Value orientations in textbooks for high school

Lidiya Okolskaya

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, 2012, issue 1, 93-125

Abstract: Lidiya Okolskaya, Ph.D. in Sociology, senior researcher in the Sector for Research in Personality, Sociology Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, first prize winner in Pinsky Awards Education Research Competition (2011). Email: okoli@yandex.ru Address: Bld. 5, 24/35 Krzhizhanovskogo St., Moscow, 117218, Russian Federation.The article presents results of content analysis of high school textbooks on social and human sciences. The author uses Schwartz's value typology consisting of two value axes, conservation vs. openness to change' and self-enhancement vs. self-transcendence', to review the value content of the Russian educational program. She also breaks school subjects into value categories, describes these categories, and compares value priorities of learning programs to the results of mass questionnaires on the values of Russians. Value content of textbooks has been analyzed for compliance to declared values of school subjects approved in educational standards.It turns out that history and social science classes teach students models of depersonalized government-citizen interaction. The content analysis shows that, despite the goal of developing conservation values stipulated in educational standards, history classes are mostly focused on self-enhancement values, especially those of power and achievement. The most expressed conservation value is security, which is conveyed through the image of the State as a defender.Social science classes builds a similar perfect identity based on interaction with the State. However, unlike in the history classes paradigm, the perfect individual here is a passive receiver of goods and services, such as security, order, and various freedoms.Modernist attitudes stem from literature classes focused on novelty and independence while at the same time preserving traditions. Literature textbooks are dominated by the value of benevolence. The value hierarchy built by literature classes is very likely to play a huge role in socializing the upcoming Russian generation.DOI: 10.17323/1814-9545-2012-1-93-125

Keywords: education; values; socialization; curricula; popular culture; modernization; content analysis; textbooks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nos:voprob:2012:i:1:p:93-125

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow from National Research University Higher School of Economics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Marta Morozova ().