What Does Education Mean? Educational Beliefs of Russian and Finnish Students Sirkka Laihiala-Kankainen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Svetlana Raschetina, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Russia Keywords: intercultural education, educational beliefs, pedagogical culture, comparative education, Russian education The aim of the presentation is to describe how Russian and Finnish students talk about education: What kind of values and expectations concerning education and schooling do they bear, and what kind of role does education play in their plans for the future? The study is based on the content analysis of essays written by Russian and Finnish students studying in upper secondary schools and at the university. The results indicate that Russian students set a higher value on education, erudition and learning than their Finnish peers. At the same time, they seem to be more dependent on social opinion and educational goals of the community than Finnish students who refer more to individual values and goals. The study is part of the comparative research project "Changing Values and Goals in Education. Pedagogical Cultures in Three Countries: Finland, Russia, Estonia" that attempts to highlight educational values and goals in different educational systems within different social and economic contexts in order to improve international and intercultural understanding.

UNESCO Conference on Intercultural Education, 15-18 June 2003 Jyväskylä, Finland  |  PRINT THIS PAGE