aims of education and emphasizes learning from experience, dialogue, coordination, meaning, and values. Values “reside” in lived experience, and edusemiotics surpasses education reduced to teaching of brute facts. The paper also critically examines education as socialization via social media and affirms spiritual education in contrast to persistent secularization.