Article Type : Review Article
Authors : Levintov AE, Askhadullina NN, Khaliullina LR
Keywords : Metropolitan; Province; Aging pedagogy; Silver university; Third generation university; Pandemic
Adult education is becoming more and more popular in Russia.
It takes on different features and trajectories in Moscow and in the provinces.
Aging pedagogy accumulates experience and begins to acquire its own, very
peculiar methods and methodology. The problems of metropolitan and provincial
education for pensioners have both general and specific features. The aim of
the work is to identify the similarities and differences between the
metropolitan and provincial silver education and aging pedagogy. The study is
based on the he system-thought-activity methodology of G.P. Shchedrovitsky.
Research methods: sociological questioning, in-depth interviews, demoscopic
analysis. Despite the contrast between metropolitan and provincial adult
education, the study found some similarities. However, the revealed
provinciality allows building an equal dialogue between the capital Moscow
Silver University and the third Generation University in Elabuga. The results
of the research can be used in the development of courses on aging pedagogy.
Russian regions have a
large demographic resource of people of the "third age", who not only
lead an active lifestyle, but also demonstrate an increase in labor and
educational activity with the entry into retirement age. Attention should also
be paid to the fact that, according to the results of a study by Rosstat in Russia,
the number of people older than working age continues to grow and makes up more
than a quarter of the country's population.
For their full inclusion in the economic and
socio-cultural life of the region, it is necessary to ensure the involvement of
this rather large segment of the population in the system of continuous
education. In this regard, an increasing number of educational organizations
are beginning to understand the need to organize educational programs for the
elderly. Along with the metropolitan educational organizations, the importance
of such work is also recognized in the provincial educational institutions of
Russia. On the one hand, the disparate practices and approaches to organizing
the education of people of the “third age” and their employment that have
developed in the regions have not yet created grounds for turning “silver”
education into an element of the regional system of continuous education and a
resource for socio-economic and socio-cultural development [1]. On the other
hand, these practices and approaches to educating people of the “third age” in
the regions of Russia have their own specific distinctive features.
There is a need to
consider the features of metropolitan and provincial silver education and aging
pedagogy as two types of national existence. In this regard, the purpose of
this study is to identify the characteristic features of the capital and
provincial education of people of silver age (for example, the capital - Moscow
and the province - Elabuga). The research hypothesis is that older people's
education may take on different characteristics depending on geographic
location.
The methodological basis of the study is the
system-thought-activity methodology of G.P. Shchedrovitsky [2]. Namely, the
provision on the historical nature of human thinking (genetism), which gives us
reason to consider the phenomenon under study from the point of view of its
historical development and formation. The leading methodological principle is
the principle of "orchestra". G.P. Shchedrovitsky in "Pedagogy
and Logic" gave a kind of orchestral arrangement of educational
activities, including the student as a subject of activity, as well as
introducing such new positions as the organizer of the educational process,
theorist-methodologist, intellectual engineering and others. Actually, in the
modern practice of aging pedagogy, this principle of the orchestra operates,
which is expressed in the fact that aging students, due to their age and life experience,
are very wary and skeptical of those who will teach them. They firmly believe
that they have enough knowledge for someone else to teach them. Therefore, only
thanks to the talent of the "conductor of this orchestra", in our
understanding of the teacher who organizes classes with these students,
"masterpieces" will be created. The following methods formed the
empirical basis of the study: sociological questioning, in-depth interviews,
and demoscopic analysis.
Capital-periphery-province:
conceptual features in the russian mentality
In most European
languages, the main city of the country "capitol" is etymologically
connected with the head (capita): "a place where people think about the
country", a city that primarily performs administrative, government
(government) functions regarding the territory of the country or region. In the
Russian mentality, the main city is associated with the table: “a place where
they eat the country”, and do not think about it. This idea, which has existed
for more than a thousand years, is very stable: only 8-9% of the population of
Russia lives in Moscow, but 80-90% of all the country's money and financial
resources revolve here. This leads to the fact that centripetal forces, including
migration ones, clearly prevail in Russia. The rest of the country's territory
is presented from the capital as a periphery of varying degrees of remoteness
from this capital. The peripheral mentality is built practically on an
inferiority complex, on the misfortune of being born on the periphery and the
acute desire of the population to leave this periphery, one way or another to
end up in the capital, “at the table”. The peripheral and metropolitan
mentality is opposed by the provincial mentality. The very concept of
"province" goes back to Provence, which achieved cultural autonomy
from Rome. The province is, first of all, self-recognition and self-affirmation
of its cultural and historical intrinsic value and independence. So, for
example, today's Tataria remembers well that it arose on the site of the Volga
Bulgaria, a state older and more powerful than Muscovy, that it, Bulgaria, was
subjugated by the Golden Horde only after a very long resistance, while Muscovy
became part of Golden Horde voluntarily, in the status of the Russian Ulus.
Provincial self-consciousness, in particular, in Tataria, is built on the basis
of self-sufficiency, self-respect and pride in one's provinciality as
unlikeness and contrast to other provinces and, of course, the capital city. In
this regard, we took two diametrically opposed cities: Moscow, as a bright
representative of the capital with the Moscow Silver University and Yelabuga,
as an example of provinciality with the Third Generation University.
Continuing
Education (LLE) - age differences and phases
As a result of the
analysis of various philosophical, sociological and psychological-pedagogical
literature, in particular, we found that continuous education LLE (lifelong
education) is usually considered very monotonously, not differentiated in
relation to those receiving this education. As a rule, LLE is understood only
as the process of educating people until the end of their lives and the age
characteristics of those receiving this education (who specifically receives
education) are omitted, namely, the fact that these people are very different,
and, therefore, they go through very contrasting phases in education throughout
their life path [3-6]. An example of a differentiated approach to education and
life path is given by Confucius: “At the age of fifteen, I turned my thoughts
to study. At the age of thirty, I became independent. At the age of forty, I
got rid of my doubts. At fifty, I knew the will of heaven. At the age of sixty,
I learned to distinguish truth from untruth. At the age of seventy, I began to
follow the desires of my heart. In contrast to this approach to education and
the life path, at present, a different chronology of events of the life
educational path has developed in modern science, which are divided into the
following phases:
·
The
adaptation phase, characterized by the fact that at the age of 10 years
(conditionally) there is predominantly cultural adaptation (mastery of speech
and language, cultural norms of behaviour, everyday culture, spiritual culture
(religion), national culture, culture of literature, theatre, cinema and others
arts). In the teenage age, social adaptation prevails, the acquisition of
social experience and social circle, social, civil, national, gender
self-determination and self-identification. It is at this age that riots and
outbursts of social indignation occur, requiring curbing, humility (for someone
it turns into marriage, for someone - an army, for someone - a prison, but in
any case - a yoke and hobbled on a fetlock joint). The next decade of life is a
professional, economic, economic and political adaptation, the actual
adaptation to the foundations and foundations, ways of life. It is at the end
of adaptation that youth ends. It should be noted that at this stage, many
remain young all their lives, continuously adapting to changing conditions and
circumstances.
·
Productive-transformative/mature
phase: lasts about three decades of labor and creative activity, when a person
is able to resist both society and cultural norms, overcoming them creatively
and thus setting new frameworks and horizons of culture, advancing its front.
This is the phase of education when not only a person is formed, but also his
environment, his life's work.
·
cognitive-epistemological
phase, which is actually higher education that comes to us in old age,
education during which we have the opportunity to know the meaning of our own
being, the meaning of life in general and the formation of our intellectual
legacy.
This LLE phase or the
phase of education at the third age, capital and provincial features of silver
education is the subject of this work, based on the already conducted
fundamental research. It should be recognized that this was preceded by a large
analytical work of sociological and pedagogical content [7-11].
The work of the Moscow Silver University is
organized in five faculties: humanitarian; mass communications and informatics;
health and safety; psychological; culture and creativity. Moscow City
University (MGPU) is dispersed throughout the city: about 50 buildings in
different parts of the city, usually located within walking distance from metro
stations. This allows you to bring classes at the Silver University as close as
possible to the places of residence of students. The content of education at
the Silver University is represented by a wide range of various educational and
educational courses and programs, usually short-term (36-52 hours), and
specialty courses (doll making, baby nanny, landscape design, etc.). It should
be noted that students of the Silver University mainly acquire a new profession
not to improve their material well-being (not to go to earn money), but to
competently and professionally manage the household (to educate their
grandchildren, improve the garden, etc.). University students have the
opportunity to choose several courses at the same time. In addition to training
courses and programs, amateur student clubs are developing at the university,
the most numerous is My Moscow, which has grown up on the basis of the History
and Culture of Moscow course. The Moscow Silver University provides advanced
education for teachers, which is achieved by regular seminars on aging pedagogy
and fundamental and applied research, in particular, the already mentioned
"Philosophy of Old Age". Since the Silver University is still very
young, there is a need to conduct frequent and thorough monitoring, in
particular, to conduct surveys and interview students and teachers about the
directions and methods of education. Much attention is paid to these issues on
the site of the Silver University. The pandemic has hit the pace of the
university’s development, primarily its funding from the Department of Labor
and Social Protection of the Population of the Moscow Government.
The educational process in Yelabuga is built
noticeably differently. But first, a few words about Yelabuga itself. Elabuga
as a city is 140 years older than Moscow. The small town of Tatarstan Elabuga
with a population of about 75 thousand people is one of the Russian cities of
provincial life, distinguished by its special mentality and spirituality. The
mentality and spirituality of the Elabuga residents are greatly influenced by
both the territorial and geographical location of the city and the historically
established identity of the local population, which is revealed in individual,
cultural, emotional, mental reactions to certain events within their permanent
place of residence. In the memoirs of a local native Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin,
the father of the famous Russian landscape painter Ivan Shishkin (second half
of the 19th century), it is mentioned that “Elabuga, the city of the Vyatka
province, is located on the right side along the Kama River at a distance of
two versts from it, on an elevated sloping flat valley. At the foot of the city
flows the river Toima, on which there is a mill, owned by the city, on four
looms. The spring flood of water extends for a distance of ten versts, and thus
makes it possible for ships to approach the city itself to load different
varieties of bread. The city is located on sandy soil, and therefore the air
here is constantly dry and healthy; the water is pleasant and healthy, piped
from springs discovered near the city to pools built in the city” [12]. The
"Strategy for the socio-economic development of the Yelabuga municipal
district of the Republic of Tatarstan until 2021 and for the future until
2030" notes that Yelabuga stands out against the general background of the
best-preserved small historical towns in Russia with a harmonious combination
of the environment, natural landscape and architecture, integral historical
buildings, organic combination of numerous museum objects, monuments of history
and culture, tourist infrastructure, successful modern socio-economic
development. Geographically and historically, the socio-economic conditions of
the city of Yelabuga determine the way of life of the people of Yelabuga. To
date, Yelabuga remains one of the cities with a developed industrial sector
that influences the formation of mental characteristics and traditional values
of the local population. It should be noted that the spiritual life of the
inhabitants of Yelabuga takes place against the background of the search for
value orientations in the specific historical cultural features of their native
land, thereby revealing the mentality of the Yelabuga residents in "the
ability to accumulate and transmit national cultural values and ethnic
stereotypes" [13]. In 1997, the "University of the Third Age"
was formed in Tatarstan. The goal of the university was to create conditions
for the realization of the rights of older people to lifelong education (LLE),
to meet their individual needs, to increase the intellectual and general cultural
level, to promote self-realization and adaptation to modern life. The motto of
the University of the Third Age: "Through education to improve the quality
of life of older citizens." By the early 2000s, an active process of
developing various projects in this direction began [14]. Since 2006, the
Regional Branch of the Union of Pensioners of Russia in the Republic of
Tatarstan has been consistently implementing a supportive policy for the
elderly and has developed a series of events “Active Longevity”, which include
education as one of the main directions for extending the active life of an
elderly person. The project "University of the Third Age", one of the
founders of which was Kazan Federal University, started in the Republic of
Tatarstan in 2007. This project is being implemented with the support of the
branch of the Pension Fund of the Republic and the regional branch of the Union
of Pensioners of Russia. At the same time, attention began to be paid to the
education of pensioners in Yelabuga. The Yelabuga Institute of Kazan Federal
University (KFU), being the flagship of education in the Yelabuga municipal
district, along with the education of the younger generation, began to engage
in the education of the elderly - the Third Generation University was opened.
The experience of
conducting classes with aging students at the Third Generation University of
the Elabuga Institute of Kazan Federal University allows us to draw up a
portrait of a provincial student of the third age. For this, such methods were
used as diagnosing stress tolerance, assessing psychological age, mental
health, severity of loneliness, the level of sociability and communication
skills, self-esteem, temperament, conflict, strategies of behavior in a
conflict situation. The study involved 187 students aged 62 to 80 years from
2016-2021. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that the main
problems that are generally of concern to age students are the psychological
issues of harmonious existence with each other, behaviour and attitudes towards
other people, as well as questions related to finding answers to the question
“how can you help people, and what needs to be done to help other people.
Despite the great life experience of older people, they still lack the skills
to establish social communications. In this case, the Third Generation
University provides an opportunity to fill these gaps. The manifestation of
social interest in an elderly person allows you to experience the
contradictions of your age through the creation of various connections with the
environment [15]. Students fulfil such needs as a sense of belonging to a
group, a sense of community with other people, a belief that there is something
good in every person, a feeling that making mistakes is natural, you don’t have
to be first and right, a sense of yourself man.
Elderly people of
Yelabuga are calm about the economic instability in the city, they are more
satisfied with the socio-economic situation, but there is a tendency to
increase stress in life, which indicates a decrease in the stress resistance of
the ages. Respondents also assess their health as normal, but note a lack of
physical activity. Despite the presence of a number of negative influences,
pensioners are generally satisfied with their lives and feel younger than their
years. Diagnostics of the psychological age of students showed that 94% of
students (regardless of the year of birth) are full of vitality and
self-confidence, optimistic, friendly, full of good spirits, which is confirmed
by their high desire to continue their education. It also turned out that older
people are not prone to conflicts. The most acceptable way out of conflict
situations for them is to avoid conflict. According to the data obtained, the
program of the Third Generation University of the Elabuga Institute of KFU is
becoming a unique educational platform where moral support for people who have
reached retirement age, reducing the risk of social exclusion of older people
in society, and achieving mutual understanding between generations play an
important role. In addition, the project provides an opportunity to gain
self-confidence, show their creative abilities, share their skills, experience
and not feel “out of the box” in public life. The continuous motivation of
older people in the process of their learning allows them to see new facets of
their self-realization. It is also important that in the classroom people of
the older generation are taught to develop the ability to navigate in new
conditions. In the mentality of the local population, which is largely based on
Islam, the usual stereotype is the dogma: “the elders teach the younger ones” -
it is difficult for older people to come to terms with the idea that they are
taught by younger ones, hence the distrust of them, overcoming which is perhaps
the main problem of aging -pedagogy within the walls of the University of the
third generation.
The second most
important problem is the train of life experience of students, which is not
compatible with new knowledge, technologies and pace. Within the framework of
the Third Generation University project, there are several free educational
programs in such areas as: the basics of computer literacy, psychology, a
school of legal knowledge, and a healthy lifestyle. The knowledge and skills
gained by ages in the learning process help them in self-realization,
adaptation to modern conditions and life, integration into the information and
cultural and educational space. It should be noted that many students choose
not one direction of preparation, but several at once. In addition, they
express a desire to learn again and again, mastering new courses. In addition,
in-depth interviews were taken with the teachers of the Third Generation
University to identify the characteristic features of the education of people
of the silver age of the Third Generation University. As a result of the
interview, we obtained the following results. In general, the teachers of the
Third Generation University note that "pensioners are a difficult
people." Students always come to the first lesson with the attitude:
"I have lived this life, and I know better than anyone what and how to
do." As a result, their attitude towards work is rather disdainful.
Teachers note that in the first classes, students sit and look at them with
their faces, as if they want to say: “Well, what do you want to teach us here?”
Agers don't like to listen to advice, like this quote from an interview: “I had
a woman who went to the pool every day. I told her that the daily use of the
pool is bad for the skin, as the water in the pool is chlorinated. She did not
believe me, she continued to walk, but in the end, she was still able to
convince her.”
However, over time, the attitude of students
towards teachers begins to change for the better, but only if the latter make
enough professional efforts in the education of mature students and are strict
enough with them. It is important that students feel that the teacher knows
their subject. In order to achieve the favor of the older generation, you need
to be a professional in your field, and know much more than what is stated in
this or that lecture, since they, like small children, have increased
interrogative activity. If the teacher is a little confused, then you can
immediately lose the respect of students. Teachers of the Third Generation
University also note that in working with age students, strictness and
exactingness are needed on the part of the teacher. All teachers of the
University drew attention to the fact that thanks to classes at the University,
older people have the opportunity for additional communication, they get
together, communicate. Even after classes end, the students do not disperse:
they talk for a long time, think where else they can go together. Moreover,
they consider studying at the University as a meeting place with acquaintances
and friends. However, there are those who do not like it. Such students, of
course, leave, but basically the composition remains. Teachers also noticed
such a feature in the process of teaching pensioners that they regain their
school youth with passion and enthusiasm: someone begins to record lectures in
notebooks, someone even comes with a dictaphone. Even in the context of the
COVID-19 pandemic, students did not lose interest in classes: one of the
students created a WhatsApp group to be able to exchange information on the go
and make appointments.
The information
obtained in the course of the study made it possible to identify the
characteristic features of the capital and provincial silver education and
aging pedagogy. Despite the contrast between metropolitan and provincial adult
education, some common features should be noted, namely:
·
In
both Moscow and Yelabuga, there are twice as many women of retirement age as
men, but among students, women make up 90% or more; aging education is a female
education, while men traditionally treat themselves and their old age in a
deeply minor way;
·
The
majority of aging students are representatives of active old age (up to 70 years),
older people are rather exotic;
·
Both
Moscow and Yelabuga students are most interested in local history and urban
educational topics: local history, geography and culture; this interest
provides self-identification of people.
At the same time, the
differences between the Yelabuga University of the Third Age and the Moscow
Silver University are quite significant:
·
The
coverage of the pension population with education in Moscow is negligible: 18
thousand people in three years, while the number of pensioners in the city is
about 4 million people; in Yelabuga, where less than 20,000 pensioners live,
this coverage is noticeably higher;
·
In
Yelabuga, aging education is financed and coordinated by the Pension Fund and
the regional branch of the Union of Pensioners, in Moscow - by the Department
of Labor and Social Protection, which puts forward strict requirements for the
educational process, exercises strict disciplinary control and exposes numerous
bureaucratic barriers and barriers, which, fortunately, not observed in
Yelabuga;
·
The
range of educational services in Moscow is much wider and more diverse:
programs and courses, master classes, excursions of an educational, educational
and entertaining nature; in Yelabuga, courses related to health care,
housekeeping and social communication predominate;
·
The
pandemic and the forced transition to distance learning have more serious
consequences for Yelabuga, since here the level of computerization of
pensioners, the level of their computer and communication competencies is
lower, and the technical means themselves are mostly outdated and are not able
to reliably provide on-line education.
In connection with the findings, it is advisable
to present some pre-project proposals in work with students of the Third
Generation University in Yelabuga. In particular, in order to organize the
educational activities of ages, it is proposed to develop courses that, in
terms of their content and methodological support, will be as creative and
interactive as possible. For example, it is possible to offer such courses as
"Native Prikamye" and "Geography of Travel", the
development of which will not involve "working with a book at a
desk", but will be aimed at studying maps and literature on the Kama region
with visits to the historical places of the native Yelabuga and the immediate
environment, if students wish and have the opportunity to travel to more remote
areas, search for interesting artifacts, antiques, natural materials, organize
visits to museums, etc. Also, based on a fairly rich life experience and
knowledge about the events of the past, in which they were once participants,
we offer students - agers to act as guides to those historical places that make
them want to get to know these cultural and historical objects more deeply. In
addition, there is an intention to develop courses aimed at developing agger
communication and interactive skills. For example, students have a lot of
experience in home canning and needlework. You can offer them such courses as
“Home soap making”, “Home mushroom factories”, “Home harvesting of wild
plants”, “Bath therapy for the elderly”, etc. Thus, the proposed names of
courses for students of the Third Generation Yelabuga University certainly
indicate that the forms of organizing the educational process with age students
should by no means be boring monologues of teachers, but should arouse the
interest of students in cognition with the possibility of transferring their
personal experience to others [16].
The work was carried
out at the expense of the Strategic Academic Leadership Program of the Kazan
(Volga Region) Federal University.