Education is no longer a closed sphere and there is a need to use philological knowledge as a basic
value through cultural and educational projects. This must take into account the regional culture
of speech, rhetoric, literature, and history. This project developed the format of an Open University
within which the project “Russian environment” was implemented. This was based on activityoriented,
personality-oriented approaches to learning, the concept of imagination development, and
the theory of functional systems. It led to the concept of development of philological knowledge in
the region, which the authors see as a system of content, methodological and information technology
components that meet the needs and demands of the socio-cultural environment. The article
presents experimental data on the efficiency of the approach. Philological knowledge is thought to
be an instrument of national identity formation, fostering tolerance and respect for the values of
national culture.
Keyword(s) : national identity
Cross-Cultural Research on Ethnic Tensions in Russia and Western Europe
The article presents the results of cross-cultural research in Russia and the countries of Western Europe such as: Belarus, Poland, Germany, France and Great Britain. The study was conducted in 2013-2016 with the support of research centers at universities of Belarus, Poland, the UK, etc. We used the following methods: theoretical (analysis and synthesis of the philosophical, psychological and pedagogical literature on the problems of ethnic identity), empirical (methods of measuring and comparing), and methods of processing research results (qualitative analysis and Student’s t-test). The purpose of the research is to identify the features of national identity of Muslim migrants and the indigenous population aged 17 to 30.
The analysis of the results led to the following conclusions: 1) manifestations of extremism among Muslim migrants are not connected with a correct (or incorrect) policy of the state or crosscultural education in the host country, but it is connected with the situation (political, economic, social, etc.) in their ethnic homeland; 2) conceptual, strategic and technological structures of crosscultural education should take into account this interference (the negative impact of the ethnic situation of one country on the subconscious of the subjects of cross-cultural education in another country), these structures should not aim at the assimilation of migrants but at overcoming this interference in their ethnic consciousness; 3) the practice of cross-cultural education should use the methods of transposition (positive transfer of cultural components of an ethnic homeland to the culture of the country of migrants’ residence), aimed at creating a positive intercultural dialogue with representatives of different ethnic groups.