ETHNO-PEDAGOGY AS A MEANS OF ETHNIC IDENTITY FORMATION OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN RUSSIA

Nelly Valiakhmetova¹*, Rimma Akhmadullina², Tatiana Pimenova^3
1 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kazan Federal University, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, akhrimma@mail.ru
² Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kazan Federal University, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, nellyv1975@mail.ru
³ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kazan Federal University, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, pimenova_ts@mail.ru
*Corresponding author

Abstract
In this study, the up-to-date problem of the formation of ethnic identity modern Russian society faces up to, was examined. The relevance of the study is attributed to the changes in the present day social medium: alongside with the growth of the unification of spiritual and material values, there arises a tendency with people to preserve their own unique culture, history and ethnic identity. Under modern conditions of social instability, any ethnicity can carry out the function of protection, support, and a reliable source of national values. The ethnic identity formation is particularly significant for multicultural population of the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia) with 173 ethnic groups. Numerous surveys show that today young people in the Republic of Tatarstan, although being aware of their ethnic identity, often experience lack of knowledge of their native language, history and culture. Other, not less important, problems that might arouse from ethnic identity are associated with the appearance of the phenomena of ethnocentrism, negative stereotypes, and intolerance towards strange ethnic groups. In this respect, the most important tasks of Russian educational institutions, higher schools training pre-service teachers in particular, should comprise, on the one hand, the need for the knowledge of ethno-culture that contains priceless historical, spiritual and moral experience of generations, and, on the other hand, the necessity for the formation of the most important and socially significant personal qualities which can enable young people to interact in the multicultural world. In the authors’ viewpoint, ethno-pedagogy included into the block of general professional and pedagogical disciplines as one of the branches of pedagogy, can meet these challenges. This assumption of the authors defined the research objectives - to identify the potential of ethno-pedagogy and to experimentally prove that ethno-pedagogy plays a great role in ethnic identity formation of pre-service teachers. Theoretical approaches to:

• the definition of ethnic identity;
• the content, and teaching techniques of multicultural education;
• the formation of interethnic tolerance

became the methodological basis of the research. In this paper, the concept of ethnic identity, its characteristics, structure and types were suggested. The leading research methods were a theoretical analysis of scientific literature, a content analysis of educational literature, a pedagogical experiment, a questionnaire. At the first stage of the experiment with the use of the method of "Ethnic identity" (Phinney, J. S.), the average group indices of cognitive and affective components, and the general indicator of ethnic identity were determined. At the second stage on the base of the analysis of theoretical sources there were selected didactic units for the syllabus of the discipline "Ethno-pedagogy"; the training of pre-service teachers was also conducted at this stage. The re-survey at the final stage of the study showed the increase of the average group indices of ethnic identity. The obtained results indicate that the potential of ethno-pedagogy can be used for the formation of ethnic identity in University with the aim in view to help solve the problem of the formation of pre-service teachers’ ethnic identity and interethnic tolerance.

Keywords: ethnocentrism, identity, tolerance