St Petersburg University helps social studies teachers take a fresh look at the usual school discipline

Social science, as a university course, is multidisciplinary. The lecturers of the programme in social science were scholars from St Petersburg University. They represented five fields of knowledge. Among them are: philosophy, sociology, law, economics, and political science. The co-director of the academic programme is Sergei Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law at St Petersburg University.

The classes were held as part of the advanced training programme ‘Teaching social science in the context of finding answers to big challenges’. During ten days, teachers attended lectures, workshops, and round tables. At the end, the participants were united in project teams to develop an educational module, i.e. a group of classes united by a common topic, in one of the sections of the discipline ‘Social Science’. The modules that have passed the examination can be used in academic programmes in future.

The summer school that we held at Sirius University was aimed at improving the general professional level of school teachers.

Sergei Belov, Dean of the Faculty of Law at St Petersburg University

‘The lecturers of the University did not discuss the methods of teaching at school. Our task was to: discuss the most complex problems the modern society is facing today in terms of what information and how to convey it to schoolchildren; and discuss how school lessons develop pupils’ respect for law and legislation and develop understanding of the foundations of the economic and political systems of society. This is important in the situation when our country is facing a range of fundamental, big challenges,’ said Sergei Belov.

The so-called ‘big challenges’ are possible threats to the development of the state, identified in the Strategy for Scientific and Technological Development of the Russian Federation. Among them is the loss of cultural and national identity, which may be caused by the growth of international competition and conflicts, global and regional instability.

Liliia Kirianova, Senior Vice-Rector of Sirius University of Science and Technology, said: ‘Our ability to perceive the world largely depends on what logical constructs we have and how we explain this world. The logic of how the world is organised is formed at school. In this regard, the discipline of social science plays an important role. The most significant interpretations of the world for us are those that we develop ourselves. Our most important task is to give to children the mechanisms that will allow them to form a correct explanation of the structure of society and the events taking place in it.

The organisers and managers of the summer school emphasised that in future the programme, that was held this year for the first time, can become a centre of attraction for experts in the field of law, politics, economics, sociology, and pedagogy who will be ready to exchange experience and set the vector for the development of Russian secondary education in humanities.