The process of passing culture from generation to generation. Education is the process of transferring knowledge and cultural values ​​accumulated by generations

The process of transferring the semantic world and other cultural values ​​and traditions from generation to generation is a cultural transmission. It is transmission that ensures the continuity and continuity of cultures. As a result of transmission, the younger generation gets the opportunity to start with what the older generation has achieved, adding new knowledge, skills, values, traditions to those already accumulated.

Each generation has its own characteristics: values ​​and spiritual image, life experience and attitude to the events of the era, creative achievements and the preservation of traditions. It assimilates the achieved level of development and, on this basis, becomes the initiator of transformations that contribute to moving forward. These two aspects of the relationship of generations - the development of cultural heritage and innovation - form the basis of the historical development of society. The nature of the continuity of culture is reflected in the spiritual appearance of generations.

Defining the change of generations as a cultural and historical process based on the biological rhythm of human life, the following most important aspects can be distinguished in it:

1) the process of cultural evolution involves a change of participants in cultural creation;

2) over time, the old participants in the cultural process drop out of it;

3) people of the same generation can participate in the cultural process only locally (“here and now”);

4) the cultural process can be carried out only as a result of the transfer of cultural heritage;

5) the transition from generation to generation is a continuous sequential process.

Traditions play a special role in the process of generational change. On the one hand, traditions are those values ​​that are passed from generation to generation according to the law of succession and continuity. They can be written or oral, encoded in patterns.

behavior of adults, in the functioning of social institutions, etc. On the other hand, tradition is not only something that is transmitted, but also something in the depths of which innovations are formed.

The question arises: how can tradition, that is, following a ready-made model, allow innovation, that is, a retreat that leads to the rejection of traditions. The fate of tradition in the change of generations develops differently in different cultural and historical eras.

Firstly, complete or almost complete identity in views and norms of behavior can be observed in successive generations. This is how things stand in the conditions of a stognatic society, such as, for example, the early Middle Ages. For people belonging to such a society, the complete absence of any doubts about the expediency and legitimacy of the material and spiritual factors of their existence is specific. Social creativity was absent. Relations between generations within the family were of a patriarchal clan character. The entire community, including the family, stood guard over the existing way of life.

However, in the late Middle Ages, this order begins to erode, as crafts, cities, and trade develop.

Secondly, the functioning of traditions in the change of generations may also have a different character, similar to what happens at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Traditions are preserved, but there is no longer the former strict exactingness to their observance. State laws, reflecting the new social reality, come into competition with traditions. Traditions are beginning to be looked at as something routine.

There is condescension to private violations of traditions, and thus a niche arises in which alternative traditions can arise and mature.

The situation is different in conditions of a crisis of spiritual culture, when cultural continuity is called into question, or even tendencies to abandon cultural traditions arise. New socio-cultural knowledge, ideals and values ​​stimulate the crisis of the old ideology. But even in this case, the continuity of the existence of culture is ensured by the unity of culture and cultural creativity. All these features and trends affect the nature of the continuity of generations.

At present, interest in the history of the family and its kind is growing significantly. New promising directions for studying the history of the nobility, merchants, clergy, intelligentsia, and entrepreneurship are identified.

In recent years, the most important archival documents have been published, on the basis of which it is possible to recreate the history of the family dynasty. Knowledge of family history is the basis for the continuity of generations and respect for cultural heritage. And vice versa, the oblivion of ancestors inevitably leads to immorality, humiliation of dignity, barbaric attitude towards historical and spiritual and moral values.

Historical generation - a period of time during which a given generation lives and actively acts, becoming a contemporary of the events of the era that influenced its spiritual appearance. In modern conditions, they are increasingly talking about the “business generation”, which actively manifests itself in entrepreneurial and commercial activities, which affects value orientations and the emerging lifestyle. Generation in this sense is not so much quantitative as qualitative certainty.

The older generation can involve several generations in its field of attraction, creating a stable tradition of attitude to historical events and spiritual values ​​of its time, causing emotional involvement and mutual understanding. Such relations develop between generations in conditions of relative stability of society. But the dynamics of change causes, as a rule, in the new generation a critical attitude towards the previous period, proclaiming the rejection of former goals and values, declaring them false.

In a society with a fairly stable structure and a slow pace of change, the success of education was assessed depending on how the elders managed to pass on the accumulated knowledge, skills and abilities to the younger generation. The younger generation was being prepared for life in a society that would be broadly similar to the one in which their parents lived all their lives. The elders could not even imagine a different life, their past was a blueprint for the future. Such a model of culture is typical not only for the distant past, but is typical for periods of stagnation, a slow pace of development, for isolated regions, closed ethnic groups. This type of cultural continuity was thoroughly investigated by the American anthropologist M. Mead.

The older generation embodies the wisdom of life, which should be taken unquestioningly. It is a model for imitation and reverence, because it has all the necessary complex of knowledge and values, norms of behavior. The older generation enjoys high prestige among

youth, and his experience is not only instructive, but also leaves an indelible mark on the soul of a young person, creates the necessary stability of the way of life, maintaining an atmosphere of mutual understanding and care, the routine and ritual of everyday life. The integrity of the inner world does not undergo major changes even when individual elements of everyday life are modernized or when moving to a new country. Inclusion in a different culture does not completely replace the traditional way and style of life, if it is fixed in the minds and behavior of generations and is perceived as a standard of relations.

The loss of value orientations causes nostalgia, which is a complex set of feelings of loneliness and longing, a desire to immerse yourself in your native environment. Traditional cultures have great energy power and influence the spiritual image of generations, supporting the style of communication, norms and methods of raising children, spiritual and moral values ​​and priorities. The traditional culture of peoples has a deep and branched "root system", without which the generation loses vitality, loses the idea of ​​its origins. It forms national identity, patriotism and spiritual and moral values. However, for all the importance of traditions, it would be wrong to ignore the new trends that arise in each new era and are the result of the dynamism of history. In the new situation, the experience of the younger generation is radically different from that of the older one.

Young people themselves develop life guidelines, behavior and values, ideas about success and the meaning of life. And this is quite justified, because the old approaches to solving life problems are ineffective. In this sense, the older generation is losing its authority, but at the same time retaining knowledge of traditions. Gradually there is a process of extinction of the former culture. The older generation reacts to the new situation in different ways: some peacefully accept the changes, others sharply criticize all innovations. This inevitably entails a state of spiritual vacuum, uncertainty about the future, anxiety and anxiety.

Categoricalness and arrogance in relations between generations destroy the possibility of understanding and dialogue, leading to increased tension. Disapproval of everything new, the desire to turn back the course of history, to stop the pace of change does not evoke a positive response from young people and inevitably leads to confrontation between generations.

No less dangerous is the neglect of the experience of the elders by the young, the desire to erase from memory all the achievements of past years. Each generation fulfills its historical role and deserves support, because without this, the connection between generations is interrupted. The continuity of generations is the basis of the historical development of man and society, therefore all public and personal efforts should be directed towards mutual understanding and dialogue.

The acceleration of change and the introduction of innovations has a significant impact on the psychological state and well-being of a person. People live at "high speeds" when the world, ideas and attitudes, values ​​and orientations, social institutions and organizations are rapidly changing.

Transience leads to a feeling of fragility and instability of life, creates a mood of uncertainty and instability, gives rise to a special setting of consciousness for the short-term connections and human relationships.

Increased mobility increases the number of human contacts, makes them superficial, causes a growing sense of loneliness. The transience of change and novelty complicate the problems of human adaptation in the world, causing psychological overload and moral fatigue. There is a lack of spiritual comfort, positive emotions from communication. The flow of novelty also penetrates into family life.

The abundance of options for marriage unions, a wide choice of models of family life also affects the spiritual and moral component of the personality. Society is divided into separate subcultures, each of which forms a special world with its own hierarchy of values, style and way of life, preferences and likes, rules and prohibitions.

The fragmentation of society entails the disintegration of a single structure of values. The central core of values ​​that existed in the past is disappearing with incredible speed. Over the years, a generation has grown up that is not familiar with many ideological slogans, rituals, and organizations.

Without continuing the description of the trends of modern society, it is necessary to understand the position of the younger generation in the face of constant changes, to develop a strategy for adapting to changes that helps restore mental strength.

A growing person needs a sense of security, stability and benevolence of the world around him, he needs life guidelines that are approved and supported, receive public recognition and respect. Lack of a sense of identity breeds loneliness, loss, alienation.

In the context of the rapid pace of modernization of society, the transformation of social institutions, significant changes are taking place in the social position of the younger generation.

There are purchase and sale relationships, illegal transactions, double morality, rudeness and licentiousness, disrespect for elders. The mass media, which deliberately replicate violence, permissiveness, and violation of the most elementary human rights, also have a negative impact. Programs that promote the education of morality and high spirituality have almost disappeared.

The decline in the intellectual and moral level of society can lead to irreparable losses in the spiritual image of the younger generation. The real solution to the problem of continuity in the change of generations in a crisis is that it is necessary to proceed from the transience of any crisis of culture and the change of the stage of its destabilization by the stage of stabilization with the preservation of the core of culture and the development of new, time-appropriate samples. At the same time, one should bear in mind the dual role of youth in the development of culture.

The youth is a relay of culture in transmission from the past to the future, ensuring the preservation and continuity in the development of culture. But it passes on the culture to the descendants in a partially transformed form. It is in this sense that she creates culture. The two functions - conservation and innovation - must always be balanced. Thus, any changes in culture presuppose the preservation of the unity and continuity of culture through the continuity of generations.

Culture in sociology they call everything that is created by the mind and hands of man, the whole artificial, different from nature, world of phenomena. In a broad sense, culture includes all generally accepted forms of life established in society (customs, norms, social institutions, social relations, etc.). In the "narrow" sense, the boundaries of culture coincide with the boundaries of the sphere of spiritual creativity, morality, and art.

Culture is characterized primarily by the ability to produce, preserve and disseminate spiritual values. The main function of culture- preserve and reproduce the spiritual experience of mankind, pass it on from generation to generation and enrich it.

The process of transferring culture from previous generations to the next is called cultural transmission. It ensures the continuity or continuity of culture. When some cataclysms (wars, catastrophes) occur, as a result of the death of the bearers of culture, the cultural chain breaks. Coming cultural exhaustion, i.e. more cultural traits disappear than appear.

Not all elements of culture are transmitted. Cultural heritage- a part of the material and spiritual culture, created by past generations, withstood the test of time and passed on to the next generations as something valuable and revered. Cultural heritage is a factor of nation cohesion, a means of unification in times of crisis and instability.

Cultural values ​​are formed on the basis of the selection of certain types of behavior and experiences of people. Each society has carried out its own selection of cultural forms. As a result of this selection, cultures are completely different.

Common elements in all cultures - cultural universals. These are elements of culture that exist in all societies, regardless of geographic location, level of development, historical time (for example, sports, jewelry, religious rites, myths, games, more than 60 universals in total).

The meaning and content of culture cannot be understood if we consider the phenomena of culture outside the specific historical framework. Culture arose under the influence of social demands and needs. Therefore, any culture must be considered from the standpoint of cultural relativism, i.e. analyze culture in its own context, from the standpoint of beliefs and values ​​of the bearers of this culture. The opposite trend is dangerous - the desire to judge other cultures from the standpoint of the superiority of one's own. This trend is called ethnocentrism(a kind of ethnocentrism - eurocentrism) . In modern conditions of exacerbation of social contradictions, sociologists have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to consistently implement the idea of ​​a single culture.


It is customary to divide culture into material And spiritual according to the two main types of production - material and spiritual. material culture covers the entire sphere of material activity and its results (tools, dwellings, everyday items, clothing, etc.). spiritual culture covers the sphere of consciousness, spiritual production (cognition, morality, education and enlightenment, including law, philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, science, art, literature, mythology, religion). The harmonious development of culture naturally presupposes the organic unity of material and spiritual cultures. Material and spiritual objects created by human labor are called artifacts, i.e. artificially created.

The most important part of culture is values And norms. Values ​​and norms, according to T. Parsons, are a general necessary condition for social integration. Social order in a society is possible when its members share common values, follow the established norms of behavior (which, in turn, are regulated by basic values), and perform the roles expected of them. The system of values ​​of society is fixed in the legal system.

Depending on who creates the culture and what its level is, elite, folk, mass cultures are distinguished. Varieties of culture - dominant culture, subculture and counterculture.

In most European societies at the beginning of the 20th century, two forms of culture developed - elite and folk. Elite culture created by a privileged part of society or by its order by professional creators (fine art, classical music, highly intellectual literature). The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an average educated person.

folk culture created by anonymous creators with no professional training, passed down orally from generation to generation. Folk culture also has a high artistic value, is the property of the people and a factor in its rallying.

In the twentieth century, there was an erasure between the elite and folk culture, arose Mass culture. Mass culture publicly available, has, as a rule, low artistic value. It is the result of a number of interrelated processes: urbanization, secularization, the spread of market laws to culture, technological development and the transformation of the education sector, and the development of the media. A feature of mass culture is the commercial nature of functioning, which is based on the solvent demand of the bulk of the population.

Dominant culture- a set of values, traditions, customs that guide the majority of members of society.

Since society breaks up into many groups - national demographic, professional - gradually each of them forms its own culture, which is called subculture. Subculture- is the culture inherent in certain social groups. There is a youth subculture, a professional subculture, a subculture of national minorities, a confessional subculture, a children's subculture, and so on.

Counterculture- a culture that is opposed to the dominant culture, in conflict with the dominant values. The culture of criminals, terrorists is contrary to the universal culture. Hippies rejected mainstream American values: hard work, material success, conformity, sexual restraint.

1.6.1. Transmission of culture from generation to generation and evolutionary concepts of culture

Contrary to all the statements of supporters of the substantive understanding of culture, it is still not a substance, but an accident. It is the creation of people who always live in society, it is a product of society. I have repeatedly said that society is never a simple collection of people. Society and the totality of the people who make up it never completely coincide. As already noted, the lifetime of a sociohistorical organism always exceeds the lifetime of any of its members. Therefore, the inevitability is the constant renewal of its human composition. There is a change of generations in the society. One is replaced by another.

And each new generation, in order to exist, must learn the experience that the outgoing one had. Thus, in society there is a change of generations and the transfer of culture from one generation to another. These two processes are a necessary condition for the development of society, but they, taken by themselves, do not represent the development of society. They have a certain independence in relation to the process of development of society.

The emphasis on continuity in the development of culture gave grounds for interpreting this development as a completely independent process, and the identification of accumulation in the development of culture made it possible to interpret this process as progressive, ascending. As a result, evolutionary concepts arose in which the development of culture was considered independently of the evolution of society as a whole. The center of gravity in these concepts was shifted from society to culture. This is the concept of the largest English ethnographer Edward Burnett Tylor (Taylor) (1832 - 1917) - the author of the book "Primitive Culture" (1871), famous in his time (1871; last Russian edition: M., 1989). He was a staunch champion of evolutionism. From his point of view, any cultural phenomenon arose as a result of previous development, appeared in society as a product of cultural evolution.

The mission of education is great in developing a responsible attitude towards the culture of the native language and the languages ​​of international communication among the younger generation. This is facilitated by dialogic forms of learning. Dialogue is a form of subjective cognition of the surrounding world. It is of particular importance at the stage of recognition of the essential, heuristic and creative in the proposed educational information. The educational environment formed at school or university influences the choice of communication rules and ways of human behavior in a social group. This choice determines the manner of communication and style of behavior, which will later manifest itself in interpersonal and business contacts of an adult.

At the same time, education is a process of translating cultural patterns of behavior and activity, as well as established forms of social life. In this regard, the dependence of developed individual countries on the level and quality of education, culture and qualifications of citizens is more and more clearly visible.

The spiritual in a person manifests itself due to his "growing" into culture. The carrier of culture is the family, and the first is mastered in the process of learning and self-education, upbringing and self-education, professional activities and communication with people around. However, it is in the process of teaching upbringing that a person acquires sociocultural norms that are of historical importance for the development of civilization, society and man. Therefore, when determining the goals and objectives of educational systems, the social order is specified. In turn, the content of education can be limited by the standards of the region, country, and the whole world, which take into account the nature of human interaction with cultural values, the measure and degree of their appropriation and creation.

2. Education as a practice of human socialization and continuity of generations. Education manifests itself as a practice of human socialization and the continuity of generations of people. In different socio-political conditions (and during the period of reforms), education acts as a stabilizing factor between new social ideas and the ideals of previous generations, embodied in the historical tradition. Therefore, education allows you to keep the process of reproduction and transmission of historical and social experience and at the same time consolidate in the minds of the younger generation new political and economic realities, new guidelines for social and cultural development. It is no coincidence that one of the main tasks of education is to prepare the younger generation for an independent life and form an image of the future. The prospect of the future opens up in the course of mastering various forms of human activity (training, work, communication, professional activity, leisure).

In the context of a radical change in ideological views, social ideas, ideals and the life of people in general, it is education that performs a stabilizing function and helps a person adapt to new living conditions.

At critical moments in history, it is necessary to ensure the continuity of the cultural and educational tradition, preserving the identity of the people and the established system of values. The preservation of the above components contributes to their integration in the system of world values ​​as elements of the macro-society. At the same time, tradition performs a defining function in the processes of education and upbringing of a new generation.

Human life is a link in the chain of generations. That is, a person lives in the space of a socio-cultural tradition, which has a significant impact on the formation of his character, behavior, aspirations, values ​​and interests. In this regard, the relationship between tradition and innovation in the field of education and upbringing of a person embodies the relationship between education and culture of peoples in general.

The education system embodies the state, trends and prospects for the development of society, either by reproducing and strengthening the stereotypes that have developed in it, or by improving it.

The social function of education, on the one hand, it is characterized as preparing a generation for an independent life, and on the other hand, it lays the foundations for the future society and forms the image of a person in the future. The essence of preparing for independent living is:

In shaping the way of life accepted in society;

In the development of various forms of life (educational, labor, socio-political, professional, cultural and leisure, family and household);

In the development of the spiritual potential of a person for creation and creativity.

Therefore, each socio-economic formation and cultural-historical stage in the development of society and the state is characterized by its own system of education, and for the people, the nation - the system of education. However, there are common features in international pedagogical systems. It is they who lay the foundations for the process of integration into the global educational space.

What cultural and educational traditions that have developed in different civilizations are known today?

For example, the rational logic of teaching at school and university has historically developed in European civilization.

In Asian civilization, Confucianism was formed as a methodology for the education and upbringing of a person.

In the process of history, education developed in Rus' as "education by the world." It was in Russia that public opinion was often used for educational influence on a person. Therefore, the theory of educating a person in a team and through a team, created by A. S. Makarenko, only summed up some of the existing tradition.

3. Education is a mechanism for shaping the social and spiritual life of a person and a branch of mass spiritual production.

Educational and training institutions concentrate the highest samples of the socio-cultural activity of a person of a certain era. Therefore, the social value of education is determined by the importance of an educated person in society. The humanistic value of education lies in the possibility of developing the cognitive and spiritual needs of a person. In an integral system of education of all types and levels, the accumulation and development of the country's intellectual, spiritual and moral potential takes place.

4. Education as a process of translation of culturally designed patterns of human activity.

In the process of training and education, a person masters socio-cultural norms that have cultural and historical significance. As a result, the norms of morality and moral behavior of a person in a social group and at work, in the family and public places, as well as the rules of communication, interpersonal and business contacts are mastered. It is no coincidence that the meaning of education is seen not only in the transmission of social experience in time, but also in the reproduction of established forms of social life in the space of culture.

5. Education as a function of the development of regional systems and national traditions.

The specificity of the population of individual regions determines the nature of pedagogical tasks. Young people are included in the spiritual life of the city or village through education. Regional educational systems take into account the educational needs of different socio-cultural groups of the population. So, for example, the development of an educational standard is determined by the specifics of the region of the country.

For example, for schools in St. Petersburg, the discipline "History and culture of St. Petersburg" is included in the regional component, for schools in Dagestan - "History and culture of the peoples of the Caucasus."

6. Education is the social institution through which the basic cultural values ​​and goals of the development of society are transmitted and embodied.

Educational systems - these are social institutions that carry out purposeful preparation of the younger generation for an independent life in modern society. In the process of setting goals and objectives for specific educational systems, it is necessary to clarify the social order within the entire education system of the country. For example, in the 1970s-80s, the national education system was faced with the task of preparing a creative, intellectually and spiritually developed person, a citizen of his homeland and an internationalist, brought up in the spirit of communist ideas and ideals. In the 1980-90s, priority was given to the training of an enterprising and sociable person who speaks foreign languages. If in the first period physicists, mathematicians, engineers had a high social status, today lawyers, economists and businessmen, as well as humanitarians - philologists, translators, teachers of foreign languages ​​are socially significant.

Educational institutions - these are social institutions, the developing network of which, as a system of preschool, school, secondary specialized, higher and additional education, acquires the state status of the education system in the country. In this context, educational institutions are included in social practice. Their social function is to provide educational services to the population of the country. The implementation of the social function requires forecasting and planning the development of education. The latter becomes a significant component in the process of formation of the state educational policy of the country. The state norm of this or that type of education is determined by the state educational standard. One of the main directions of such a policy is the development of state educational standards for schools and universities.

State educational standards determine the compulsory curriculum of each school or university. This standard has two parts. The first part is a set of compulsory disciplines for all schools or universities, the second part is optional disciplines. At the level of the Russian Federation, the first part is called the federal, and the second - the regional component. At the level of a particular educational institution, the first part is the compulsory disciplines of the curriculum for all students, the second part is elective subjects. The standard includes a mandatory set of requirements for the preparation of a graduate of a school or university.

7. Education as an active accelerator of cultural change and transformation in social life and in the individual.

The spiritual principle in a person manifests itself due to his "growing" into the cultural heritage of the family and the cultural tradition that he masters throughout his life through the processes of education, upbringing and professional activity. Education accelerates this process in the course of the development and formation of a person as a person, subject and individuality. This fact is proved by research and educational practice. In the educational process, teachers create conditions and choose such means and technologies that ensure the personal growth of students, the development of their subjective properties and the manifestation of individuality. Each academic discipline and a certain educational technology is focused on the development of these qualities.

Summary

Culture and education remain in the center of attention of the entire world community. They act as the leading factors of social progress and the development of civilization.

The interaction of culture and education can be considered in different aspects:

At the level of society, in a historical context;

At the level of specific social institutions, spheres or environments of human development;

At the level of academic disciplines.

Human education and the educational system are considered only in a specific socio-cultural context, due to the versatility of their relationship.

Education performs sociocultural functions:

It is a way of socialization of the individual and the continuity of generations;

An environment for communication and familiarization with world values, achievements of science and technology;

Accelerates the process of development and formation of a person as a person, subject and individuality;

Provides the formation of spirituality in a person and his worldview of value orientations and moral principles.

Questions and tasks for self-control

1. How did you understand the following idea: culture is a prerequisite and a result of human education?

2. Expand the meaning of the main functions of modern education,

3. In what aspects can the relationship between education and culture, education and society be considered?

Contrary to all the statements of supporters of the substantive understanding of culture, it is still not a substance, but an accident. It is the creation of people who always live in society, it is a product of society. I have repeatedly said that society is never a simple collection of people. Society and the totality of the people who make up it never completely coincide. As already noted, the lifetime of a sociohistorical organism always exceeds the lifetime of any of its members. Therefore, the inevitability is the constant renewal of its human composition. There is a change of generations in the society. One is replaced by another.

And each new generation, in order to exist, must learn the experience that the outgoing one had. Thus, in society there is a change of generations and the transfer of culture from one generation to another. These two processes are a necessary condition for the development of society, but they, taken by themselves, do not represent the development of society. They have a certain independence in relation to the process of development of society.

The emphasis on continuity in the development of culture gave grounds for interpreting this development as a completely independent process, and the identification of accumulation in the development of culture made it possible to interpret this process as progressive, ascending. As a result, evolutionary concepts arose in which the development of culture was considered independently of the evolution of society as a whole. The center of gravity in these concepts was shifted from society to culture. This is the concept of the largest English ethnographer Edward Burnett Tylor (Taylor) (1832 - 1917) - the author of the book "Primitive Culture", famous in his time. He was a staunch champion of evolutionism. From his point of view, any cultural phenomenon arose as a result of previous development, appeared in society as a product of cultural evolution.


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