Session Information
10 SES 05 C, Parallel Paper Session
Parallel Paper Session
Contribution
In the face of European integration, the complex issues of cultural diversity create challenging goals for Ukrainian teacher educators. The studies showed worrisome setbacks in Ukraine, continuing on a dangerous trajectory toward authoritarian governance which backslides in key areas of democratic practices. They revealed deep ethnic, religious, economic and political divisions and eventually split the Ukrainian nation into two opposing parts – East and West, with the agrarian West that is ardently nationalist, predominantly Catholic and anti-Russian, and the industrial East which is predominantly oriented toward Russia in speech and Orthodox religion (Fisher, 2002; Koshmanova, Carter and Hapon, 2003).
The difficult tasks they now confront include the issues of how best help teacher candidates participate in an increasingly pluralistic world and how to instil the tolerance and acceptance necessary for them to deal with growing ethnic, racial and class differences. The mission needs to be extended to include the teaching of independent, critical thinking in order that young people can effectively compete in the market economy and contribute to the common good within united Europe (Koshmanova & Holm, 2007), a concept promoted by the Bologna Process. The studies show that the majority of teacher educators are doubtful about the successful implementation of change (Koshmanova & Ravchyna, 2008). Instructors supporting Bologna education often lack a profound understanding of the basic philosophy of democracy and the skills needed to make student learning more effective and culturally sensitive. The situation worsens when it comes to implementing Soviet psychological heritage and the ideas of cultural –historical theory (Koshmanova, 2006), which, despite having recently come to the international prominence, are fully rejected by modern Ukrainian teacher educators. The major stereotype is connected with the premise that Ukrainian teacher education has to be based on patriotic ideas of Ukrainian history, which were ignored in the Soviet era.
The goal of this study is to explore the method for developing teacher candidates’ multicultural beliefs of accepting those who have different viewpoints and ethnic backgrounds. Based on the supposition that socio-cognitive conflict can become an effective tool for developing culturally diverse values of students (Rubtsov, 2005), the conceptual framework of this paper is grounded in the premises of cultural-historical theory of activity emphasizing social situation as a source of human development (Vygotsky, 1978). The procedure for this study involved investigating a change in teacher candidates’ views of multiculturalism under the influence of conducted peer mediation (Ravchyna, 2006). The paper specifically analyses learning experiences of teacher candidates as they reflected on their multicultural practices after peer mediation. It also utilizes research findings of cultural-historical theory of activity on socio-cognitive conflict to inform the field of teacher education about the issues of multicultural acceptance. Research results demonstrated that peer mediation can be effectively used in teacher education classes as a method of teaching cultural diversity.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Davydov, V.V. (1990).Teoria razvivayushchego obuchenia [Developmental learning theory]. Moscow: Prosveshchenie. Fisher, Claudia (2002). Can one write history without a heroic pathos? Notes suggested by checking the best student competition papers on the history of Ukraine. In: Doba in Civic Education, No 2, pp.7-15. Koshmanova, T. S (2008) “Socio-cognitive conflict as a tool for changing students’ beliefs for democracy.” Paper presented at the Second ISCAR Conference “Ecologies of Diversities: Developmental and Historical Interarticulation of Human Mediational Forms”, San Diego, 8-13 September, University of San Diego. Koshmanova, T. S., & Holm, G. (2007). Post-Soviet reconstruction in Ukraine: Education for social cohesion. In: Z. Bekerman & C. McGlynn (Eds.). Addressing ethnic conflict through peace education. Jerusalem: Palgrave-Macmillan, 231-244. Koshmanova, T. S., Carter, C. C., & Hapon, N. P. (2003) Crisis-response discourse of prospective teachers, Academic Exchange Quarterly, 7.4, 250-256. Koshmanova, T. S. (2008) Bologna Process: Exploring mechanisms of European enlargement in Ukraine. In Joan DeBardeleben, Ed. The boundaries of European Union enlargement: Finding a place for neighbours. London & New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 165-182 Koshmanova, T. S. (2006a). National identity and cultural coherence in educational reform for democratic citizenship: The case of Ukraine. Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice, 1, March, 105-118. Leont'ev, A.N. (1977) Деятельность. Сознание. Личность [Activity: Consciousness, and Personality] Moscow: Pedagogika. Also available in English online at http://www.marxists.org/archive/leontev/works/1978/index.htm Ravchyna, T. V. (2006). Civic and personal values of students: Conflict resolution. Visnyk, 21 (2), 2006), p 3-15. Rubtsov, V.V. (2005). Social interaction and education: Cultural-historical context. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 1, 14-23. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.).
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