ISSN 0798 1015
ISSN 0798 1015
Vol. 39 (Number 38) Year 2018. Page 25
Liubov Vasilevna VASILKINA 1; Irina Aleksandrovna ZETKINA 2; Vladimir Ilich ROGACHEV 3; Petr Vasilevich ZAMKIN 4; Vladimir Viacheslavovich MIROSHKIN 5
Received: 20/04/2018 • Approved: 05/06/2018
ABSTRACT: In the paper, possibilities of cultural and educational space of a separate region of the country in adaptation of migrants’ children are analysed. The authors consider the potential of institutes of cultural adaptation (educational institutions, museums, recreation areas, cultural and pedagogical community, etc.), ways of including foreign ethnic non-citizens and their children in the socio-cultural sphere of the region, and through it – in the socio-cultural space of the country. The authors’ position leans on the ontology of studying the problem of migrants’ adaptation: works of foreign and national scientists of the 20th – beginning of the 21st centuries, analysis of modern migration situation in a specific region of Russia and ways of adaptation of migrants’ children in a socio-cultural environment. Conceptual positions of the work lean on the theory of interactionism, disclosing the importance of socio-cultural and educational environment during adaptation of migrants’ children, the theory of structural functionalism revealing adaptation mechanisms. The authors give examples of ways and techniques of adaptation of the migrants' children in the regional cultural environment, using its recreational areas. |
RESUMEN: En el documento, se analizan las posibilidades de espacio cultural y educativo de una región separada del país en la adaptación de los hijos de migrantes. Los autores consideran el potencial de los institutos de adaptación cultural (instituciones educativas, museos, áreas recreativas, comunidad cultural y pedagógica, etc.), formas de incluir a extranjeros no étnicos y sus hijos en la esfera sociocultural de la región, y a través de él - en el espacio sociocultural del país. La posición de los autores se basa en la ontología del estudio del problema de la adaptación de los migrantes: trabajos de científicos extranjeros y nacionales del siglo XX - principios del siglo XXI, análisis de la situación de la migración moderna en una región específica de Rusia y formas de adaptación de los migrantes 'niños en un ambiente sociocultural. Las posiciones conceptuales del trabajo se apoyan en la teoría del interaccionismo, revelando la importancia del entorno sociocultural y educativo durante la adaptación de los hijos de migrantes, la teoría del funcionalismo estructural que revela los mecanismos de adaptación. Los autores dan ejemplos de formas y técnicas de adaptación de los hijos de los migrantes en el entorno cultural regional, utilizando sus áreas recreativas. |
Migration processes are a leading characteristic of the modern global world. Social instability, economic development, modernised characteristics, demographic processes of separate regions and the country as a whole experience influence of migration flows. The degree of socio-cultural incorporatedness of arrivals in a socium determines fluctuation and stability of socium development, which determines attention of different branches of modern humanitarian knowledge to the problem of effective adaptation of migrants.
In the authors’ opinion, regional socio-cultural space can be a locus in studying characteristics of foreign ethnic migration, its problems and ways of solution.
The Republic of Mordovia is a polyethnic entity of the Russian Federation with the resident population of 809 174 people as of January 1, 2017. The major population of the republic is the Mordva (subethnic groups – the Mordva-Moksha and the Mordva-Erzya). The Russians are considered as predominant in the population number (53 %). The Mordva makes 40 % of the population; the Tartars – 5 %. The Ukrainians, the Armenians, the Chuvash, the Belarusians, the Azerbaijanis, the Uzbeks, the Tajiks, the Georgians, the Germans, the Moldavians, the Maris, the Jewish, the Bashkirs, the Kazakhs and the Udmurts in a descending order make less than 1% among the resident citizens of the republic.
A general population increase in 2016 made 1 721 people: with a natural negative increase of 3 392, a migration increase of 5 113 people, and in Saransk (the capital of the republic) the migration increase made 7 487 people (Territorial form of federal service of state statistics in the Republic of Mordovia 2016).
A lot of students from near and far abroad study at higher schools of the republic. But the basis of migration flows is made up of labour migrants.
The peculiarity of foreign ethnic labour migrants in the republic according to the data of the Federal Migration Service of Russia in the Republic of Mordovia is determined by the following features: a low educational level; absence of professional training; prevailing women over men (Territorial form of FMSD of Russia for the Republic of Mordovia 2016). The latter conditions a significant number of children, accompanying grown-up migrants.
The children represent the problem and least protected category among migrants. The children suffer acutely from the problem of bad living conditions, difficulty in orientation in an unfamiliar space, psychological uncertainty because of difficulty of language communication and forced adaptation to standards of new environment.
A phenomenon of socio-cultural adaptation implies involvement of a personality in different spheres of life activity of an indigenous socium. Social roles of children accentuate educational environment as a dominating sphere in adaptation. But a socio-cultural environment represents a complex sphere of social, material, spiritual structures, in which a human being lives one’s everyday life, one’s activity is realised. When isolating migrants’ children from other elements of the socio-cultural space, making up a coadaptive field of the republic, adaptation processes slow down or become incomplete.
Extension of the adaptation space of the children owing to culturally significant institutional entities of the region allows strengthening perceptional processes, activating emotional motivation of assimilation of new social reality and translating it to home environment.
A methodological foundation of studying the problems related to the process of social adaptation of migrants is presented in works by Ph. Bock (Bock 1988), M. Weber (Weber 1990), R. Merton (Merton 1966), representatives of Chicago school of human ecology (for example, R. Park (n.d)Modern conceptual works on adaptation were created by such scientists as A.I. Arkhiezer (1998), J. Berry (2001) et al. Studies of migrants’ adaptation in conditions of different cultural environments were conducted in the works of Iu.V. Arutiunian, L.M. Drobizhev, A.A. Susokolov (1999), I.M. Badyshtova (2003), and other scientists.
Adaptation processes of migrant’s children were studied in the framework of migration pedagogy, the concept of multicultural education, the theory of dialogue of cultures.
The possibility of development and introduction of the model of establishing an environment of comfortable adaptation in educational institutions of the republic has become the material for the study. In the research, the authors used the following methods: a theoretical one consisting in studying and analysing methodological, psychological, and pedagogical studies; a socio-pedagogical one: development of foundations of the model of migrants’ children adaptation using the educational environment of the regional cultural space based on the potential of institutes of cultural adaptation (educational institutions, museums, recreation areas, cultural and pedagogical communities, etc.); an experimental one: organising and conducting ascertaining, training, and control experiments on adaptation of migrants’ children (104 children-inophones) in conditions of a regional multicultural educational space; a statistical one: analysis and generalization of the results obtained during the research.
Regional cultural space is considered in science as a “certain cultural activity environment, in which uniqueness and singularity are reflected in its character expression: through symbols, signs, memorable places, that is, in fixation of significant chronotopes of culture identification” (Genova 2011, p. 198). Sociocultural space of the region is the geographical space with pronounced subjective singularity of traditions, folklore, history, population mentality.
Migrants arriving at the region adapt themselves to the title culture through its local singularity. Adaptation of grown-ups is related to, first of all, professional consistency of migrants. Migrants’ children enter the socium through the space of educational institutions.
In the framework of the research “Regional model of language and socio-cultural adaptation of migrants’ children in educational space of school” in the Republic of Moldovia, a complex programme of migrants’ children adaptation was developed. The first stage of the programme was establishment of the environment of comfortable adaptation in educational institutions of the republic. Children-inophones with foreign cultural standards of behaviour integrated into the school cultural environment comfortably through educational and extracurricular activity of the school.
Pedagogues developed the methods of teaching the Russian language based on the initial level of its acquisition and specifics of the native language of children-inophones for the purpose of formation of their linguistic, speech and communicative competences. Programmes for home reading, deepening the knowledge of the Russian literary language and Russian cultures, were created. Readers on the Russian history – training aids, providing a propedeutic course of school study of the Russian history by children-migrants – were specially developed.
The work in educational institutions was conducted with consideration of ethnopsychology, peculiarities of ethnocultural adaptation of representatives of different ethnoprofessional groups. Socializing tasks of the programmes dominated over educational ones: it was important for the developers to remove cultural shock (K. Oberg), to create mechanisms of soft and effective sociocultural adaptation, providing positive acculturation of migrants’ children in a new sociocultural environment. The programmes did not aim to change the cultural identity of the children, but intended to extend the field of their personal identity, to remove the problem of an “alien” in perception of the dominating culture.
Successive realisation of the programme implies extension of cultural adaptation space of recipients. Intensification of adaptation processes depends on extension of social actions and communicative tasks. The space of educational institution, being a foundation of adaptation, in the natural accentuation of the spiritual sphere of culture is in need of attracting sociocultural potential resources of the region for full-fledged integration of migrants’ children.
Extension of cultural space allows strengthening perceptional processes. Functional entrance in a culture is supplemented with its value comprehension, aspiration for self-identification in a new culture.
A considerable potential of adaptation in the sociocultural space of the region belongs to museums of different thematic orientations: museums of fine arts, museums of local lore, museums of educational institutions, private thematic museums. Their cultural field and new technologies applied in this field allow forming new models of cultural identity through creative educational experience, which will provide for everyone an opportunity of active introduction into the material and spiritual values presented in expositions and stored in museum funds.
The potential of museum pedagogy in the process of sociocultural adaptation of migrants’ children is determined by peculiarities of subject environment of the museum, storing achievements of different cultures and many generations. A polylogue of cultural experience implies attention to modern bearers of different cultures, which removes the problem of their assimilation and makes interaction among cultures the main way of treating the audience in the museum space (Vilkov and Tolkunov 2017).
Arrangement of museum events for the targeted audience of migrants’ children takes into account the characteristics of the diaspora, peculiarities of acculturation, a degree of familiarization with Russian and regional cultures, knowledge of the Russian language and ethnopsychology, age-related peculiarities of the children. Namely these aspects are considered by tour guides during initial acquaintance of foreign cultural excursionists with permanent exhibitions or away sightseeing excursions for the purpose of familiarization with history, geography and sights of the region. Excursions are built by the analogy with national cultural phenomena and samples, taking into account the Russian language knowledge. Museum pedagogues strive to develop cultural susceptibility of young visitors, their ability to interpret adequately achievements of foreign cultural experience, aticipation in perception of new culture samples, to lessen the influence of negative cultural stereotypes.
In museums, season tickets have been developed for migrants’ children: museum holidays “By the path of fairytales”, “History of your toy”, “Folk costume”, “Folk calender”, “Historical map”; master-classes and museum workshops: “Revived picture”, “Craftsmen city”, “Old photograph”, “My family”, “We have discovered talents!”, “Popular wisdom”. The programme of events implies analysis and comparison of phenomena of the national culture and culture from axiology positions, revealing cultural universals by the children.
The targeted audience of these museum events is children and teenagers from 6 to 12 years old and their parents. The audience is as a rule of different age, but monoethnic, which allows orienting oneself accurately to peculiarities of the national culture as an integrative cultural basis.
Excursions, as well as many other cultural events outside the school, are arranged with involvement of leaders of migrants’ diasporas. As of 2017, 8 national and cultural associations (NCA) were registered in the Republic of Mordovia in the capacity of cultural autonomies, representing migrants’ culture (Vilkov and Tolkunov 2017). The most active of them are the Ukrainians’ NCA of Saransk city of the Republic of Mordovia; the Regional office of the All-Russian public organisation “Union of Russian Armenians” in the Republic of Mordovia; the Regional office of the All-Russian public organisation “All-Russian Azerbaijan congress” in the Republic of Mordovia. From the NCA programmes it follows that their task consists in propaganda of the national culture and creation of favourable conditions for self-realisation of diaspora representatives (Internet portal of Saransk city. 2016; AZE.az. 2010).
Owing to active involvement of NCAs in the life of the region, migrants and their children gained an opportunity of the full-fledged participation in cultural events of the cities and villages of residence.
Participation of migrants mainly children and youth in exhibitions of folk art, in festivals, Days of National Culture, Days of the village and the city has become a tradition. The republican television interviews regularly leaders of diasporas, narrating about compatriots, their goals, achievements, peculiarities of spiritual and everyday culture.
In similar mass events, a presentational comparison of one’s culture with a dominating one takes place. Formation of the attitude to a native ethnic tradition as full-fledged is provided, which removes a circumspection barrier with respect to indigenous culture. Simultaneously, relationships between migrants and local citizens improve, migration phobia decreases, which contributes to social adaptation of migrants’ children.
Children are the least protected and most socially vulnerable category among migrants. They feel the difficulties of orientation in unknown space more acutely, experience greater psychological discomfort owing to difficulty of language communication, necessity to correspond to standards of new environment.
The ascertaining experiment (104 learners-inophones in all) on determining the level and problems of migrants’ children adaptation, conducted on the base of municipal educational institutions (gymnasium No. 19, comprehensive school with advanced study of separate subjects No. 39, Lukhovskii lyceum) and in Sunday school, allowed detecting poor knowledge of the Russian language (72,1%), history and culture of the host country (84,6%).
The pilot testing work was conducted on the base of the Sunday school established on the basis of the philological department of MSPI named after M. E. Evseviev using the developed complex programme of migrants’ children adaptation in the regional cultural environment. With its help, the children-migrants integrated comfortably into the school cultural environment. The targeted audience was children and teenagers from 6 to 12 years old.
The controlling experiment revealed the following. Specific problems of educating children-migrants are a significant break in lessons, poor knowledge of the Russian language, culture and history of Russia, nonconformity with the requirements of domestic school and poor progress. Hence, there is a feeling of depression, mental instability, unwillingness and inability to conduct constructive cross-cultural discourse, difficulties in defining personality position in the socium.
Use of the methods of teaching the Russian language based on the initial level of its acquisition and specifics of the native language of children-inophones with the view of formation of their linguistic, speech and communicative competence; the programme for home reading deepening the knowledge of the Russian literary language and Russian cultures; training manuals providing a propaedeutic course of school study of Russian history by children-migrants; museum events; arrangement of cultural events, including participation of diasporas’ representatives, allowed removing significantly the acuteness of the problem of social adaptation of migrants’ children. 88,4 % of respondents among migrants’ children, going to Sunday school, noted that after completion of the programme, it became easier for them to orient themselves in the sociocultural space of the region; their interest in studying at Russian schools developed / increased.
Nowadays the problem of search for and analysis of variants of supporting the adaptation of migrants’ children in conditions of the open educational space of the region is relevant. Mechanisms of complex emotional and intellectual influence on the personality of adaptive environment of the educational institution, institutes and culture of the region act as adaptation means.
Processes of cultural adaptation proceed more actively among children and teenagers than among their parents owing to children’s sensitive characteristics. Base archetypical stereotypes of the national culture in new educational and communicative space become a foundation for interiorization of foreign cultural components not leading to the crisis of cultural identity. Functional entrance to the region culture is supplemented with its value comprehension, aspiration for self-identification in a new culture.
It is expedient to build up effectiveness of consolidation and transfer of foreign culture experience by migrants’ children when organising adaptation regional work of migrants’ children and their parents through cultural institutes to a sociocultural environment in conditions of psychological comfort through informal communication, creativity, collaboration.
Entrance into the sociocultural space of the region provides a full-fledged connective and functional (adaptive) cultural integration of young migrants, effective cultural perceptiveness.
In fact, use of the complex programme of migrants’ children adaptation in conditions of the multiethnic region provides positive results, which is confirmed in particular by the results of the work at the Sunday school formed in the framework of “Small School Academy” attached to FSBEI of HE “Mordovian state pedagogical institute named after M. E. Evseviev”.
The work was performed with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in the framework of realising the project “Regional model of language and sociocultural adaptation of migrants’ children in the educational space of school” by event 5.4 “Support of innovations in the field of development and monitoring of the education system” by lot 3 “Integration of schoolchildren from migrants’ families in the educational process” of the federal special-purpose programme of education development for 2016-2020.
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1. Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M. E. Evseviev, Russia, Mordovia, 430007, Saransk, Studencheskaia str., 11 a. E-mail: ibbuyanova@yandex.ru
2. Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M. E. Evseviev, Russia, Mordovia, 430007, Saransk, Studencheskaia str., 11 a.
3. Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M. E. Evseviev, Russia, Mordovia, 430007, Saransk, Studencheskaia str., 11 a.
4. Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M. E. Evseviev, Russia, Mordovia, 430007, Saransk, Studencheskaia str., 11 a.
5. Mordovian State Pedagogical Institute named after M. E. Evseviev, Russia, Mordovia, 430007, Saransk, Studencheskaia str., 11 a.