Intercultural relationships in the students’ environment

In the context of a significant increase of mass migration, the modern educational environment acquires the features of multiculturalism and teachers’ readiness for interaction with inoethnic subjects of educational processes becomes a necessary condition for reduction of ethnic tensions and development of intercultural cooperation. Upon that, the formation of constructive intercultural relations requires the development of an ethnic worldview. In particular, readiness for interaction with inoethnic subjects of educational processes and the ethnic worldview are a precondition for the formation of real multiculturalism in interethnic relations. Objective of the research is to determine the intensity of the components of readiness for interaction with inoethnic subjects of educational processes and ethnic worldview components and to analyze their ratio concerning different subjects of educational processes. The problem of the correlation of readiness for interaction with inoethnic subjects of educational processes and ethnic worldview was solved through a survey of 113 pupils, students and future pupils’ parents in the Sverdlovsk region. The exploratory factor analysis was applied to identify and describe the structural components of readiness under study structure and the structural components of the respondents’ ethnic worldview; the degree of intensity of the mentioned components was analyzed by using the criterion χ2-Pearson. To identify the correlations between the components of readiness for interaction with inoethnic subjects in educational processes and ethnic worldview, the analysis by the criterion r-Pearson was conducted. The structural components of readiness for interaction with inoethnic subjects of educational processes among pupils, students and parents were empirically described; it is revealed that most of their correlations with the ethnic worldview components are inverse. Readiness for interaction with inoethnic subjects of educational processes is developed among the pupils in components such as empirical, communicative and cognitive; among the future teachers — in relational components; none of the components is expressed among the future pupils’ parents. Multiethnic worldview is developed among the pupils in components such as ethnic position and interethnic management. Among future teachers, the component of ethnic orientation is developed. Among the parents, it is the ability to go beyond the ethnic frame. The coordination of readiness for interaction with inoethnic subjects of educational processes with an ethnic worldview is of a multifaceted nature. The intensity of particular components of the readiness under study (behavioral, empirical, emotional, communicative and cognitive) is associated with a monoethnic worldview.

The study of ethnocultural identity is remarkably up to date when considering the interactions of different countries, the ethnic groups studied within the limits of mono- and multicultural space, and the processes of acculturation, assimilation, and others. Ethnocultural identity is based on the desires of the individual and the nation viewed integrally; it is achieved in substituted forms through integration in the cultural and symbolic space of society. The aim of this article is to analyze the meaning-of-life and value orientations of Armenian and Russian students in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia. In order to study ethnocultural identity as part of the self-concept we carried out a study with students at the Russian-Armenian (Slavonic) University (Yerevan, Armenia) and the South Federal University (Rostov-on-Don, Russia): at the initial stage we conducted two focus groups (the number of respondents in each group was 10); at the second stage we conducted a study the number of respondents was 160. When the Armenian and Russian youth described their ethnicity, high values of social self — in particular, national civic identity — correlated with high and medium levels of meaning-of-life orientations. Armenians and Russians in title ethnos and in the associated diaspora had a number of similarities and differences in value orientations. The majority of respondents in the focus groups noted their positive emotions connected with being Armenian or Russian. The ethnic Russians in Armenia pointed out the ease of communication with Russian speakers, regardless of ethnicity, but noted the difficulty of social interaction because of their insufficient knowledge of the Armenian language. The formation and development of ethnic self-consciousness may be carried out at two levels: understanding the values and ideas of ethnicity and assessing the ethnocultural and ethnopsychological features of one’s ethnic group. The ethnic identity of Armenians in Russia has been transformed, and they are now characterized by similar values as ethnic Armenians in Armenia. Ethnic Armenians and ethnic Russians are in continuous interaction in Armenia and in Russia. This interaction is a key to positive ethnic attitudes in both groups as evidenced by their tolerance for other ethnic groups and their solidarity and it enriches the representatives of both ethnic groups at the regulatory value level, making them carriers of both culture.

This article focuses on the role of the media in shaping the worldview of today’s youth. In Part 1, social attitudes and social stereotypes are described in the context of ethnic relations. Part 2 describes the research into social distance and ethnic and religious stereotypes conducted by I.V. Abakumova and A.V. Grishina. The study was conducted in two stages. First we analyzed various TV and radio programs, articles in the press and on the Internet, about migrant workers, published from March 2009 to March 2012, to identify the image of migrant workers in the Russian media, for further study of the perceptions of migrant workers by students in different professional fields. In the second stage, we modified E. Bogardus’s “Social Distance Scale” in order to assess respondents’ attitudes toward media images of migrant workers and, more importantly, to determine the social distance at which the respondent tolerates the images and therefore the migrants themselves. The last part of the article reports the main findings and conclusions of the study.