Educational Reform In Post Soviet Russia

This volume consists of a collection of essays devoted to study of the most recent educational reform in Russia. In his first decree Boris Yeltsin proclaimed education a top priority of state policy. Yet the economic decline which accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union dealt a crippling blow to reformist aspirations, and to the existing school system itself. The public lost faith in school reform and by the mid-1990s a reaction had set in. Nevertheless, large-scale changes have been effected in finance, structure, governance and curricula. At the same time, there has been a renewed and widespread appreciation for the positive aspects of the Soviet legacy in schooling. The essays presented here compare current educational reform to reforms of the past, analyze it in a broader cultural, political and social context, and study the shifts that have occurred at the different levels of schooling 'from political decision-making and changes in school administration to the rewriting textbooks and teachers' everyday problems. The authors are both Russian educators, who have played a leading role in implementation of the reform, and Western scholars, who have been studying it from its very early stages. Together, they formulate an intricate but cohesive picture, which is in keeping with the complex nature of the reform itself. Contributors: Kara Brown, (Indiana University) * Ben Eklof (Indiana University) * Isak D. Froumin, (World Bank, Moscow) * Larry E. Holmes (University of South Alabama) * Igor Ionov, (Russian History Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences) * Viacheslav Karpov & Elena Lisovskaya, (Western Michigan University) * Vera Kaplan, (Tel Aviv University) * Stephen T. Kerr, (University of Washington) * James Muckle, (University of Nottingham) * Nadya Peterson, (Hunter College) * Scott Seregny, (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) * Alexander Shevyrev, (Moscow State University) * Janet G. Vaillant, (Harvard University)

The chapters in this volume give an account of the process of modernisation and educational reform in Russia, variously considering the cultural and political dilemmas provoked by democratisation, the structural and policy challenges associated with the reform of higher and vocational education, and the deep divisions exposed as socio-cultural activity is brought into alignment with the new discourse of freedom and choice. The volume stimulates an important debate about the methods that inform cross-national and cross-regional work on educational change. This is particularly salient in a study of educational reform in Russia, and begs the question, ‘whose way of thinking, of constructing meaning, and of experiencing the world’ is used to judge the weight and the direction of change? Each chapter shows that a thorough understanding of the nature of change and the direction of reform is only achieved through the ability to decentre - or take on board - the ‘other’ worldview. It argues, therefore, that it is worldview, rather than culture or nation-state, that is the most valid unit of analysis. This book pays tribute to K.D. Ushinsky (1824-70), ‘the Russian pioneer of comparative education’, each chapter in it broadly in agreement with his conclusions that: Public education does not solve the problems of life by itself; it does not lead history; rather, it follows the historical development. It is not the pedagogies or the teachers who create the future, but the people themselves and their great men. Education only follows this road and, in combination with other public (social) factors, helps the individual and the rising generation on its way.

A collection of essays which examine the reform of the educational system in post Soviet Russia in historical and comparative perspective.

This survey of the changes in education and socialization in the former USSR examines the institutions that are shaping the first post-Soviet generation. Chapters provide reports on such questions as diversification and the development of independent schools, curriculum reform and democratization.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This open access book is a result of the first ever study of the transformations of the higher education institutional landscape in fifteen former USSR countries after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It explores how the single Soviet model that developed across the vast and diverse territory of the Soviet Union over several decades has evolved into fifteen unique national systems, systems that have responded to national and global developments while still bearing some traces of the past. The book is distinctive as it presents a comprehensive analysis of the reforms and transformations in the region in the last 25 years; and it focuses on institutional landscape through the evolution of the institutional types established and developed in Pre-Soviet, Soviet and Post-Soviet time. It also embraces all fifteen countries of the former USSR, and provides a comparative analysis of transformations of institutional landscape across Post-Soviet systems. It will be highly relevant for students and researchers in the fields of higher education and and sociology, particularly those with an interest in historical and comparative studies.

Framed by an introductory essay by Ben Ekiof, the translated documents in this volume are crucial to understanding Russian educational reform efforts. These primary sources, based on previously unpublished statistical data and public opinion surveys, depict current conditions in Russia's schools. Reflecting the approach of the leading historian of education Edward Dneprov-now the powerful minister of education serving under Boris Yeltsin-the documents describe the radical reform philosophy and program first published in Teachers' Gazette in 1988, which now serve as the operative legislation for all secondary schools. The VNIK (Temporary Scientific Research Collective on the Schools) reform movement is a fascinating microcosm of perestroika in terms of goals, mobilization, and the complicated, painful process of implementation. This unique glimpse into Russian education in a period of turmoil will interest all those who follow Russian politics and society.

This open access book is a result of the first ever study of the transformations of the higher education institutional landscape in fifteen former USSR countries after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It explores how the single Soviet model that developed across the vast and diverse territory of the Soviet Union over several decades has evolved into fifteen unique national systems, systems that have responded to national and global developments while still bearing some traces of the past. The book is distinctive as it presents a comprehensive analysis of the reforms and transformations in the region in the last 25 years; and it focuses on institutional landscape through the evolution of the institutional types established and developed in Pre-Soviet, Soviet and Post-Soviet time. It also embraces all fifteen countries of the former USSR, and provides a comparative analysis of transformations of institutional landscape across Post-Soviet systems. It will be highly relevant for students and researchers in the fields of higher education and and sociology, particularly those with an interest in historical and comparative studies.

Schooling the New Russians is an important volume for specialists in Russian education and general readers alike. It places recent reforms in the context of broader historical developments, with a wealth of first-hand insight and scholarly research. Professor David Turner, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Glamorgan It is essential reading for anyone seeking to discover what lies below the surface of ‘modernization’ in Russian education. Dr. Vera Kaplan, The Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies, Tel Aviv University Joseph Zajda reveals in his important new book that Soviet propaganda against capitalism was largely true, given what is happening to the Russian education system today. This is a compelling and important text. Professor Peter McLaren, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies University of California, Los Angeles Few scholars worldwide possess Professor Zajda’s breadth and depth of knowledge of pre and post-Soviet schooling and society. This text clearly and brilliantly elucidates the reforms, the successes, and the disappointments of schooling in the evolving New Russia. Professor Kas Mazurek, Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge, Canada