Higher Education and the Challenges of Network Society: Philosophical Themes
https://doi.org/10.31992/0869-3617-2021-30-2-100-111
Abstract
The article presents a philosophical analysis of the humanitarian impact of educational reform due to the influence of new digital technologies. The post-industrial development of society has been characterized as a network society. Specifically, the revolution in media today defines the technological and substantive changes in the educational sector. Its modernization in the 1990s in Russia began through the discussion of the humanitarian mission of the classical university model. However, the process of globalization and the mobility of education demanded the alignment and unification of national educational programs. The Bologna Process was a response. It was implemented in Russia as a two-tiered system, although the society still needed specialists and engineers rather than bachelors and masters. The restructuring of the educational process to comply with international standards then led to the necessity of economic reform. Society needed educated specialists but could not support a large number of educational institutions with a sizable staff. In the manufacturing sector, automatization leads to a growth in workforce productivity whereas in education the traditional pedagogy is mainly practiced. Digital technologies have opened up new opportunities for the increased economic efficiency of centers of education. However, the faculty body, especially in the Humanities sphere, expressed strong criticism. The argument is that digital technologies do not solve pedagogic problems. While discussing the economic efficiency, the main, substantive issue of the meaning and purpose of education has been left aside. Hence the question of how an individual’s education can be embedded into the overall educational process continues to be of high relevance. Resorting to philosophy may be appropriate and reasonable inasmuch as it has accumulated a range of caring and self-preservation practices aimed at the development of social skills of an individuum. Philosophy can also provide an anthropological expertise of on-going reforms, identifying their social and cultural implications.
Keywords
philosophy of education,
quality of education,
university mission,
humanitarian practices,
digital pedagogy,
network society,
educational policy
Supporting agencies: The study was conducted with the financial support of a grant from the Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education (project “The latest trends in the development of human sciences and society in the context of the process of digitalization and new social problems and threats: interdisciplinary approach”, agreement No. 075-15-2020-798).
About the Author
B. V. Markov
Saint Petersburg State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Boris V. Markov – Dr. Sci. (Philosophy), Prof.
7-9, University emb., Saint Petersburg, 199034
References
1. Bowen, W. (2013). Higher Education in the Digital Age. Princetone: Princetone University Press, 192 p. (Russian translation by D. Kralechkin, ed. by A. Smirnov, Moscow: HSE Publishing House, 2018, 224 p.)
2. Petruneva, R.M., Vasilyeva, V.D., Petruneva, J.V. (2019). Digital Students: Myths and Reality. Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii = Higher Education in Russia. Vol. 28, no. 11, pp. 47-55, doi: https://doi.org/10.31992/0869-3617-2019-28-11-47-55 (In Russ., abstract in Eng.).
3. Athreya, B.H., Mouza, C. (2017). Thinking Skills for the Digital Generation. Springer International Publishing, 179 p. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-12364-6
4. Readings, B. (1997). University in Ruins. Harvard University Press, 256 p. (Russian translation by A.M. Korbut. Moscow: HSE Publ., 2010, 304 p.).
5. Mironov, V.V. (2002). [Is Deideologization a New Ideology? (About the Place of Philosophy in Education)]. Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii = Higher Education in Russia. No. 1, pp. 45-51. (In Russ.).
6. Porus, V.N. (2003). [On the Crisis of University Philosophy]. Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii = Higher Education in Russia. No. 3, pp.114-120. (In Russ.).
7. Avanesov, S.S., Bekarev, A.M., Girenok, F.I. et al. (2017). Modern Domestic Philosophy: People, the System of Ideas and the Institutions]. Lichnost’. Kul’tura. Obshhestvo. Vol. XIX, no. 3-4, рр. 131-198. (In Russ.).
8. Habermas, J. (1990). Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit: Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag [The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society]. (Russian Translation by V.V. Ivanov. Moscow: Ves’ Mir Publ., 2016. 344 p.)
9. von Humboldt, W. (2002).Über die innere undäußere Organisation der höheren wissenschaftlichen Anstalten in Berlin. In: Wilhelm von Humboldts Gesammelte Schriften: Politische Denkschriften, vol. 1, p. 250-260 (Russian edition: Neprikosnovennyi zapas, 2002, no. 2 (22). pp. 5-8).
10. Schaeffer, J.-M. (2007). La fin de l’exception humaine. NRF – Essais Gallimard, 446 p. (Russian translation by S.N. Zenkin, Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2010. 392 p.)
11. Smirnova, N.M., Demchenko, L.M. (2011). [Creativity as a Process of Creating Meanings]. In: Knyazeva, E.N. (Ed.). Tvorchestvo: epistemologicheskii analiz [Creativity: Epistemological Analysis]. Мoscow: Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences Publ., pp. 91-112. (In Russ.).
12. Kozhevnikova, M. (2017). Gibridy i khimery cheloveka i zhivotnogo: ot mifologii k biotekhnologii [Hybrids and Chimeras of Man and Animal: From Mythology to Biotechnology]. Мoscow: Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences Publ., 151 p. (In Russ.).
13. Sokolova, N.L. (2009). Populyarnaia kultura Web 2.0: k kartografii sovremennogo medialandshafta [Popular Culture Web 2.0: To Cartography of the Modern Media Landscape]. Samara: Samara University Publ., 204 p. (In Russ.).
14. Sagitov, S.T. (2019). Social and Cultural Sphere and the Development of the Digital Economy. Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii = Higher Education in Russia. Vol. 28, no. 10, pp. 97-105, doi: https://doi.org/10.31992/0869-3617-2019-28-10-97-105 (In Russ., abstract in Eng.).
15. Volkova, S.V. (2019). Smyslovoi universum obrazovaniya v perspektive filosofskoi antropologii [The Universe of Meanings in Education from the Perspective of Philosophical Anthropology: Doctor Sci. Thesis (Philosophy)]. St. Petersburg, 300 p. (In Russ.).
16. Nietzsche, F. (2011). On the Future of Our Educational Institutions. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 80 p. (Russian edition: F. Nietzsche, Filosofskaya proza. Stikhotvoreniya: Sbornik. Minsk: Pupurri Publ., 2000, pp. 63-161.)
17. Mikhailov, I.F. (2015). Chelovek, soznanie, seti [Man, Mind and Networks]. Мoscow: Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences Publ., 196 p. (In Russ.).
18. Rostova., N.N. (2020). Problema cheloveka v sovremennoi filosofii. [The Problem of the Human in the Modern Philosophy]. Мoscow: Prospekt Publ., 176 p. (In Russ.).
Review
Views:
804
Email this article 