Continuous Teacher Education in Russia

This chapter will explore the main historical trends of the continuous teacher education development in Russia since the 18th century till present. Continuous teacher education in Russia has been a historically changing problem. Its roots lie in the end of the 18th century but its further formation relates to the emergence and development of open comprehensive schools and the spread of general education and opening the universities throughout the country in the 19th century. At the same time neither in the 18th nor the 19th centuries, teacher education in Russia could not be considered as a system, since its structure did not yet have orderliness, stability, constancy and integrity, even at a minimal level (various educational institutions were abolished and closed, teacher education was just beginning to appear in the regions). Thus, the formation of teacher education as a system fell on the border of the 19th–20th centuries. The topic of continuous teacher education in the USSR received impetus since 1986, when the requirements of scientific and technological revolution determined the task of creating a unified system of continuous education in the Soviet Union. At the same time, the continuous education was not recognised as a guiding principle of the teachers' professional development, although de facto it already existed in the 1920s. The phenomenon of continuity in teacher education, understood as the totality of means and forms of obtaining and deepening teacher education throughout life, existed as early as the beginning of the 20th century.

In the context of a developing society and ever-increasing requirements for the level of education of citizens, the issues of training teaching staff capable of effectively solving professional problems in constantly changing circumstances becomes especially relevant. This, in turn, actualises the issues of such a system of teacher education ensuring the constant professional growth of teachers during the entire period of their active pedagogical activity. Such a system implies the possibility for a person to carry out continuous improvement in the field of professional pedagogical activity, which in modern scientific literature corresponds to the concept of ‘continuous education’. It is interpreted as a process of increasing the general and professional educational level of a person, developing appropriate abilities throughout life. The purpose of the chapter is to analyse the structural and functional characteristics of the system of Russia's continuous teacher education and its status and personality subsystems. The structure of the system of continuous teacher education is revealed, and the structural and functional characteristics of the status and personal aspects of this system are identified and described.

Pedagogical classes within the general secondary education system in Russia have been practised for almost two centuries. They have been recognised as an effective teacher training method in complicated stages of national history and as a part of the vocational guidance of school students. Modern pedagogical classes, on the one hand, can be a significant element of the system of continuous teacher education. On the other hand, they contribute to the understanding of the meaning and content of the teacher's profession, and solve the problems of vocational guidance and professional identity. The purpose of pedagogical classes of the late 20th to early 21st century is to have students prepared for choosing a teaching profession and further study in teacher training institutions and universities.

Secondary professional teacher education (onwards – SPTE) in Russia has gone through many stages, from ups to downs. There have been periods when SPTE was in low demand and associated with poor student success. However, SPTE has been able to meet the socio-economic challenges of the time, take its place in the hierarchy of Russian education and become a competitive and effective system of practice-oriented teacher training.

The chapter is devoted to the subject description of the dynamic process of formation and development of modern SPTE as an educational system. The authors analyse scientific and pedagogical publications and methodological works of Russian scientists and summarise the results on the basis of their analysis. The proposed chapter ‘Secondary Professional Pedagogical Education in Russia’ will consider the development of the modern system of secondary professional teacher education in Russia. Particular emphasis is placed on the continuity of the theory and practice of teacher training, the peculiarities of a person-centred educational environment and the strong continuity of secondary professional and higher teacher education.

The current structure and content of higher pedagogical education in Russia is a unique interweaving of the traditions of the historical past with post-Soviet and modern reforms of the last 30 years. They reflect the complex process of development of the national teacher training system, each stage of which not only built on the previous one, but also brought something new and more perfect, without denying the previous experience. The current situation in teacher education in Russia is quite diverse and original. Teachers have the opportunity to study in specialised secondary, higher and professionally oriented postgraduate education programmes.

This chapter presents modern higher pedagogical education in Russia as a rather complex and multilevel system. This required a rather in-depth coverage of state policy, structure and content of Federal State Educational Standards. On this basis, the authors planned to achieve a full understanding of the phenomenon of the combination of centralisation and decentralisation of the teacher training process in Russia, where the existing legal and content frameworks nevertheless leave ample opportunities for variability and autonomy in the formation of educational programmes at universities and institutes.

The problem of introducing novice teachers into the profession and professional development of future teachers is urgent due to the social significance of the professionalism factor in Russian continuous teacher education. Special attention on the part of the country's government, as well as local authorities, is paid to projects related to the effective adjustment of novice teachers in the professional pedagogical environment. This process implies joint work of school, university, ministry and department leaders and staff.

The leading mechanisms for the professional development of novice teachers are modernisation of initial teacher education and reflexive management technologies in schools. The creation of qualitatively new content and conditions of scientific and methodological support for novice teachers requires the development of network and productive innovations in the education system. It also implies the development of organisational models for the professional development of novice teachers, implemented at different levels.

This chapter analyses the structure, content and development trends of the system of postgraduate teacher training in Russia. It is shown that the system of postgraduate training in Russia has a long history and consists of postgraduate and doctoral levels. The trends that influenced the dynamics and essence of the modernisation processes of Russian postgraduate education are revealed. The content, logic and shortcomings of the not quite successful attempt to standardise the process of training higher-qualified personnel in postgraduate studies are substantiated. Changes in the nomenclature of scientific specialties, which are used to award academic degrees in pedagogy, are revealed.

The main part of the material is devoted to the general characteristics of the current pedagogical postgraduate programmes in Russia. It describes the peculiarities of the admission procedure and the organisation of training for graduate students, the nuances of the choice of supervisor, the definition of the thesis topic, and the current, intermediate, and final certification of graduate students. The essence of co-doctoral studies as a form of dissertation preparation is revealed. The requirements for the preparation, design and defence of candidate dissertations in pedagogy are outlined. The form of advanced training of scientific and pedagogical staff for the preparation of doctoral dissertations is briefly described.

The system of higher education in the Russian Federation due to the high share of fundamental training is focused on ensuring the foundation of permanent stability of the graduate, while the system of additional professional education is obliged to take into account the current state of the educational services market, which is characterised by globalisation, diversification, digitalisation and international integration. Therefore, the main focus of the modern system of additional professional education of teachers is the creation of favourable organisational, content, procedural and other conditions that contribute to the professional development and creative self-realisation of teachers, taking into account their individual needs and abilities. In this section, based on the analysis of normative documents and innovative experience of professional development and retraining of education specialists, the goals and objectives, structure and content, main development trends and modern training technologies, features of the internal system of quality assessment of additional professional education of teachers in Russia are disclosed.

This chapter presents the research findings of the study aimed at identifying the features of the content of teacher training for working in ethnocultural environment. This content depends on the language policy and geopolitical processes taking place in the world. Modern ethnocultural training at universities should include the flow of continuous transformation and development of the content and methods of teaching: the actualisation of only innovative or digital methods makes young teachers powerless when faced unpredictable ethnocultural situations in pedagogical practice.

The effectiveness of teacher training for ethnocultural education depends on properly constructed bilingual, multicultural, civic and patriotic education. The foundation of this training should be a properly formed national-cultural code, the indicators of which are ethnocultural knowledge, mechanisms of understanding, feelings, behaviour and self-realisation. The multicultural (intercultural) environment in the modern world is being transformed: the degree of use of native languages in Russia and abroad is decreasing. To prepare teachers to work in this changing environment (based on the principles of dialogue of cultures, languages equality, recognition of the right to speak and receive education in their native language), it is necessary to restructure the content and system of teacher training, the content of educational and methodological materials, taking into account the real facts of ethnogenesis.