PROJECTING LIFE COMPETENCY OF URBAN YOUTH
Monographie / Editor–Prof., PhD. O.V. Kuzmina
herausgegeben von Olena KuzminaThe well-known Ukrainian political scientist M. F. Holovatiy said, “We must create such conditions for young people that they should have the freedom to choose. And the freedom to choose of every member of society and to realize his/her interests, requests and needs are always largely limited to the level of the development of a particular society and the social relations available in it”. We appeal to our readers-scientists, pedagogues, students and those people who are involved in working with children, the youth being guided by these very words. In every society, every country, as in each person’s life, there are periods when he/she needs help. And in this situation the help of specialists can play a special role. We are well aware that only a professionally competent specialist can solve those complex, controversial and painful issues and problems which have come to a halt in a young state, in the youth of this state, who are experiencing the crisis stage of their formation. It is for this purpose that we have attempted to prepare this collective monograph, which, we’d like to believe, will help scientists, professionals, pedagogues, educators and students to form a vital competence in student youth, based on different perspectives, and different directions of this work. We hope that our collective work can help more effectively the younger generation not only to their self-realisation, self-improvement, but also to be aware of his/her role in creating and filling the society in which they live today and will live tomorrow with the creative content.
The urgent problem of contemporary pedagogical theory and practice is to form the vital competences of the student youth. The appeal of the public, scientists, scholars, pedagogues, psychologists to this problem is determined by the fact that the students under the conditions of a democratic society are not to remain on the verge of socio-cultural processes, the economic life of the society, the system of human relations. They are supposed to have adequate life experience, to perceive correctly, to evaluate, to use creatively the material and spiritual benefits of the Ukrainian people.
Developing the democratic principles in Ukraine, joining it to the international cooperation have created favourable conditions for the international legal documents on social protection of children and youth to become valid and effective in our state. This is, first of all, the UNO’s Convention on Children’s Rights, the European Social Charter, the Salamanca Declaration and a number of other international acts. Ukraine has gained world-wide experience of socialising children and as a sovereign state, it has undertaken a specific commitment to realise the practice of these constitutional rights. Participating the state and public organisations in resolving this problem becomes especially important because of the lack of preparedness of the student youth for independent living.
The basis for solving these issues is the Law of Ukraine “On Education” (1996), the National Doctrine on Developing Education of Ukraine (2001), the Law of Ukraine “On Social Services” (2003), the Law of Ukraine “On Assistance to Social Formation and Development of Youth People in Ukraine” (2004); the Decree of the President of Ukraine “On Top Priority Measures on Protection of Rights of Children” (2005), the General State Program “National Plan of Actions for Implementing the UNO’s Convention on Rights of the Child for the Period until 2016”, etc.
Particularly relevant is the problem of forming the vital competency of the student youth, since the students at graduating from the educational institution should be trained and prepared to live independently, but in fact most of them often feel unprepared to choose their own livelihood, they lack basic everyday, economic, legal, socio-cultural knowledge and skills.
The relevance and urgency of the problem of forming the vital competence of the student youth is due to a number of reasons.
Firstly, orienting the modern Ukrainian society to openness, humanisation, democratisation, integration of social relations, which requires the direction of the institutions of socialisation to prepare and train the younger generation for a conscious and responsible choice of life strategies and life prospects of forming the new wide spectrum of competencies.
Secondly, the processes of internationalisation and globalisation, which are currently taking place in society, realization of the ideas of establishing the European Union, which require from the modern youth the ability to build relationships under different conditions of life, to be economically mobile, flexible, competitive, prepared for overcoming life-threatening crises.
Thirdly, they are becoming urgent by transforming the social order to the institutes of social upbringing, providing vital, professional, and personal self-determination under the conditions of different moral traditions and valuable orientations.
Fourthly, they are due to the social reality that is constantly changing, with the attempts of contemporary social policy to correct the activity of the institutions of the boarding-house type, as well as the constant danger of marginalisation of that part of the wards of the boarding schools, which appear to be unprepared for complicated realities of life and unable to overcome them constructively.
Consequently, the problem of comprehension of accumulated theoretical knowledge on the issues of forming the vitally competent personality and the need to generalise practical experience of organising the social and upbringing process in this direction of work in theory of pedagogy, social pedagogy is relevant.
The theoretical basis of our research is the historical and pedagogical analysis of the sources, which allows us to assert that the ideas of forming the vital competence of man, citizen, are reflected in the theological, philosophical, sociological, psychological and pedagogical concepts by many authors, since the ancient times, namely: in the works by Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Quintilian, A. Dysterveg, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, domestic ones (D. Doroshenko, M. Hrushevskyi, A. Zhukovskyi, O. Subtelnyi, F. Prokopovych).
Phenomenon of competence in the foreign human studies was intensively studied in the past history by M. Argal, D. Baacke, R. Bohnsack, J. Habermas, H. U. Otto, К. Filleman and other scientists who present the definition of this phenomenon, uncover its essential features from different methodological angles, characterise the peculiarities of the manifestations at early childhood, at preschool and junior school age, set the connections between the levels of formation, in particular life competence, and the degree of disadaptation of the person.
The monographic investigations have also been carried out on the basis of the analysis of the problem of competence in the works of domestic and foreign authors (V. Baidenko, N. Bibik, I. Zymnia, O. Lokshyna, A. Markova, O. Ovcharuk, O. Pometun, A. Khutorskoi and others). The named competence is usually studied focusing on pedagogy of vocational education, in the context of training, retraining, advanced training of specialists, in particular, social pedagogues and social workers.
In recent years, there have been a number of publications devoted to various types of competencies: autopsychological, informational, methodical, emotional, and language (O. Bihich, Yu. Vardanian, N. Havrysh, N. Kuzmina, L. Khoruzha, O. Shyian and others).
The problems of forming and developing the indicators of life competence have been studied by the scientists of many branches of knowledge and specialists-practitioners. Thus, the philosophical aspects of the process of forming the life competence of the individual are indicated in the scientific researches by M. Stepanenko. In the pedagogical and socio-pedagogical investigations of the last years, the various aspects of the problem of substantiating the vital competence of the child and the young person have been highlighted: the conditions of forming the social competence of the senior teen (M. Doktorovych); forming the life competence of senior pupils of secondary schools (I. Yashchuk); forming the culture of life self-determination of senior pupils of secondary schools (T. Tsiuman); the analysis of the indicators of forming various forms of the life competence (D. Voronin – healthkeeping, T. Drozhzhyna – conflictological); psychological readiness of the students to marriage and family relations in the context of their social maturity (O. Kiz); studying the level of social deprivation in adolescents (A. Polianychko) and others.
Due attention in the modern socio-pedagogical studies is paid to the problems of orphans and children deprived of parental care, in particular, to such its aspects: social diagnostics of the process of education in residential boarding institutions (O. Balakireva, O. Kovalenko and others); expert evaluation of the system of maintenance and education of children deprived of parental care (L. Volynets, N. Komarova, L. Melnychuk, O. Antonova-Turchenko); comprehensive assessment of the needs of the child in residential boarding institutions (O. Bezpalko, I. Zvierieva, O. Karahodina); analysis of socialization of orphans and children deprived of parental care in alternative forms of care and guardianship and in shelters for the juvenile (L. Kalchenko, N. Pavlyk, I. Piesha); social and pedagogical bases of organising upbringing work with the youth (V. Shtyfurak, N. Chernukha); technologization of social and pedagogical work with different categories of orphans (L. Vakhovskyi, O. Karaman, M. Kratinov, V. Kratinova, O. Pesotska, S. Kharchenko and others).
The comparative analysis of institutional and family forms of child custody in Central and Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union republics is presented in the proceedings by R. Karter; the comparative analysis of the state of mental development of children brought up in the family, and orphans who are brought up in public institutions – in the studies by O. Holyk, O. Morozova; the issues of training graduates of residential boarding care institutions for independent life are studied by R. Vainola, Zh. Petrochko, O. Denysiuk.
The definite area of research is devoted to the consideration of various aspects of social and educational work with senior school children: the content, forms and methods of forming social responsibility of senior school children (V. Ternopilska); the pedagogical conditions of optimisation of the process of personal self-expression of senior school children (L. Serediuk); the social and pedagogical conditions of personality-oriented upbringing of senior school children (N. Tymoshchuk); the pedagogical conditions of self-realisation of senior school children (S. Harmash); the ways of formation of separate indicators in activity of senior school children (O. Artiukhova, A. Kovalova, L. Korinna, H. Kossak and others).
At the same time, analysing the state of studying the problem of forming the life competence of the students has shown that implementing this process is due to a number of contradictions between:
the need of society for well-bred, educated, adapted to life under the modern conditions young people who operate a set of dominant life competencies and the lack of the concept of forming the life competence of the students;
the trends in using the competence-based approach in justifying the social and upbringing process of educational institutions in modern pedagogical theory and practice and the lack of the evidence-based model of forming the students’ life competence;
the needs of social and pedagogical practice in effective content and technological support of the process of forming the life competence of the studying youth and the need of introducing the social and pedagogical conditions of forming the life competence of the studying youth providing modernisation of the content, forms and methods of social and pedagogical work with students.
Therefore, the purpose of our collective monograph is to substantiate the theoretical foundations of the process of forming the life competence of the students and to assist in solving the above mentioned issues.
The urgent problem of contemporary pedagogical theory and practice is to form the vital competences of the student youth. The appeal of the public, scientists, scholars, pedagogues, psychologists to this problem is determined by the fact that the students under the conditions of a democratic society are not to remain on the verge of socio-cultural processes, the economic life of the society, the system of human relations. They are supposed to have adequate life experience, to perceive correctly, to evaluate, to use creatively the material and spiritual benefits of the Ukrainian people.
Developing the democratic principles in Ukraine, joining it to the international cooperation have created favourable conditions for the international legal documents on social protection of children and youth to become valid and effective in our state. This is, first of all, the UNO’s Convention on Children’s Rights, the European Social Charter, the Salamanca Declaration and a number of other international acts. Ukraine has gained world-wide experience of socialising children and as a sovereign state, it has undertaken a specific commitment to realise the practice of these constitutional rights. Participating the state and public organisations in resolving this problem becomes especially important because of the lack of preparedness of the student youth for independent living.
The basis for solving these issues is the Law of Ukraine “On Education” (1996), the National Doctrine on Developing Education of Ukraine (2001), the Law of Ukraine “On Social Services” (2003), the Law of Ukraine “On Assistance to Social Formation and Development of Youth People in Ukraine” (2004); the Decree of the President of Ukraine “On Top Priority Measures on Protection of Rights of Children” (2005), the General State Program “National Plan of Actions for Implementing the UNO’s Convention on Rights of the Child for the Period until 2016”, etc.
Particularly relevant is the problem of forming the vital competency of the student youth, since the students at graduating from the educational institution should be trained and prepared to live independently, but in fact most of them often feel unprepared to choose their own livelihood, they lack basic everyday, economic, legal, socio-cultural knowledge and skills.
The relevance and urgency of the problem of forming the vital competence of the student youth is due to a number of reasons.
Firstly, orienting the modern Ukrainian society to openness, humanisation, democratisation, integration of social relations, which requires the direction of the institutions of socialisation to prepare and train the younger generation for a conscious and responsible choice of life strategies and life prospects of forming the new wide spectrum of competencies.
Secondly, the processes of internationalisation and globalisation, which are currently taking place in society, realization of the ideas of establishing the European Union, which require from the modern youth the ability to build relationships under different conditions of life, to be economically mobile, flexible, competitive, prepared for overcoming life-threatening crises.
Thirdly, they are becoming urgent by transforming the social order to the institutes of social upbringing, providing vital, professional, and personal self-determination under the conditions of different moral traditions and valuable orientations.
Fourthly, they are due to the social reality that is constantly changing, with the attempts of contemporary social policy to correct the activity of the institutions of the boarding-house type, as well as the constant danger of marginalisation of that part of the wards of the boarding schools, which appear to be unprepared for complicated realities of life and unable to overcome them constructively.
Consequently, the problem of comprehension of accumulated theoretical knowledge on the issues of forming the vitally competent personality and the need to generalise practical experience of organising the social and upbringing process in this direction of work in theory of pedagogy, social pedagogy is relevant.
The theoretical basis of our research is the historical and pedagogical analysis of the sources, which allows us to assert that the ideas of forming the vital competence of man, citizen, are reflected in the theological, philosophical, sociological, psychological and pedagogical concepts by many authors, since the ancient times, namely: in the works by Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Quintilian, A. Dysterveg, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, domestic ones (D. Doroshenko, M. Hrushevskyi, A. Zhukovskyi, O. Subtelnyi, F. Prokopovych).
Phenomenon of competence in the foreign human studies was intensively studied in the past history by M. Argal, D. Baacke, R. Bohnsack, J. Habermas, H. U. Otto, К. Filleman and other scientists who present the definition of this phenomenon, uncover its essential features from different methodological angles, characterise the peculiarities of the manifestations at early childhood, at preschool and junior school age, set the connections between the levels of formation, in particular life competence, and the degree of disadaptation of the person.
The monographic investigations have also been carried out on the basis of the analysis of the problem of competence in the works of domestic and foreign authors (V. Baidenko, N. Bibik, I. Zymnia, O. Lokshyna, A. Markova, O. Ovcharuk, O. Pometun, A. Khutorskoi and others). The named competence is usually studied focusing on pedagogy of vocational education, in the context of training, retraining, advanced training of specialists, in particular, social pedagogues and social workers.
In recent years, there have been a number of publications devoted to various types of competencies: autopsychological, informational, methodical, emotional, and language (O. Bihich, Yu. Vardanian, N. Havrysh, N. Kuzmina, L. Khoruzha, O. Shyian and others).
The problems of forming and developing the indicators of life competence have been studied by the scientists of many branches of knowledge and specialists-practitioners. Thus, the philosophical aspects of the process of forming the life competence of the individual are indicated in the scientific researches by M. Stepanenko. In the pedagogical and socio-pedagogical investigations of the last years, the various aspects of the problem of substantiating the vital competence of the child and the young person have been highlighted: the conditions of forming the social competence of the senior teen (M. Doktorovych); forming the life competence of senior pupils of secondary schools (I. Yashchuk); forming the culture of life self-determination of senior pupils of secondary schools (T. Tsiuman); the analysis of the indicators of forming various forms of the life competence (D. Voronin – healthkeeping, T. Drozhzhyna – conflictological); psychological readiness of the students to marriage and family relations in the context of their social maturity (O. Kiz); studying the level of social deprivation in adolescents (A. Polianychko) and others.
Due attention in the modern socio-pedagogical studies is paid to the problems of orphans and children deprived of parental care, in particular, to such its aspects: social diagnostics of the process of education in residential boarding institutions (O. Balakireva, O. Kovalenko and others); expert evaluation of the system of maintenance and education of children deprived of parental care (L. Volynets, N. Komarova, L. Melnychuk, O. Antonova-Turchenko); comprehensive assessment of the needs of the child in residential boarding institutions (O. Bezpalko, I. Zvierieva, O. Karahodina); analysis of socialization of orphans and children deprived of parental care in alternative forms of care and guardianship and in shelters for the juvenile (L. Kalchenko, N. Pavlyk, I. Piesha); social and pedagogical bases of organising upbringing work with the youth (V. Shtyfurak, N. Chernukha); technologization of social and pedagogical work with different categories of orphans (L. Vakhovskyi, O. Karaman, M. Kratinov, V. Kratinova, O. Pesotska, S. Kharchenko and others).
The comparative analysis of institutional and family forms of child custody in Central and Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union republics is presented in the proceedings by R. Karter; the comparative analysis of the state of mental development of children brought up in the family, and orphans who are brought up in public institutions – in the studies by O. Holyk, O. Morozova; the issues of training graduates of residential boarding care institutions for independent life are studied by R. Vainola, Zh. Petrochko, O. Denysiuk.
The definite area of research is devoted to the consideration of various aspects of social and educational work with senior school children: the content, forms and methods of forming social responsibility of senior school children (V. Ternopilska); the pedagogical conditions of optimisation of the process of personal self-expression of senior school children (L. Serediuk); the social and pedagogical conditions of personality-oriented upbringing of senior school children (N. Tymoshchuk); the pedagogical conditions of self-realisation of senior school children (S. Harmash); the ways of formation of separate indicators in activity of senior school children (O. Artiukhova, A. Kovalova, L. Korinna, H. Kossak and others).
At the same time, analysing the state of studying the problem of forming the life competence of the students has shown that implementing this process is due to a number of contradictions between:
the need of society for well-bred, educated, adapted to life under the modern conditions young people who operate a set of dominant life competencies and the lack of the concept of forming the life competence of the students;
the trends in using the competence-based approach in justifying the social and upbringing process of educational institutions in modern pedagogical theory and practice and the lack of the evidence-based model of forming the students’ life competence;
the needs of social and pedagogical practice in effective content and technological support of the process of forming the life competence of the studying youth and the need of introducing the social and pedagogical conditions of forming the life competence of the studying youth providing modernisation of the content, forms and methods of social and pedagogical work with students.
Therefore, the purpose of our collective monograph is to substantiate the theoretical foundations of the process of forming the life competence of the students and to assist in solving the above mentioned issues.