Joseph Zajda

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LIFELONG LEARNING AND ADULT EDUCATION: RUSSIAMEETS THE WEST

JOSEPH ZAJDA

Abstract This article examines the impact of social change and economic trans-formation on adult education and lifelong learning in post-Soviet Russia. The articlebegins with a brief economic and historical background to lifelong learning and adulteducation in terms of its significance as a feature of the Russian cultural heritage. An

analysis of Ministerial education policy and curriculum changes reveals that thesepolicies reflect neo-liberal and neo-conservative paradigms in the post-Soviet economyand education. Current issues and trends in adult education are also discussed, withparticular attention to the Adult Education Centres, which operate as a vast umbrellaframework for a variety of adult education and lifelong learning initiatives. The Centresare designed to promote social justice by means of compensatory education and socialrehabilitation for individuals dislocated by economic restructuring. The articlecomments on their role in helping to develop popular consciousness of democraticrights and active citizenship in a participatory and pluralistic democracy.

Zusammenfassung In diesem Artikel werden der Einfluss sozialen Wandels undwirtschaftlicher Transformation auf die Erwachsenenbildung und das lebenslangeLernen in Russland nach der ra der Sowjets untersucht. Der Artikel beginnt miteinem kurzen wirtschaftlichen und historischen Hintergrund des lebenslangen Lernensund der Erwachsenenbildung hinsichtlich ihrer Bedeutung als Merkmal russischenKulturerbes. Eine Analyse der ministeriellen Bildungspolitik und nderungen imCurriculum zeigt, dass diese politischen Manahmen neo-liberale und neo-konserva-tive Paradigmen der Wirtschaft und Bildung nach der ra der Sowjets widerspiegeln.Gegenwrtige Themen und Trends in der Erwachsenenbildung werden ebenfalls disku-tiert mit besonderem Augenmerk auf Erwachsenenbildungszentren, die als weitlufigeSchirmorganisationen fr eine Vielzahl von Initiativen zu Erwachsenenbildung undlebenslangem Lernen dienen. Die Zentren dienen zur Frderung sozialer Gerechtigkeitdurch Ausgleichsmanahmen in Bildung und sozialer Rehabilitierung fr vonwirtschaftlicher Umstrukturierung betroffene Einzelpersonen. Der Autor kommen-tiert die Rolle dieser Zentren bei der Hilfe zur Entwicklung eines Volksbewusstseinsdemokratischer Rechte und aktiver Staatsbrgerschaft in einer partizipatorischen undpluralistischen Demokratie.

Rsum Lauteur de cet article examine limpact de la transformation sociale etconomique sur lducation des adultes et lapprentissage tout au long de la vie enRussie post-sovitique. Il dbute par un bref aperu conomique et historique de ldu-cation permanente et de lducation des adultes, en rapport avec son importance entant qulment du patrimoine culturel russe. Son analyse des politiques ducativesministrielles et des modifications curriculaires montre que ces politiques refltentles modles no-libraux et no-conservateurs des systmes conomique et ducatifpost-sovitiques. Il examine galement les questions et tendances actuelles en du-cation des adultes avec une attention particulire pour les centres dducation desadultes, qui servent de vaste organisme fdrateur aux diverses initiatives dduca-tion des adultes et de formation permanente. Ces centres visent promouvoir la justice

International Review of Education Internationale Zeitschrift fr Erziehungswissenschaft Revue Internationale de lEducation 49(12): 111132, 2003. 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.


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sociale au moyen de mesures dducation compensatoire et de rhabilitation sociale,destines aux individus dsorients par la restructuration conomique. Lauteurcommente le rle de ces structures qui contribuent la conscientisation populaire desdroits dmocratiques et de la citoyennet active au sein dune dmocratie participa-tive et pluraliste.

Resumen Este artculo examina el impacto que el cambio social y la transforma-cin econmica han causado sobre la educacin de las personas adultas y el apren-dizaje durante toda la vida en la Rusia post-sovitica. El trabajo comienza con unresumen de los trasfondos econmicos e histricos del aprendizaje durante toda la viday de la educacin de las personas adultas en relacin a la importancia que revistencomo caracterstica del legado cultural ruso. El anlisis de la poltica de educacintrazada por el gobierno y de los cambios de currculos revela que estas polticas reflejanparadigmas neoliberales y neoconservadores en la economa y educacin post-soviticas. Tambin trata temas y tendencias actuales relacionadas con la enseanza

de las personas adultas, con un enfoque especial en los centros de formacin personasadultas, que hacen las veces de organizacin central para una serie de iniciativas deformacin de personas adultas y aprendizaje durante toda la vida. Estos centros se handestinado a la promocin de la justicia social a travs de la educacin compensatoriay la rehabilitacin social para los individuos desplazados por la reestructuracineconmica. El artculo comenta el papel que desempean al promover el desarrollode la conciencia popular sobre los derechos democrticos y activar la ciudadana enuna democracia participativa y pluralista.

The philosophy and goals of adult education: russia meets the west

The policies of UNESCO, the OECD and the Council of Europe on the phi-losophy and goals of adult education are particularly relevant to the post-Soviet reform of lifelong learning and adult education in Russia between 1992

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and 2001. The concept of lifelong education was first promoted by UNESCOinLearning to Be: The World of Education Today and Tomorrow (Faure 1972).This report became the leading policy document in the area, and spelled outfor the first time a coherent philosophy of lifelong learning. It adopted anidealistic view of human nature and the power of education to change society,arguing that lifelong learning, if properly organised, is capable of makingevery citizen participate fully in this scientific humanism and of enablingindividuals to play a creative role in the forthcoming technological revolu-tion (Kallen 1979: 52).

Adult education policy makers in the Russian Federation, like their col-leagues in Western Europe, increasingly focus on the learner as the key playerin an ongoing, lifelong learning process. Of the three principles ofducation

permanente formulated by the Council of Europe and adopted in 1971 par-ticipation, equalisation and globalisation the first two principles appear tobe guiding the teaching/learning process in the new adult education centresin Russia as a pre-condition for democratic learning in a democratic society.As with the OECD Study on Sustainable Flexibility (OECD 1997), the focusin Russian adult education vocational programmes is, as before, on the needto train multi-skilled, adaptable and problem-solving workers.

UNESCOs International Commission on Education for the 21st Century(1996)Learning: The Treasure Within, continued to define lifelong learningas education throughout life pursued to promote continuous human devel-opment. The Commission described lifelong learning as a continuousprocess of forming whole human beings . . . and in the community (Delors1996: 21).

As Hanna and Haillet (2001: 681) suggest, current discussions of lifelonglearning are based on an image of society in which education is being trans-formed from the traditional top-down model to one where the learner is atthe centre of an ongoing, lifelong process. They argue that such a visionpresupposes a society in which demand for education, and higher educationin particular, increases dramatically, and where both the state and educationalinstitutions demonstrate concrete commitment to address the needs of a societyundergoing a radical social and economic transformation.

One of the strengths of lifelong learning, as observed by Preston, is itsinherent and convenient ambiguity:

. . . the way in which it does not lend itself easily to definitions. The attractive termcan therefore be applied differently in different context, accepted as a universallygood thing, without encouraging people to ask the usual critical questions of whoexactly has access to it, in what form, under what conditions and who gains whatfrom it (Preston 1999: 565).

Prestons observations about the dichotomy inherent in the concept oflifelong learning can readily be applied to Russias process of renewing theadult education sector. It may be argued that lifelong learning in post-Soviet

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Russia could be partly in danger of becoming a new mechanism of socialcontrol mediated by the market. In this context, learning in the positivistnarrative of lifelong learning refers to the business of learning of work-relatededucation, skills, and training As Preston adds:

In most cases contemporary usage of the term lifelong learning refers to the processof allowing ourselves to be exposed to pre-packaged gobbits of knowledge . . .accepting the implications of the resulting indicators of our performance for accessto the labour market and our resultant positioning within it. . . . Buying coursesfrom birth to the grave is good for business (Preston 1999: 562).

Prestons metaphor of the Janus face of lifelong learning, both for the goalsof personal fulfilment, social well-being and democracy, as well as for the

needs of the economy, is also relevant to Russia. Her suggestion that dif-ferent levels of interest are represented below the surface of the rhetoric oflifelong learning applies to Russias attempts in 2001 to provide courses forunemployed adolescents and adults, school dropouts and other members ofthe marginal and excluded underclass.

Ivanova (2000: 5), Coordinator of Evening Schools in the RussianFederation, in an interview stressed the social rehabilitation role of the centres:

They (local education authorities) understand that the intake of many vecherki(evening schools JZ) consists of members of the socially unprotected strata ofthe population who have limited resources. It would be impossible to correctadolescents experiencing difficult lives without psychologists and well-thought outindividual programmes in upbringing. . . . You are absolutely correct in mentioning. . . social rehabilitation of adolescents, and vocational training (p. 5).

Like many countries in the West, Russia, being influenced by recent policiesof UNESCO, the OECD and the Council of Europe, is responding to the dif-ferent versions of lifelong learning. This is illustrated by a variety of articlespublished in Otkrytaia shkola (The Open school) since 1995. The journal,which was first published in 1958, was known as Vecherniaia sredniaia shkola(The evening secondary school), and re-named Otkrytaia shkola in 1995, hasbeen the official journal of the Ministry of General and Professional Educationof the Russian Federation.

Between 19932000, some of the issues discussed frequently included com-pensatory education, social rehabilitation (officially mentioned in Tipovoe

polozhenie o tsentre onrazovaniia Document defining the education centre,

1993), and values and moral education (Leonteva 1998: 6, Gubarevich andMelikhova 2000: 19, Kadol 2000: 26, Mezhuev 2000: 25, and Leonteva 2000:3). In addition to the job-related and economic policy-dependent imperatives,Russian adult educators in developing their own hybrid of lifelong learningdiscourse increasingly focus on the individual, democratic, and adaptivedimensions (Slovesnova 2000: 6).

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Adult education and lifelong learning in Russia

A brief overview of economic factors affecting adult education

Russia occupies the land area of 17.1 million square kilometres, making itthe country with the largest area in the world. The Russian Federation consistsof 89 subjects, i.e. 21 republics, 52 regions (oblast), 10 autonomous dis-tricts (okrugs), and 6 territories (krai). The republics are the homelands ofnon-Russian minorities.

Russias population was estimated at 146.2 million (a decline of five millionsince 1992), including 38 million pensioners, or 26 percent of the popula-tion. It is anticipated that Russias population will decline by another 10

million by 2005. In 1999 there were 78 million wage earners and the per capitaGNP was US$2,250, placing Russia in the 99th socio-economic position inthe world (World Bank 2001: 16). Unemployment had risen to almost 14percent by July 1995. Poverty is also rising dramatically, with the World Bankestimating in 1999 that it affected 31 percent of the population (World Bank1999: 67; 2001: 27).

The history of Russian adult education

Forced re-education from above, based on a top-down and centralist approach,has been a characteristic feature of Russian models of education policy, begin-ning with the modernising, Enlightenment-inspired reforms of Peter the Greatand continued by Catherine the Great. Education in the USSR between 1922and 1991, although geared towards communist goals, maintained this tradi-tion of state-directed and compulsory reform. The vast Soviet project of adulteducation, which played a significant role in eradicating illiteracy among some100 million illiterates in the 1920s, the continuing Soviet focus on a partly-imposed requirement of lifelong learning for working adults, and the more orless obligatory system of compensatory education and improvement of qual-ifications, could be regarded as a spectacular twentieth century example ofthe Enlightenment project in action.

The eradication of illiteracy during the 1920s and the 1930s was one ofthe Soviet Unions greatest adult education achievements. Lenins famousDecember 1919 decree On the Eradication of Illiteracy among the Populationof the RSFSR directed that individuals from 8 to 50 years old be taught to

read. In the 1920s some 100 million illiterate people, mainly in the rural sector,were exposed to education. Within less than two years, nearly five millionpeople had been taught literacy (Zajda 1980: 17). By 1927 Soviet Russia wasalready in the 19th place in the level of literacy, and by the early 1940s theliteracy rate in the 16 to 50 age group reached 90 percent. By 1960 the USSRclaimed to have 100 percent adult literacy (Zajda 1992: 5).

In 1990, the year before the collapse of the USSR, education and trainingin the Soviet Union was a massive exercise involving over 100 million people.

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The training system outside the government education sector involved some43.5 million workers and professionals engaged in re-training or upgradingtheir qualifications and skills.

Following the break-up of the USSR in December 1991 the entire Sovieteducation system had to be restructured. Between 1992 and 1996 the Ministryof Education issued significant education policy documents defining the struc-ture and content of education in post-Soviet Russia. In 1993 temporary schoolcurricula and programs were adopted, followed by legislation dealing withattestation and accreditation (1996), the revised law on education (1996),changes to attestation in PTUs (providing an equivalence between high schooland vocational school diplomas), vocational education and training, anddefining academic standards at all levels of education.

Adult education in Russia after 1991

The concept of lifelong learning in Russia: current vocational issues

The term lifelong learning has a dual meaning in the Russian context.Sometimes it refers to learning, which will be valid for the entire life-spanand emphasises the general competencies and basic skills necessary for thewhole of life. The other meaning, closer to the Western sense of the term,implies continued learning taken throughout the course of ones life to ensureappropriate upgrading of vocational skills, and includes re-training andacquiring additional qualifications. Thus, the two views of lifelong learningin Russia, which correspond to those in the West, are the one using thetopping up metaphor (preparation for work by means of basic schoolingplus vocational training according to the needs of the workplace), and themaximalist view, where lifelong learning is defined as the identification ofeducation with the whole of life.

During the 1950s adult education had a very concrete meaning, referringto evening schools (vechernye shkoly) and correspondence schools (zaochnyeshkoly). The term became more obscure with the emergence of the conceptof continuing education (niepreryvnoe obrazovanie) in Russia in the 1960sand 1970s. In this period adult education included offerings by many organ-isations, both voluntary (including the Peoples Universities and the ZnanieSociety) and government institutions. In the 1990s the newly restructured adult

education centres offered courses for a heterogeneous audience, which nowincluded young adults, adolescents, unemployed, migrants, ex-convicts, adultswith special needs, and pensioners.

Adult education in Russia after 1991 had become increasingly vocation-ally oriented. In the 1990s it had to concentrate on the following urgent tasks:

1. continuing vocational training (solving problems of unemployment andproviding the necessary re-training programmes);

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2. providing compensatory education (compensating for the inequality inaccess to secondary education);

3. providing social rehabilitation for individuals out of work and adolescentswho left the school; and

4. providing a civil society model, which promotes socio-economic transition,and democratisation.

In comparing Russia and other nations, with reference to lifelong learningprovisions, we can draw the following observations:

1. In Russia, as elsewhere, lifelong learning is defined in the broader termsthan before. Like other nations, Russia has adopted the cradle to gravemetaphor. Like in Japan and in Scandinavia, the broader view of lifelong

learning is promoted in Russia.2. Russia shares with other countries a similar view of the main reasons for

lifelong learning. Russian adult educators now recognise the importanceof both economic and social imperatives, as well as the significance ofcitizenship education (also in the European Union). Japan differs bystressing spiritual development and a better enjoyment of life. Australiaand Canada, like Russia, continue to emphasise job-related vocationaltraining for improving employability and competitiveness. All threerecognise the importance of learning to citizenship and personal develop-ment.

3. Russia shares with other countries a diversity of learning options, includingeasier credit transfer (PTU to college), decentralisation of the adult edu-

cation sector, and partnerships with the industry, private business and localcommunity. As in Russia, similar trends are taking place in Korea, wherethere is an emphasis on access and credit transfers that open up study toindividuals at times and places that meet their needs (Hasan: 386).

4. With its recent emphasis on compensatory learning, and social rehabilita-tion in adult education centres, Russia, like some other nations, is creatinga new culture of learning, where an ethic of learning is supportive oflearning in all its forms. This is also found, for instance, in the Netherlands,where the goal is, like in Russia, to prevent educational disadvantage thoughcompensatory education programmes, and ensure that individuals are notmarginalised by dropping out of the labour market.

The structure of lifelong learning and adult education in the Russia after

1991 is illustrated in Table 1 below:

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Table 1. The structure of lifelong learning and adult education in Russia.

General Vocational In-Service Industry- Community- Self-Education Training Education related based Education

and Education EducationTraining and Training and Training


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Today Russian lifelong learning and adult education is a complex anddiverse network of multi-layered institutions, enabling citizens to take respon-sibility for bringing about improvement in their own lives. It includes voca-tional education, liberal arts adult education, extramural departments, andprofessional, industrial and commercial in-service programs. It historicallycombined the government education sector with various institutions offeringevening classes or external programmes and the public sector with its ownand even more diverse network of education and training for specific purposes.

In 1999 some 487,401 students (an increase of 6.3 percent from 1998)attended 17,086 evening schools and 3,083 UKPs (uchebno-konsultatsionnye

punkty), or education consulting centres, a new generic name for centresof lifelong learning and adult education in Russia (Uchitelkaia Gazeta No. 2,

12 January, 2000: 8). The most popular form of lifelong learning is in-schooleducation (as in Poland and Hungry). Paralleling the school system, its cer-tificates are the same as those awarded by regular schools. In-school educa-tion and training takes place in education centres (tsentr obrazovaniia) andthe increasingly popular education consulting centres (UKPs). According toTamara Ivanova, a specialist in adult education in the Ministry of Education,these new centres provide a more flexible and need-based education and voca-tional training for young adults who have completed basic schooling, forschool dropouts, and for individuals who are either employed, or unemployed(Uchitelskaia Gazeta 2, 18 January, 2000: 8).

New policy documents on adult education

The revised 1996 Ministerial policy document (first issued in November1994) Tipovoe polozhenie o vechernom (smennom) obshcheobrazovatelnomuchrezhdeii (Policy Document on the evening general education institution)reaffirmed the governments commitment to provide the citizens of the RussianFederation with basic and complete secondary schooling. In Section 2(defining the structure), clause 8 meant that it was now possible for eveningschools to find partners (enterprises, businesses, or civic groups) or to beestablished by community groups, societies and industrial complexes wishingoffer quality education and training. Working adults were to qualify for ashorter working week on full pay. The classroom structure (Article 5) re-affirmed multi-age groupings of students, including youth and adult learners(Vecherniaia Sredniaia Shkola, 5: 8).

Section 3 defined the structure, the content and the length of the academicyear. The evening schools offered two programs covering basic education (a5-year course of incomplete secondary schooling from grades 59) andcomplete secondary education (grades 911). The curriculum content was tobe defined by the students needs (clause 16). The institution or the execu-tive body of the local education authority determined the languages of instruc-tion. All accredited institutions, however, had to offer instruction in theRussian language, the state language of the Russian Federation (clause 17).

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One of the most significant developments at the policy level, was the pub-lication of the Draft on Education Centres in 1993, which laid down theprinciples for establishing new education centres designed to meet the needsof school dropouts, school-leavers and adults. L. Lesokhina, coordinator ofthe Russian Academy of Educations Adult Education Research Centre ofthe Institute of Adult Education, writes that the document provides the nec-essary legitimacy and unity of purpose for a vast network of other adult edu-cation centres. These include TSOMs (Youth Education Centres), TSOVs(Adult Education Centres), TSONs (Community Education Centres), andTSNOs (Continuing Education Centres). The newly defined education centresprovided a more unified and common structure in adult education.

Such centres would have been very valuable had they been available in

1991, the year of re-structuring. Unlike the old-type vecherka (a colloquialand somewhat disparaging term for evening-school) which was not held inhigh popular regard, the new education centres had acquired a more desir-able social status and, more importantly, they were locally funded andmanaged. To reflect this official reorientation, the Ministry of Education

journal, Vecherniaia Sredniaia Shkola (Evening Secondary School) changedits name to Otkrytaia Shkola (Open School) in 1995.

Adult education curriculum

The revised 1998 Adult Education Curriculum was approved by the Ministryof Education during the 19981999 period. The curriculum, as in the 1993version, consisted of the core subjects (invariantnaia chast) and the electives(variantnaia chast). Core subjects enabled the schools to preserve a singulareducational space or set of standards in the Russian Federation. The elec-tives were designed to reflect national and local cultures, as well as the localgeography and history (see Table 2). They also made it possible for schoolsto reflect the needs of their students, in accordance to their interests and abil-ities (Otkrytaia shkola 2000, 4: 1617).

In addition to covering the programme in nine school subjects, individualsundergoing professional training were required to spend up to seven weeklyhours studying their chosen profession. Vocational training may commence asearly as Grade 5, although the normal career path for vocational training isin Grades 1012. Adult education centres were one of the first institutionswhich responded promptly to Russias transition to market economy and the

resulting market forces by offering a whole variety of now much-in-demandoccupations in the banking, hospitality and service sectors.

The four-year experience of working within the framework of the BasicCurriculum had demonstrated that there were some negative tendencies.Regional components of the curriculum evolved into a series of fragmentedone-hour subjects, which were both too diverse and too superficial, and lackedthe academic rigour. Electives offered by the schools were either too spe-cialised or were fashion-oriented. Students were overloaded with academic

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120

Table2.

Adulteducat

ioncorecurriculumeveningschools.

Areas

Subjects

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

Philology

Russianlanguageandliterature*

08

08

07

06

06

03

03

03

Mathematics

05

05

05

04

04

02

02

02

Sciences

Biology,physicsandchemistry

02

03

04

05

05

04

04

04

SocialStudies

History,geography,andcivics

02

02

04

05

05

03

03

03

Sub-total

17

18

20

20

20

12

12

0102

Seminarworkandoralexams

04

04

04

04

04

04

04

04

Electivesandgroupwork

02

02

02

02

02

07

07

07

Total

23

24

26

26

26

23

23

23

Source:Otkrytaiashko

la1998,

4:12,andOtkrytaiashkola

2000,

4:16.


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whole range of subjects which are academic, vocational, and life-centred innature, and designed to take into account the individuals personal develop-ment, as well as learning outcomes.

According to Galina Koroliova, principal of Moscows number 18 eveningschool, the vecherka, is capable of becoming a genuine centre of the all-round education, helping young people to achieve their goals (UchitelskaiaGazeta 10, 14 March, 2000: 9). In her centre, the ages of learners range from12 to over 40. Students completing basic school (Grades 59) attend daytimeclasses. Those needing to complete secondary school certificate courses attendthe evening classes three times a week. Seminars and group activities are heldon Saturdays. This centre is so attractive to employed and unemployed adultsthat it had six classes of Grades 911, with some 150 students.

The deficit model of the unschooled and untrained adult has also beenapplied in Karelia, where a once silenced and marginalised people, especiallyin the rural areas, have been able to play a powerful role in social andeconomic development. Aleksei Andeiko (2000: 9) established a successfulexperimental rural centre of adult education offering services which rangedfrom secondary schooling to education for life and leisure. He writes thatwithout adult education it is impossible to get the village on its feet, or tomake it economically viable. His adult education centre, operating in the localvillage, provides a differentiated education and training, including prepara-tion for further education, computer literacy, farm management, music, tech-nology, and a range of counselling and educational services. The number ofadult education centres in the region has grown from 5 in 1996 to 8 in 1999,serving some 450 adult learners (Uchitelskaia Gazeta 10, 14 March, 2000: 9).

Adult education as psychological and pedagogical rehabilitation

In addition to compensatory education, adult education centres increasinglyperform psychological and pedagogical rehabilitation among the new under-class adolescents and young adults with little prospect of finding jobs or aplace in society. There are currently over 4 million besprizorniki (streetchildren) in the Russian Federation. Over 12 million children live in absolutepoverty (Otkrytaia shkola 1998, 6: 7), and over 3 million adolescents are outof school and unemployed (Otkrytaia shkola 2000, 2: 18). These individuals,alienated and forgotten by society, are desperately in need of help. Gleizer(1998) captures succinctly some of the prevailing social problems:

Millions of adolescents drop out of school. They fall under the influence of thestreet and become victims of criminal gangs . . . many more adolescents are simplyroaming the streets with little to do. They lack the motivation to come to the eveningschool. . . . Without a serious psychological and pedagogical rehabilitation of theseadolescents it would be impossible to attract them into the traditional educationalstructure. We need a transformation towards a system of education which offerspsychological and pedagogical rehabilitation. This must be a new direction in thedevelopment of the evening school (Gleizer 1998: 9).

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Matveeva (1993: 11), of the Institute of Adult Education, was one of thefirst educators to stress the new rehabilitative function of evening schools,arguing that such institutions are more adaptive to social change. She notesthe intensely humane nature of the evening school system, seeing it as theonly system that took upon itself to educate, train and rehabilitate youngadults. This theme featured prominently in policy documents and articlesduring the 19982000 period.

In focusing particularly on the millions of young adults not in school orout of work, Gleizer (1998) has adopted rather uncritically the new categoryof the non-learner which has gained currency in the UK and elsewhere inEurope. Referring as it does to the sector of the population which do not enrolin courses, it has been argued the term has become a new way of defining

and scapegoating members of marginalised and excluded underclasses(Preston 1999: 570). In Russia, like in the UK, policy makers, and adulteducators use the incentives of possible employment and qualifications andthe threat of possible unemployment, poverty and withdrawal of benefits topersuade identified client categories into adult education. It is hoped that manyindividuals in this group, who are defined as persons at risk, will be able toovercome personal inhibition, low self-esteem, and social problems byenrolling in the newly-restructured adult education centres.

Influential policy-makers such as Leoneeva (2000), Ivanova (2000) andGleizer (1998) see the social and pedagogical rehabilitation of adolescentsand young adults as one of the most significant new roles of the adult edu-cation sector. With Russia having more besprizorniki (street children) todaythan during the worst periods of the 19181922 Civil War, and school dropoutnumbers, currently some 3 million, still increasing, the evening school hasbecome a centre for social rehabilitation of adolescents at risk.

A new model ofShkola sotsialnoi zashchity (the school for social reha-bilitation) was developed by Gubarevich and Melikhova (2000). It is part ofthe project The Evening School for the 21st Century (Vecherniaia shkola

XXI veka). As the authors explain:

More than half of our intake consists of adolescents at risk. They all need socialrehabilitation. They are physically debilitated, they are unable to find work, andthey come from single-parent families with inadequate material needs. Their entiresocialization consists of free time . . . the street and street gangs (Gubarevich andMelikhova 2000: 19).

The aim of this school for young adults is to prepare students, by meansof psychological and pedagogical compensatory sessions and rehabilita-tion programmes geared to the market economy, to provide the necessarysocial and economic safety net. This is to be achieved by the creation andrealisation of positive attitudes towards the self and society, the developingof self-respect and self-confidence, and the acquisition of positive attitudestowards learning. The goal is to provide the optimum conditions for devel-

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oping a maximum potential for learning, and personal growth, by means ofeffective motivational strategies.

Lifelong learning for equity and inclusion

The decade from 1992 was characterised by a profound economic and socialcrisis. Millions of individuals were displaced as result of radical transforma-tions that took place after the collapse of the USSR. Many adolescents andyoung adults had lost faith in the ex-Soviet education system, leaving itscredibility in doubt. This multi-million army of dispossessed and alienatedindividuals could be persuaded to return to the evening school and gain edu-

cation, vocational training and much-needed self-respect. Such was the viewof some senior policy makers (Gleizer 1998: 8).Numerous articles written during 19982000 confirm this. As one adult

education centre principal writes:

In our region, as in Russia on the whole, it is difficult to find employment industryis at a standstill. Many adolescents are neither working nor studying. . . . For themthe vecherka [the evening school] is their last hope of being somebody. At the sametime this school provides intellectual and moral rehabilitation of problem pupils(Dobriakova 1998: 10).

Some centres find themselves being affected by the unresolved tensionsbetween the new form of capitalism in post-Soviet Russia, characterised bya ruthless vocationalism designed to address economic imperatives and thepedagogy of engagement. The latter, modelled on social dynamics of theRussell Report (Russell 1993), sees adult education as performing acompensatory and emancipatory function. Given the growing numbers ofproblem students and street children, many adult education centres activelyperform this new social role. As Slovesnova reports in the Education Ministry-sponsored adult education journal, Otkrytaia Shkola, the Moscow eveningschool No. 203, is such a centre. The school had 720 students in 2000, with380 students coming from one-parent families. Among the students, 35 wereparents themselves and over 25 percent were regarded as at risk. In 1994the school was awarded the status Social adaptation of adolescents experi-encing difficulties in learning (Slovesnova 2000: 7). At the school, studentsreceive emotional and psychological backup, and social values are intertwined

with vocational qualifications. Six hours are allocated to professional trainingin hairdressing, auto mechanics and dressmaking. About 50 percent continuetheir education beyond Grade 9. However 20 percent of graduates look forwork and do not plan to study further. A few neither wish to continue studyingnor to seek work.

Another problem facing the adult education sector is the need to providecompensatory education for individuals who have been disadvantaged by thepost-1991 proliferation of differential curricula and programs, varying teaching

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methods, subject choice, assessment techniques and standards of achievement.The re-structuring of education since 1991 which produced a very diverse edu-cational sector, ranging from single disciplines schools, open schools, andelectives-rich schools, meant that for the first time there was a problem ofequivalence of academic standards. Due to the variety of educational pro-grammes for 15-year-olds completing Grade 9, the exit point for those wishingto pursue professional or vocational training, exhibited different levels of com-petency in school subjects and skills. In short, adult education centres foundthat they had to re-educate their new students even in the basic 3Rs. In anotherarticle in Otkrytaia Shkola, Koroliova, principal of Moscows evening schoolNo. 18, provides a very good assessment of the situation:

From the start we understood that our adolescents could not and did not want tostudy. Other schools simply would not take them. But they are only 1315 year-olds! They dont have basic education. At the same time their numbers are growingevery year. They have serious gaps in knowledge, and lack in studying skills. Thisis the reason why every year we also offer compensatory classes (Koroliova 2000:11).

High unemployment among youth and school leavers is forcing this groupto continue with education and retraining in evening schools. Between 1991and 1998 the intake of students in adult education centres had changed sig-nificantly. Prior to 1991 these centres enrolled working adults aged 16 yearsof age and above while now they admit students as young as 14. This loopholewas made possible by the Law which allows 14-year olds to seek employ-ment. By 1998 the following age groups were represented in adult educationcentres: the under-15 age-group consisting of 30 percent; the 1617 age-groupcomprising 45 percent; the 1829 age-group making 24 percent, and less than2 percent for the over-30 age group (Leonteva 1998: 5). There were 1,718such centres with 500,000 students in 1998, with 50,480 instructors. In someschools the 1617 age-group represents 50 percent of the intake. The latterare adolescents who have left school due to various reasons, such as to workor to become school dropouts.

The future of adult education in Russia

Russias radical post-communist ideological transformation, with its emphasis

on privatisation and the global economy has created the need for a newparadigm in adult education. Jacksons (1997: 53) notion of civil society isrelevant to Russia. He suggests the need for a new approach to adult educa-tion and training that takes into account peoples relations to civil society aswell as to the labour market is most apparent in areas where high unem-

ploymentand industrial restructuring are reducing the quality of life and lifechances most dramatically (emphasis added).

A new model ofShkola sotsialnoi zashchity (the school for social reha-

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bilitation) and other adult education centres is partly addressing these issues.By focusing on social problems and values education, this new model offersan alternative approach to lifelong learning, similar to the one suggested byAspin and Chapman (2001: 15):

We are suggesting, an objective referent may be found in the problems to thesettlement of which lifelong learning programmes are addressed One resolutionthat might be suggested, then, is to take a pragmatic look at the problems thatpolicy-makers are addressing when urging that learning be lifelong and open toand engaged in by all people. . . . Perhaps we may begin to make ground by exam-ining some of the accounts of the needs of different people, different communitiesor different countries . . . (pp. 1517).

The future of lifelong learning in Russia, amidst the competing paradigms

(ranging from vocationalism to social rehabilitation), and the return of thelearning society, rest on current assumptions and radical rethinking about thepost-Soviet education system. Unlike the West, Russia, as other transitionaleconomies, has experienced a painful decade of structural transformationthrough political and economic change (from Soviet-type command economyto private enterprise), the coming of the information age, internationaliza-tion, and demographic changes (falling birth rates and an ageing population).

If in the past, adult education in the USSR was characterised by voca-tional training, the topping up model of schooling, and leisure-orientedactivities (especially taught by the Peoples universities), today the leisure-oriented, spiritual, and cultural approach, which was unique to Japan in thelate 1980s, and shared by a number of East Asian countries, is making a comeback. This is despite the pressure to adopt the job-related training to cope witheconomic and social problems. Furthermore, the social welfare dimension oflifelong learning in Russia mirrors similar developments in some Nordic coun-tries, where the social welfare system focuses on the social and economicaspects of life housing, culture, food and clothes, and lately, showing interestin spiritual and mental qualities of life (Okamoto 2001: 324). Like Japan,Russia has a very rich cultural and spiritual heritage, which is gradually beingre-born after 75 years of Soviet hegemony.

Russias current economic and social problems, as described earlier, offera pragmatic starting point. Russia, currently undergoing politico-economictransformation and social dislocation, has already developed a significantinequality gap between the rich and the poor by creating a new stratum ofsemi-citizens, what Jackson refers to as those with little power in the mar-

ketplace and little purchase on obscure democratic processes. Commentingon post-Soviet Russias new social inequality Miagchenkov (2000: 26) writes:

Today educational transformations have divided our youth into two strata: for onegroup elite education, with ruthless competitive entrance tests in the upper gradesin gimnaziia, litsei or kolledzh. For the other group the deficit ones, or sociallyand pedagogically neglected [students] the road leads to the vecherka [the eveningschool]. In essence, the renaissance of classical by nature education is for the oldand newly formed elite.

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It is indeed the pedagogically neglected students, the unemployed, and thosein need of the job-related skills that adult education centres are catering for.This is supported by numerous articles dealing with these issues publishedbetween 19932000 in Vecherniaia sredniaia shkola/Otkrytaia shkola.

Does Russian adult education empower the learner?

In considering the potential of these post-Soviet Russian adult education pro-grammes to become an emancipatory and empowering force in the lives theyoung people and adults they seek to help, it is useful to apply the ideas ofprogressive educational theorists, especially those who favoured vocationalforms of schooling. To be truly empowering adult education has to engage in

the process of what Freire (1972) termed conscientization, where adultlearners are provided with knowledge and skills to decode and deconstructthe world, thus promoting democracy, social justice and equality. Above all,such a process has a potential to liberate the economically and socially mar-ginalised individuals, by enabling them to assume greater autonomy. In reality,as Carnoy and Levin (1985) argue, education systems are culturally repro-ductive, and respond to the industrial imperative rather than seeking toempower or transform individuals. Instead of promoting a hierarchical divisionof labour and social stratification, education should be responding, especiallyin Russia, to the democratic imperatives of person rights rather thenproperty rights (Bowles and Gintis 1981).

What Russian adult educators may not be aware of is that the lifelonglearning discourse itself (despite its comforting democratic and emancipa-tory ethos) is necessarily hegemonic, in that it culturally reproduces thedominant ideology and social inequality (Wilson 1999). The contemporarylifelong learning discourse in the West is defined primarily by economic andtechnological imperatives. Framed by the need for competitive efficiency, andoutcomes-driven curricula, it reduces education to training and the masteryof job-related skills. This is particularly relevant to Russia, currently exploringalternative models of lifelong learning-as a means of redressing post-Sovietunemployment, poverty, and exploitation.

Russian adult educators need to re-discover the rich heritage of the pro-gressive pedagogy of the early 20th century American educational philoso-pher, John Dewey. Attracted by early Soviet educational experiments duringthe 1920s, Dewey argued that the goal of education was making the indi-

vidual a sharer or partner in the associated activity so that it feels its successas his success, its failure as his failure (quoted in Feinberg and Torres 2001:64). Dewey went on to argue that the school served to balance the variouselements in the social environment, and to see to it that each individual getsan opportunity to escape from the limitations of the social group in which hewas born.

Under the prevailing rhetoric of liberalisation and consumer choice, andin the face of critical economic difficulties, contemporary Russian adult

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education may inadvertently engage in a new form of cultural reproductionby falling into the trap of presenting a globally-dictated vocationalism. Sucha course would represent a transformation and reform which was largelyillusory. The often alienating Soviet system state manpower planning wouldbe replaced by the equally alienating capitalist world of work influenced solelyby market forces.

If adult education throughout the world, and particularly in the UK, USAand Canada, has been influenced by economic rationalism and neo-conserv-ative ideology, then adult education in post-Soviet Russia seems to follow asimilar pattern. The ideals of collectivity, social justice, human rights, andethnic tolerance are exchanged for key concepts taken from business man-agement discourse, namely productivity, efficiency, competitiveness and

quality or the bottom-line of the language of profit maximisation.As the 1960s UNESCO humanistic, social justice, and human rightstradition, gradually weakened, the economic and techno-determinist paradigmof the OECD, the World Bank and the IMF was gaining in prominence. Reich(1993) argues that the future standards of living in any country will dependon the ability of the population to sell its labour power in a global labourmarket. In short, the neo-liberal and neo-conservative ideology, which hasre-defined education as an investment in human capital and human resourcedevelopment has also influenced the thinking of policy makers in Russia.The crisis of the welfare State and the weakening of civil society have affectedadult education in Russia, as elsewhere. As such, it has shifted its focus, fromthe learning of meanings to the learning of earnings (Zajda 1999: 159).

Conclusion

Lifelong learning in post-Soviet Russia has become an alternative track forinclusion by catering to individuals in low status jobs and the unemployed.It offers both basic skill training for the unemployed or school dropouts, andprovides them with strategies for using education to change the quality of theirlives. To the poorer Russians it has become a lifesaving bridge the onlymeans of alleviating poverty. In Russia, as elsewhere, the language of par-ticipation in lifelong learning can be double-edged.

Lifelong learning in Russia attempts to embrace both a structural-func-tionalist (or consensus-based) paradigm of learning dictated by the market,

and at the same time an emancipatory philosophy of learning. Only a pedagogyof engagement, or a progressive pedagogy in lifelong learning, can offer thenew underclass in Russia the means to withstand some of the worst featuresof the global economy.

All Russian adult educators will need to develop their programmes alongthe lines already achieved by the leaders in some Russian adult educationcentres. Their example demonstrates that institutions can be more collabora-tive and can capitalise on the learners experience. They all have the poten-

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tial to work to cultivate critical and reflective thinking within an ethos ofmutual respect and learning for social action. A progressive pedagogy, suchas that proposed by Brookfield (1991: 38), which was to be based on the devel-opment of critical reflection, consisting of dialectical thinking and emanci-patory learning may well be applicable in such future development.

Lifelong learning in Russia, in order to become more empowering andemancipatory, will need to become specifically adult education rather thaneducation for adults. The latter, according to Lindeman (1932: 31) referredto everything from continuation classes in grammar, education for literacy,or plain vocational training. Lindemans ideas on the significance of the socialdimension in adult education are still applicable to contemporary Russiastransition to capitalism. He also wrote that authentic and true adult educa-

tion was social education and that all successful adult-education groupssooner or later become social-action groups (1945: 119).This means that Russian adult educators and learners alike would need to

accept that lifelong learning is not just a range of techniques and method-ologies for the learning of earnings but also a social, cultural and politicalpractice. The new model of the School for Social Rehabilitation developed byGubarevich and Melikhova (2000), which is part of the on-going educationalinnovation project the Evening School for the 21st Century (Vecherniaiashkola XXI veka) is a promising beginning for lifelong learning and adult edu-cation in the Russian Federation.

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The author

Joseph Zajda was born in Stanislavov, Poland, and was educated in the USSR, Polandand Australia. He was awarded Monash Graduate Scholarship and graduated withBA (Hons), MA, MEd and PhD from Monash University, Australia. In additionto English, he speaks Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. He has taught English andmathematics in secondary schools in Melbourne. He is Director of the Institute forInternational Education and Development, and founder and coordinator of GlobalStudies in Education at the Australian Catholic Education, Melbourne. He edits thefollowing international refereed journals: Education and Society; Curriculum andTeaching, and World Studies in Education. His publications include Education in theUSSR, Education and Society (ed.), Excellence and Quality in Education (co-editedwith K. Bacchus and N. Kach), Learning and Teaching (ed.), Language Awarenessin the Curriculum, andJ. Smolicz on Education and Culture (co-edited with MargaretSecombe).

Contact address: Dr. Joseph Zajda, School of Education, St Patricks Campus,Australian Catholic University, 115 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia, 3065.Tel: (613) 9 953-3268; Fax: (613) 9 699 2040. E-mail: [email protected].

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