Continuing education as the value basis of professional activity of the pedagogue

Makeeva Tatiana Vitalievna ORCID: 0000-0001-6003-5430 PhD in Pedagogy Head of the Department of Social Pedagogy and Organization of Work with Youth, Associate Professor, Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushinsky 150000, Russia, Yaroslavl region, Yaroslavl, Republikanskaya str., 108 makeeva.tatyana@inbox.ru Other publications by this author

Gur'yanchik Vitalii Nikolaevich ORCID: 0000-0001-9963-4510 PhD in History Docent, the department of Social Pedagogy and Work with Youth, Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushinsky ã. ßðîñëàâëü, óë. Ðåñïóáëèêàíñêàÿ, ä. 108 vit-gurjanchik@yandex.ru

The article is executed within the framework of The state task of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation No. 073-00077-21-02 for the implementation of scientific research on the topic "Scientific justification and development of a methodology for ensuring the continuity of the Federal State Educational Standard of general, secondary vocational and higher pedagogical education in the interests of creating a unified educational space for the training of teaching staff" (registration entry no. 730000F.99.1. BV09AA00006)

Modern society is a constantly developing social system of all spheres of society in the context of globalization. The process of globalization involved not only the integration of national economies and the creation of a global labor market, but also education systems. Therefore, the unification of economic, cultural and social processes has also affected such an important social institution of society as education. The acceleration of global changes in the sphere of industrial production and the services market require a flexible response from education and development along with traditional forms of education, both informal and informational. The emergence of new forms of learning is primarily due to the increasing mobility of both individuals and entire social communities. The increase in labor migration flows both at the national and international levels leads to the need for continuous training. Self-education and self-development are the key to success and competitiveness in a changing world, and they increase social mobility and reduce the risk of getting into a "difficult life situation" ^{[6, pp. 223-225]}. Continuous education in this sense is self-education, i.e. "proactive conscious improvement of personality through obtaining new knowledge and its practical use" ^{[10, p. 262]}.

The concept of modern continuing education has its roots in Europe, where the basic principles of such an approach to spiritual reproduction were formulated: "continuity, accessibility, diversity of educational institutions, priority of universal values, humanistic and secular nature, unity of cultural and educational space" ^{[7, p.113]}. In November 2001, the European Commission adopted a Communique on "implementing the transformation of Europe into a space of continuing education." The document emphasizes that continuing education should cover all types of formal and non-formal education, from school to retirement age.

Currently, in Russia, the issues of continuing education are in the focus of attention of teachers and psychologists, philosophers and cultural scientists, and economists who consider various aspects of this phenomenon from the standpoint of psychological, pedagogical, cultural, and phenomenological approaches ^{[4, pp. 108-111]}. In this regard, we can say that continuing education is a process of personal and professional development of a person throughout his /her life, ensuring that his/her experience meets the demands of changing production and social relations ^{[12, p. 5]}.

Continuing education makes it possible for people to gradually accumulate knowledge, but also expand it in various professional fields, practically applying it in their professional activities. Today's youth is more socially mobile. As for professional mobility, it is largely determined by the attitude to continuing education as a vital value that allows you to flexibly respond to life difficulties, develop your own socio-professional strategy.

Value – the basic category of axiology that defines the essential relationship of human interaction with the outside world, a system of norms, criteria, standards on the basis of which an individual or a group evaluates an object or phenomenon.

It is impossible not to agree with the point of view of A.V. Kiryakova that the significance of the study of the value orientations of an individual is determined by the fact that they represent the main channel of assimilation of the spiritual culture of society, the transformation of cultural values into stimuli and motives of practical behavior of people. The formation of value orientations largely contributes to the process of personality development in general"^{[2, p. 15]}.

The value bases of a teacher's professional activity are understood by us as a hierarchical system of personal values of a teacher, expressing his/her desire to implement the quality of professional activity that is significant for the effective achievement of its goals.

Pedagogical values are norms regulating pedagogical activity and acting as a cognitive-acting system that serves as a mediating and connecting link between the established social worldview in the field of education and the activities of a teacher. Pedagogical values differ in their level of existence. On this basis, socio-pedagogical, professional-group and individual-personal values are distinguished.

Continuing education as a vital value correlates, first of all, with the personality itself, and not with the educational organization, i.e. it is a personal value-semantic category that characterizes its readiness for self-development and self-improvement. Based on this, "by readiness for continuing education, we understand the integrative characteristic of a person, including awareness of the importance of educational and cognitive activity, the requirements imposed by this activity in relation to the individual; possession of ways to achieve these requirements; the ability to overcome difficulties, as well as the ability to carry out reflection and self-assessment of the activities carried out" ^{[1, p. 128]}.

In the course of the study, we conducted a survey of second and fourth-year Bachelor students and second-year Master's degree students studying full-time at the historical and pedagogical faculties, the Faculty of Foreign Languages and the Faculty of Social Management. A total of 69 people (55 female and 14 male) took part in the survey. The age of respondents was from 18 to 25 years old.

Participation in the survey of students in different areas of training predetermined the question of whether students were ready to work in their specialty after graduation. Only about 24% of respondents answered that they planned to work in their specialty for various reasons. Just over 14% of respondents categorically did not intend to work in their specialty, while 9.5% found it difficult to answer the question. The largest group of students (52.4%) were those who relied on further circumstances that would decide their further professional self-realization. Thus, more than half of the students had not yet formed their future professional purpose, answering "how it will turn out".

We have already stressed that continuing education contributes to increasing the competitiveness and mobility of the individual within the framework of professional activity. To the question "Are you familiar with the concept of "continuing education?" 64% answered in the affirmative; about 17% had heard about it, but did not know the exact meaning; 14% heard about it for the first time. As the evaluation of the answers shows, most of those who did not know or hear for the first time were 2^nd-year students who had just passed the adaptation period in the higher education system and did not yet show interest in continuing education. Senior courses are more informed about continuing education through educational information and involvement in the process of non-formal education.

As a rule, many forms of continuing education involve tuition fees. About 47% of respondents were willing to pay for additional education, while 29% were undecided. Almost one in four (23.8%) were not ready to pay for additional education.

The answer to the question "Do you consider continuing education to be your life value?" showed that more than 71% of students in one way or another recognized lifelong learning as their life value. The same 23.8% as in the previous question did not consider continuing education to be their life value.

We tried to find out what students think can give additional education: "What do you think the additional education will give you?” This question involved the choice of several options. It should be noted that most of the answers demonstrated awareness of education as an opportunity for self-development and self-realization: 83.3% - increase in my intellectual level; 81% - satisfaction of the need for self-development. In addition, students also understood the importance of education as an opportunity to move up the career ladder by 71.4% and increase material well-being by 50%. It is gratifying to note that none of the students who took part in the survey noted that additional education would be wasted time and money thrown away.

Thus, the data obtained during the survey allows us to draw certain conclusions. Firstly, continuing education today is not a fashionable trend, but a necessity that contributes to improving the competitiveness and mobility of the individual in a rapidly changing world and its uncertainty. Secondly, it should be recognized that the current system of higher education trains freelancers to a greater extent, rather than specialists for a specific field of activity. The uncertainty of the modern world is also reflected in the minds of young people who are not capable of making existential decisions and trust in chance. Thirdly, for every third respondent, the very concept of "continuing education" is at best a familiar concept without knowledge of its essence and content, which indicates poor awareness of young people, and possibly unwillingness to plan their future. Fourth, despite the fact that the vast majority of students of a pedagogical university consider lifelong education as a personal value, quite a large part of respondents reacted negatively to this value for themselves. And at the same time, young people are quite clear about the possibilities and prospects of additional education both in the development of their personal potential and for improving material well-being.