ҚазҰУ Хабаршысы. «Педагогикалық ғылымдар» сериясы. №2 (51). 2017
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Characteristics of the Concept of «Education»
– instilling a sense of civic duty – raising legal
awareness, respect for law, responsibility for the
preservation and contribution to the national culture
and overall human culture.
As the conceptual and functional specifics of
international schools are expected to be considered
in other sections later on, first and foremost it is
necessary to define the essential characteristics of the
concept of “education” which finds its synthesized
reflection in the conceptual characteristic of the
subject of scientific analysis made in this paper –
management of the international school educational
systems.
Several dominant elements co-exist in the
contemporary interpretation of the “education”
concept which define the essence and functional
purpose of “education”:
Some definitions of the essence and functional
purpose of “education”:
– social essence and socializing function of
“education”, and a respective definition of “educa-
tion” as “of a socialization process of the individual
which brings about a self-development ability re-
lated to the formation of cognitive, activity-related,
communicative and world-view competences”[1,
p.14];
– anthropological interpretation of “education”
as “of a process and outcome of the development
and “materialization” of the individual where a cul-
turological component acts as a mechanism of re-
search and reproduction of individual’s culture, and
sociological interpretation includes understanding
of the individual in education as a social product that
is generated through public institutions and forms of
social relations” [2, p.62-64];
– social and culturological essence and func-
tional purpose of “education” manifests in its defini-
tion as “a continuous process of the social induced
individual’s development determined by the cultural
existence status, permanent process of implement-
ing the individual’s capabilities, its variating actual-
ization and self-realization in the area of culture and
society” [3];
– social and pedagogical essence as well as the
purpose of “education” is the most widely spread
contemporary interpretation of “education” which
implies a purposeful process of training and edu-
cation in the interests of the individual, society,
government accompanied by stating the achieve-
ment by the citizen (trainee) of educational levels
established by the state (educational qualifications)
[4. p.43];
– economic and strategic essence and com-
ponent of the concept of “education” which is ac-
knowledged as a key and determining degree of
national security, economic independence and com-
petitiveness of the country, being a main leverage
providing the economic power of the country and
innovation perspective of its development enables
to understand “education” as an economic category
as well;
– integrative definition of the essence of “edu-
cation” as a socio-culturally determined, based on
anthropology and pedagogy, process and result ori-
ented social category aimed at developing the indi-
vidual in pedagogical and educational process as a
socially predetermined product [2, p.262];
– socio-institutional understanding of “educa-
tion” which is reflected in its consideration as of a
socio-cultural institute contributing to the social and
cultural functioning and his/her development of the
individual, improvement of a society through the
processes of purposeful socialization and encultura-
tion of individuals in their dialectical unity [5];
– interpretation of the concept of “education”
as a complex multi-level socially significant system
where four aspects of the “education” concept are
distinguished that are manifested on all the levels of
social structure, namely: 1) education as a value; 2)
education as a system; 3) education as a process; 4)
education as a result [6].
All these four aspects are interrelated and, in
the aggregate, constitute an integral concept of
“education” in the definition of “education” by B.S.
Gershunskiy. The consideration of education as
a value includes state, social and personal values,
being in essence a process of movement from
goals to a pre-planned result. According to B.S.
Gershunskiy, education as a system is an element
of a social system, and at the same time it has sub-
systems in the form of pedagogical systems, etc.
M.M. Potashnik defines “education” depending
on the context [7]:
– as a social event, “an attribute and eternal
companion of the mankind on its entire historical
journey”;
– a significant value;
– a social and state function in relation to its
citizens and at the same time a function of citizens
in relation to their own personal development, a
society and state;
– a complex hierarchic system that includes all
the levels;
– a sphere of social life activity;
– an activity that contemplates interaction of
educators and those who are educated;
– a process;
– educational process outcomes.