Innovative Educational Technologies in the Context of Spiritual Culture Crisis and Revival of Traditional Values

Introduction. The problem of spiritual culture crisis is an urgent direction for modern humanitarian science in Russia. Discussing issues in such a formulation, scientists agree on the question of the crisis existence, but consider its source in different ways. According to J. Toschenko, “the problem of the cultural crisis must be considered in all its contradictory unity which is manifested in relation to continuity and innovativeness” [1, p. 51]. The geopolitical catastrophe that erupted on the territory of historical Russia led to the fact that the roots of our history and culture including spiritual culture were undermined at the state level. Socio-economic instability, belittling of moral norms and values, criminalization, lack of patriotism, all of these things are a threat to the national security of Russia. Overcoming this threat is possible only if the spiritual and moral program is implemented, the foundation of which is the idea of culture and humanism [2].
In such conditions, the study of the problem of spiritual security of the individual, the search for innovative models of upbringing and education become relevant. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to analyze the features of the modern cultural crisis as an urgent threat to national security and respond to these challenges — innovative education technologies that are designed to reduce risks of the cultural crisis and adapt society to return to traditional values.
Materials and methods. To analyze the problems of spiritual culture and innovative technologies as a way to overcome a spiritual crisis in the context of ensuring national security, the following research methods were used: analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, as well as a comparative method.
Results. In the post-perestroika period of the 1990s–early 2000s in Russia, a surge in religious deviations and pathologies is visible. Also, during these years, there was a large increase in interest in occultism and magic. At the same time (since the late 1980s), Orthodoxy began to actively revive. The post-Soviet man was in a state of uncertainty, he knew neither what to believe in nor how to believe [3]. Of course, he was in a risky situation, since the risk of believing in the wrong then was extremely high.
The scale of neophytism in this period of time was incredible. There was an escalation of uncertainty, because of this extended risk reproduction was observed. The staggering number of neophytes whose “raw” religious experience, which in fact had not existed yet, gave impetus to the increased development and spread of such phenomena as quasi-religiosity and ultra-orthodoxy. These phenomena are derivatives of the hyper-religious consciousness of many neophytes.
Today the situation has not changed much. As before, people fall into sects, extremist organizations of a religious sense and deviant groups within Orthodoxy itself.
As a rule, the religious life of each person separately (subjective religiosity) is filled with certain delusions. Of course, collectively, these mistakes are transformed into a religious experience. However, negative dynamics in religious life are likely to lead to serious spiritual problems with the most tragic outcome, one of which will be a cultural crisis and rejection of traditional values and culture. Many holy Fathers of the Church write about these trends. These trends are also perfectly described, philosophically verified and systematized by I. Ilyin in his work “Axioms of Religious Experience” [4].
Therefore, each person, due to their individual characteristics and abilities, needs to have their own rhythm in religious life. Having thousands of different church and nondenominational examples of religious life, a believer needs to tune their spiritual tuning fork in such a way that the string (religious life) wouldn’t be too weak and vice versa too stretched. This is the meaning of the “middle ground” and, most importantly, the religious measure.
In spiritual life, there is a certain pattern of “ups and downs”, which depend on spiritual experience of believers. But most risky situations with the most severe consequences occur in the life of neophytes and spiritually experienced people.
Spiritual jealousy is the source and inspiration of the culture of religion, the culture of religious act. And since the essence of the true religious act, as I. Ilyin writes about this, is its faithful structure, its sincerity and integrity, its spiritual purity and its life force, “religion begins to decompose and die when its act weakens and dies away” [4, p. 133].
Religious life is a constant dynamic. Standing still leads to rolling back, weakening and a natural fall. It’s always important to go forward but without sudden accelerations and excessiveness. Turning to the tradition of ascetic practice gives us the opportunity to understand that moderate intentionality and moderate intensification are necessary conditions for gaining genuine religious experience: “Do not get excited, before time do not strive for the highest, in spiritual life the jumps are not appropriate, there must be patient gradualism...” [5, p. 160]. The middle ground and moderate constancy (intention) are the main condition for spiritual growth, but not haste, not excessiveness [5, p. 844].
The further a person moves in religious life, the more difficult the tests and obstacles to be overcome. Spiritual growth should be ensured by the proportional level of training. If the rules are followed on this way, the probability of falling is minimal. That is why there are enough churched people who adhere to the “middle way”, the probability of tripping up is minimal. They already have enough experience not to aim at the impossible and enough respect for the abidance by the necessary rules in spiritual life.
So, it becomes quite clear that in religion, as in any risky sphere of human being, awareness is an important sub-clause of security rules.
Let’s consider these processes in the youth environment. Young people are a mobile social group, they react to the slightest changes in the life of society, they can both reject traditions of society and give impetus to their development. The religiosity of young people is a degree of familiarity of young people with religious values and systems. It is a certain form or degree of religious consciousness, experience and behavior of young people [6]. Cultural identity is an individual belonging to any culture or cultural group that forms a person’s value attitude towards themselves, other people, society and the world as a whole [6]. Loss of identity is possible due to rapid changes in the socio-cultural environment which a person does not have time to realize. In this case, the identity crisis can take on a massive character giving birth to “lost generations”.
The introduction of young people to the cultural heritage of their people is also a very popular direction of activity of the Russian Orthodox Church among the youth (70 % support this type of activity). The western path is not suitable for Russia, since the archetypes of Orthodox culture have formed completely different moral norms and traditions. Patriarch Kirill notes that in Western thinking since the time of Russo, the idea of sufficiency of state protection of the rights and freedoms of a man and a citizen has been entrenched, and the person will choose good and useful for life themselves.
Russia’s spiritual security can and should act as a stratagem of the cultural and civilizational development of society, give impetus to vital spiritual interests and needs of the individual, “tear” this personality from the consumer boom; and help society and the state with the development of forms and methods of public control over the formation of spiritual values, meeting the national interests of Russia, where patriotism and active civic position will come first and where such a system of relations should be built, which would provide favorable conditions for the positive creation of spirituality, relying, among other things, on public interests and established religious norms of behavior within the framework of traditional faiths.
The researcher A. Vozmitel defines spiritual and moral security as “a state of the person, society and power, ensuring their normal interconnected existence and functioning, as well as creative cultural and civilizational development of existing or emerging national lifestyle. Going beyond this norm leads to the collapse of society as a holistic system in connection with the destruction of spiritual and moral foundations that structure it” [7]. Thus, security is achieved by building a system of relationships between subjects of public life, in which comfortable prerequisites for creating spiritual and moral development and life are created.
Summarizing, it can be argued that spiritual and moral security is a special part of national security, which serves as the cultural and spiritual background of moral development of the quality level of the “human factor vital function” in the system of national civilization. According to L. Gazgireeva and L. Burnyasheva, in addition, “this is a process of preserving and positively modifying ideals, values, norms and traditions that dominate society, shared by the masses of people and power structures for the purpose of social reproduction, guaranteeing stability, continuity and dynamics of social development” [8].
The processes of globalization and Euro-Atlantic integration, the spread of postmodern values among Russian youth destroy the Orthodox tradition and its inherent culture and morality. Society and the state are faced with the task of developing forms and ways of public control over the formation of spiritual values that will correspond to the national interests of Russia. The central core of such a spiritual system should be relations in which there should be patriotism and an active civic position, but which, at the same time, will provide favorable conditions for the positive creation of spirituality.
The process of spiritual and moral education in educational institutions should focus on the development and preservation of cultural and national traditions. This topic is central in the work of the following teachers: K. D. Ushinsky, V. A. Sukhomlinsky, V. V. Zenkovsky, B. E. Raikov, S. I. Gessen. In modern conditions of public life development, we can speak about the complementarity of the functions of science and religion in culture and education. Science is a source of innovation, religion at its core acts as a guardian of traditions. Innovation is impossible without reliance on tradition and it is incorporated into tradition through institutionalization. One of the most effective forms of instilling sense of love for the homeland of young people, respect for traditions, and familiarization with spiritual values is the local history work based on spiritual and cultural heritage of Russia. This is especially true during the period of world globalization and the erasure of ethnic, cultural and religious borders. This problem is considered in various aspects by such researchers as L. Ya. Averyanov, V. P. Babintsev, M. K. Gorshkov, Yu. A. Zubok, D. L. Konstantinovsky, A. L. Kupreichenko, A. L. Fetisova, F.E. Sheregoy. In relation to the modern Russian reality, the problem of spiritual and moral security is quite diverse and only partly covered by some modern authors: clergy, teachers, psychologists, sociologists (A. I. Kravchenko, R. G. Yanovsky, V. A. Efimov, A. I. Khvylya-Olinter, I. Ya. Medvedeva, T. L. Shishova, N. E. Markova, G. P. Zvezdina, M. Yu. Zelenkov, S. G. Kara-Murzoy, etc.) These authors offer the latest (innovative) models of upbringing and education in a post-modern culture and the introduction of the Western basis of education.
In our opinion, innovative education models include the following forms: a) studying the history of the Native Land, involving students in acquaintance with the historical past of the region, with the cultural and spiritual heritage of previous generations through short 3-D videos. To store the content, a free YouTube platform and a booklet in the form of a map are used, which indicates monuments of Rostov-on-Don dedicated to culture and religion; b) within the framework of the online project, the creation of a booklet is provided, which will be placed in electronic form and freely available for remote users.
For sociological research it’s important to analyze the range of topics that need to be included in the description of the portrait; conduct a study of indicators of youth behavior, draw up a psychological and social portrait. Based on the research carried out, we offer to introduce innovative educational methods into the educational system.
The processes of globalization and the spread of postmodern values among Russian youth destroy the Orthodox tradition and its inherent culture and morality. In such circumstances, the study of the spiritual security problem of the individual becomes relevant, which is the purpose of this article. In the process of forming traditional values, it is spiritual security that is the semantic core of national security, protection against negative trends associated with the spiritual sphere.
Society and the state are faced with the task of developing forms and ways of public control over the formation of spiritual values that will correspond to the national interests of Russia. The central core of such spiritual system should be relations in which patriotism and an active civic position occupy a fundamental position, but at the same time, favorable conditions for the positive creation of spirituality will be provided. At the same time, relying on public interests and established religious norms of behavior within the framework of traditional confessions, the formation of a system of social relations and the education of spiritual and moral ideals of young people should be influenced primarily by the most numerous confessions: Orthodoxy and Islam.
The basic national values around which education is grouped in the educational process are usually reduced to the following topics:
– history of Russia, Russian peoples, life experience of their parents, family, ancestors;
– traditional Russian religions;
– works of literature and art, the best examples of domestic and world culture;
– periodical literature, media reflecting modern life;
– folklore of the peoples of Russia;
– socially useful and personally significant activities;
– branches of study;
– other sources of information and scientific knowledge.
Spiritual and moral education and formation of the personality of modern youth through the resources of universities will be carried out according to the principle of consistency. Spiritual security should become the semantic core of national security, act as a buffer of all negative trends, one way or another related to the spiritual sphere [2]. The specific task is to create your own model of the innovative cluster of “barrier-free” education and upbringing.
The achievement of favorable goals in this direction is possible only thanks to the basic principles of spiritual and moral education organization, which include the moral example of a teacher, social and pedagogical partnership, individual and personal development, integrativity of spiritual and moral education programs, social demand for education.
The moral example almost entirely falls on the shoulders of teachers of the educational system, and the rest of the principles of organizing spiritual and moral development and education in one way or another go beyond educational institutions and apply to such subjects of socialization as family, public organizations, traditional Russian religious associations, further education establishments, culture and sport, media.
In this conglomerate universities occupy leading positions in the educational process and the process of individual socialization. Fundamental knowledge as the basis of the targeted approach to the use of special forms and methods of pedagogical work, taking into account age, social, cultural and other characteristics of the studying youth is the most important factor, due to the presence or absence of which it is not possible to speak about any education and upbringing and, of course, about full socialization.
Universities are a key factor not only in the preservation of culture, but also in its active transmission, transfer of knowledge from generation to generation. Universities, having great information potential, have the opportunity through education technologies and specific forms and methods of work to effectively form a spiritual and moral personality. We deliberately abandon Western techniques that use NLP in role-playing games, sessions, on scrapping previous personal attitudes. The widespread use of these methods is not a safe means of educating a person.
One of the interesting modern teaching techniques is the development of spirituality through sport and games. In the 1990s there was an opinion that a Christian does not need sport, since it interferes with salvation and contributes to sinfulness: pride and vanity, since spiritual attitude prevails over physicality has become the most important model of perception of this sphere. Only a decade later, physical culture and sport began to be understood as one of the productive areas of missionary activity in the format of spiritual and moral education [2].
Discussion and conclusion. The authors come to the conclusion that in the process of forming traditional values among young people, spiritual security is the semantic core of national security and a buffer of all negative trends related to the spiritual sphere. The spiritual security of Russia can and should act as a stratagem of cultural and civilizational development of society, give impetus to vital spiritual interests and needs of the individual. Traditional cultural values, the core of which is Orthodoxy, can be the basis for the cultural and spiritual «renaissance» of Russian society. One possible way to achieve this is to use current education technologies.