Katerina KABAKHIDZE, Lomonosov Moscow State University, RU
The landscape of HE, delineated by globalization in economy and internalization processes launched by integration of the labor markets on a global scale, has been recently tormented by the world crisis named COVID-19, which turned formerly flourishing garden of education into a desert with empty schools and universities, teachers asking for mercy due to extremely heavy workload that appeared out of the blue, and students thirsty for live communication with their peers and teachers.
The aim of the research is to analyze the educational paradigm generated and shared by the HE landscape from a philosophical perspective in the 21 century before COVID-19 and track the transformation postulated by the pandemic. The research is based on the scientific papers, scholar’s comments and newspaper articles to reveal the changes introduced in HE, identify the challenges and provide mental constructions of the newly shaped HE, its perspectives and forms in the after-COVID era. Previously the philosophy of education was grounded on four pillars: globalization, transcendental understanding, post modernistic values and time of uncertainty. Here is a brief description of all of them.
Globalization. This phenomenon is an integration process of a planetary scale in the field of economics, politics, culture, entails anthropogenic changes in the environment, which are universal in nature and affect the interests of the entire world society.
Transcendence of understanding. Humanitarian knowledge, which is based on values, ideals, worldviews, in each era gets its own interpretation. The meaning cannot be understood all at once, without a trace, it is achievable by many people and many unique ways in which people come to results that do not exclude, but, on the contrary, assuming mutual understanding. Thus, hermeneutical research methods for penetrating the consciousness of authors, cultural backgrounds, the spirit of the era, the secrets of the text, measuring the potentiality of the interpreter are being updated today.
Postmodern society. Postmodernism is based on a conscious rejection of the ideas and ideals of the New Age, a sceptical attitude towards binary oppositions, and endless possibilities for interpreting reality. Postmodernism aims at ridding culture of the dictates of reason and traditions, developing the idea of a world of “simulacrum”. This is the era of “overcoming” the mind, the fight against the “dictates of reason”, the tradition of rationality.
Time of uncertainty. The uncertainty principle has deep historical roots, the basis of uncertainty lies in the very nature of man. It is “uncertainty” that prompts a person to think, and then act. Thus, it acts as a kind of “engine”. The state of uncertainty in the education system arises both in the teacher (“how to learn?”, “What to learn?”), The student (“what to study?”, “How to study?”), And in the education system as a whole. Today, the principle of uncertainty is actively developed by modern scientists, in particular, to solve the problems of modernization of modern education.In the post Covid-19 era globalization will be replaced by disintegration both on a state and societal levels, postmodern society will announce new values of rationality, metaphysical instead of empirical thinking. Following the dominant philosophical, value-worldview attitudes of the 21st century society, a new education paradigm began to take shape in the world.
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