Congratulation to our Russian School of Dialogue of Cultures colleagues for making their pedagogical framework politically powerful in Russia: iph.ras.ru/sdcp.htm (translated from Russian by Google Translate) The School of Dialogue of Cultures April 2-4, 20123 , at the headquarters of UNESCO held a session (brainstorming session) on intercultural dialogue and education, organized jointly by UNESCO and the World Public Forum Dialogue of Civilizations. The event was initiated by the President of the WPF Dialogue of Civilizations Vladimir Yakunin for the purpose of a project to create a school of dialogue between cultures in the framework of the existing cooperation agreement between UNESCO and the OIF . The concept was developed by the academic coordinator Stepanyants MT - Honored Worker of Science, Professor , Head. UNESCO Chair Philosophy in the Dialogue of Cultures , established at the Institute of Philosophy . Key role in the preparation of a session at the headquarters of UNESCO Intersectoral Platform belonged to the Director of the culture of peace and non-violence , Ms. Katherine Wall , which was developed with the concept of session requests and comments of the Russian side . At the opening session was addressed by the Deputy Director-General for Strategic Planning Hans dOrvil , Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to UNESCO Mitrofanova , Catherine Wall , M.T.Stepanyants and E.A.Ivanova , Deputy. Chief of staff Railways . The speakers were 4 representatives of UNESCOs Division of Education, as well as one of the sectors of culture , social and human sciences, communication and information sciences, as well as several non-governmental organizations, in particular , the International Association of Universities , the French Institute of Education, Fund Good planet , etc. The Russian side was attended by 17 people: two representatives of the department of educational institutions of Railways , Deputy. Head of the Department of Personnel Management Railways , 13 principals and teachers academic director and coordinator of the project. The session was productive nature , enabled Russian teachers see the child-rearing techniques for a culture of peace , non-violence and intercultural understanding. For their part, Russian teachers talked about their achievements and practices in these areas of preschool and school education. Understanding the information and educational materials produced by the last session , will enable the concrete implementation of the program of multicultural education in the educational institutions of Railways , including training of teachers on the basis of the UNESCO Chair Philosophy in the Dialogue of Cultures ( lecture courses , programs and manuals , etc . etc.) The project to create a school of dialogue of cultures , which the WPF Dialogue of Civilizations and implemented in collaboration with UNESCO , should be seen as a pilot project for the reform of school education in the Russian Federation as a whole. The concept of School of Dialogue of Cultures The lessons of the two world wars of the twentieth century, people were reminded that All wars begin in the minds of the people . This seemingly self-evident truth was recorded in the UNESCO Constitution , determined the content and the pathos of her future endeavors. In the Preamble to the Constitution , adopted in 1945 stated: The world must be based on, if we do not want to fail , upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. Such solidarity does not come by itself. To her training is necessary , it can only be achieved result of focused and tireless work. Conscious of this , UNESCO began a program of Culture of Peace . The Congress Peace in the minds of Men in Yamossukro (1989 ), the program began to acquire the status of the main ideology of UNESCO. Officially, the concept of the Culture of Peace Programme of Action was the UNESCO in 1992 . In 1999, as an important international initiative , this concept was endorsed by the UN General Assembly in a special resolution , which included the Declaration and the Programme of Action of the UN to spread a culture of peace . At the initiative of a group of Nobel Peace Prize United Nations General Assembly in 2000 was declared the Year of the Culture of Peace , and later from 2001 - 2010 - International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World ( 2001-2010 ) . The main task that was set - learning to live together. It is known that the main role in teaching people at all times and everywhere Education played . Even at the dawn of mankind has endeavored to respect of morality and culture , first of a single clan or tribe , and then the broader community - the state, the empire of civilization. Major role in the transmission from generation to generation and consolidation of historically stable cultural values , in preparing man for the successful functioning of the relevant society and culture has always played an education. This universal mission of education did not rule out the fundamental differences in educational policies and practices due to temporary and cultural features . The era of globalization calls for an adjustment in the field of education, which would correspond to the requirements of the time . Education can no longer remain extremely limited scope of the national culture. Moral imperative is education that takes into account the cultural diversity of the human community , whose very survival depends on the ability to establish a dialogue of cultures and civilizations. Although today everywhere and at all levels to speak of a dialogue of civilizations and cultures, but , in fact, to achieve such a dialogue is not ready or the tops or bottoms , ie neither the political elite nor the public consciousness as a whole. This statement is true for Russia . The desire to Russia (quite reasonable , given the size of the country , its economic and military potential , finally , a wealth of cultural heritage) to play a leading role in the international arena requires the skills of its members to engage in dialogue with others. In finding of good neighborly relations , partners, allies and even more , you can not rely only on military power and a high economic competitiveness. It should also be understanding of other partys position and ability to convey to her my point of view. And in this case, not a little depends on the mentality , the cultural traditions and customs. Even more dialogue between cultures is needed to address Russias internal problems . Russians need to find a collective identity instead of the lost community - the Soviet people . The point is not easy , given the desire for self-identity , autonomy and even the full sovereignty of national and ethnic groups living in the Russian Federation. Of course, other states are facing problems in part of the same kind . For example, in Europe, such as France , Germany , Great Britain , Denmark has gained extreme urgency the problem of immigrants , mostly from Muslim countries . The new citizens , in accordance with the principles of a democratic state that demands equal rights with indigenous nations. At the same time, they are not ready or willing to change their traditions , their traditional way of life , religious beliefs. So who are they - these Turks , Algerians , Pakistanis, Iranians ? Europeans want to preserve their national unity, but find it difficult to recognize the brothers of the people of the nation , recently settled on their land and working here for the good of the nation. Immigrants would like to be seen by Europeans , but , nevertheless , are not ready to give up the identity inherited from birth. So explosive increases hostility , distrust and hatred. Russia has also been an unprecedented influx of immigrants before . Some of them - the citizens of the CIS , the other - they come from China, Vietnam , South- East Asia. Economic immigration is necessary for Russia , given the shortage of workers. However, immigrants often cause severe hostility. Hate them for what they take available jobs , for what they are trying to hold together a group show of solidarity, for the fact that they follow the traditions and customs of the unusual in everyday life. Hostility sometimes reaches racist tension. Yet immigrants are not a major headache for the Russians. Unlike in Europe , in Russia the processes of national identity is complicated by other factors. Tatars and Bashkirs, Yakuts, Buryats , Ossetians and Chechens - only a small part of many peoples , ethnic groups living usually compact and are indigenous to the country. In connection with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the democratization of the country have been widely awakening of national consciousness of large and small non-Russian peoples. Sharply raises the issue of Russian identity as such and its self-determination. And so , the dialogue of cultures has no alternatives. It is vitally important . What methods are fundamentally important for the success of the dialogue ? a) To enter into a dialogue requires the commitment of one side to listen to the other position . Listen , of course, does not mean to hear , much less understand. Understanding the difficult development of the language of another culture. It is not so much about the vocabulary , but about the meaning inherent in the words denoting concepts , especially those that make up the skeleton of a particular culture . b ) In addition to the presence of nominally human universals , each culture has its own set of universals that make up its backbone . In a culture which is a highly organized set of programs nadbiologicheskih human life , are universal worldview . They accumulate the historical experience of life , and in their system evaluates a person of a certain culture , interprets and experiences the world . For Hindus such universals are the concepts of Brahman, atman , dharma , moksha , karma , etc. frame of Chinese culture, the first category are the Tao and Te , yin - yang, jen, there . No dialogue with the Indians or the Chinese can not take place if the key terms of their culture at the opposite side do not have basic knowledge, there is no openness to adjust and deepen them . c) The tension or conflict between different cultures often arises from a misunderstanding of what the widespread stereotypes rooted in the mistaken view of the existence of a culture of static constants. In reality, the time is always left their imprints even on what is considered to be the dogmas . This is especially true and important when it comes to the era of radical transformation of traditional societies , connecting them to the modern post-industrial world. g ) When the dialogue should soberly assess its capabilities. Not really , and it is not permissible to seek uniformity in perception of the world , as to the meaning of human existence and its norms of behavior. At the same time, efforts should be made to develop common approaches to the problems of the world order , on which the fate of humanity. Skills of dialogue do not occur by themselves. They are gained . And in the process of gaining a decisive role is played by educational institutions and their practices . Multicultural education can be one of the most important tools for the transition from abstract , and often simply demagogic , applications to practical implementation. The problem of multicultural education is not only to create a favorable climate for co-existence, co- existence of different cultures , but also to maximize the diversity of individual and social improvement. Despite the growing awareness of the need of multicultural education , standards of this kind so far does not exist anywhere . It seems that in general the full-scale introduction of multicultural education aimed at the role of moderator dialogue of cultures, while no one is ready . Two factors are of particular importance here . The first - the presence of the ruling elite of political will for genuine and not imaginary education reform in this direction. In Russia , this situation is partly due to the inertia of the encumbrances of the past. For education, including university , in pre-revolutionary Russia was characterized by the constant confrontation of two polar currents , one of which focuses on openness, on the involvement of Russia in the intellectual world of the West , freedom of expression and acceptance of ideological differences; another - on the contrary, defended the need for isolation , maintain and strengthen the pillars of imperial ideology. Moreover, it is during the second ultimately was dominant. It is ironic , but the October Revolution of 1917. , Radically changed the whole aspect of social life, and tear down the ideological pillars of the tsarist , however , is not completely uprooted them. The former were replaced by new , however, is grown from the womb of the old rhizomes . Orthodoxy orthodoxy has replaced dogmatism of the Marxist- Leninist ideology , the autocracy - a communist dictatorship ; nation - Soviet patriotism . As a result , the spiritual life , and education, in particular, have been largely insulated from the ideological diversity of the outside world. The second - a major multicultural education is not possible without the appropriate training of teachers , textbooks and teaching materials , which in turn are directly dependent on the state of science. Science is designed to provide translations of foreign cultural texts , thus providing even basic source materials , to expand and deepen the research that would reveal the specifics of a particular culture and bring the level of fruitful comparative analysis. Multicultural education is still nowhere to be practiced as an integral part of education . In essence, the first serious initiative to change the situation in practice comes from the Foundation Dialogue of Civilizations , whose leadership in the person of Vladimir Yakunin intends to transform the network of schools Railways in the school of dialogue of cultures . It is clear that to implement large-scale project , which could become a pilot in the transformation of the educational system of the Russian Federation , its not a single day. It can be implemented in stages over several years. Start by study of the concept of school of intercultural dialogue where you need to keep in mind the total number of schools Railways , their spatial locations, acting on this day curriculum , qualifications and professional capacities of the teaching staff . Need to be discussed with principals and teachers of their interests and abilities , to take into account their wishes and recommendations. The next step - the development of common syllabus Dialogue of Cultures . The possibilities are limited by a small number of course hours that can be allocated for its teaching within the already overloaded curriculum. With this in mind , it seems appropriate to limit the inclusion in the program material on the major cultures of non-Western civilizations of the modern world : the world of Islam , China and India. Next - writing manuals for teachers and advanced training courses for teachers of Russian Railways . Finally , the preparation and publication of school textbooks (or benefits for students ) at the rate of Dialogue of Cultures . For the successful implementation of the project requires constant monitoring of the course Dialogue of Cultures in the school learning process. From the above it is permissible to conclude that multicultural education - is a definite landmark move forward , it is difficult reachable goal that requires time and great team effort. It should be aimed at the creation , creative problem solving involvement of different identities to a common space of identity, so that the unit could become a set of parts. It is intended to help people on their different identities , but at the same time, forced or willing to live together, to think themselves , discuss and voluntarily come to the inevitable trade-offs . This is the way for the formation of Russian national identity , as well as conflict-free coexistence of the peoples of our planet.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 22:40:29 +0000