Internationale Kulturwissenschaften International Cultural Studies Etudes culturelles internationales
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Elena M. Apenko (St. Petersburg)

Development and problems of curricula in the humanities in St. Petersburg higher education institutions

Deep changes in post-Soviet reality brought to life the unique challenges of reforming the higher education system in Russia. The goals of the reforms were to modify both structure and essence of education to suit new circumstances in and requirements of our society that itself now is in transition. Hence the difficulties the reformers met at once. One is at first to realise and define the main features of the society, and then to try to build up a concept of education. We are trying to do the latter without doing the former. Thus our education reform often looks chaotic, but some tendencies are already obvious.

The reforms have both organizational and basic character. At first, some words about the formal changes, the easier and more obvious. At first, major state "institutes" were renamed into "universities" or "academies" in order to stress their potential. That created a real mess and a lot of fun, together with more serious problems when world famous scientific schools suddenly lost their usual names and seemed "to disappear" from the scientific circle.

A strategic decision was made at the state level to transform our traditional five year educational program into a Western scheme - 4 year bachelors' degree program + 2 year masters' degree program. That met plenty of questions not only in academic circles but also at the labour market, where bachelors' and even masters' certificates were perceived with suspicion. So now both systems exist parallel. For example, faculty of Philology of St.Petersburg State University preserves the old 5 year program and develops the 4+2 year one.

Considerable number of private educational institutions were established. For example, 38 colleges, institutes and universities were opened in St.Petersburg during the last decade. They are free to choose between 5 year and 4+2 year schemes of education.

Then, at last, the so called "second higher education option" on a fee paying basis was introduced in the state universities, and is now under development in private ones.

Practically all of these new higher education institutions specialize in the humanities and social sciences. Their success showes that education in the humanities is much in demand now, and, as education represents continuous process of acquisition and production of human operative knowledge, reflects some fundamental changes that take place in our society.

Newly opened institutes and colleges are free to form their curricula either on the basis of a traditional system, or to work out a new concept. There is a rich diversity of concepts. Some try to reproduce traditional academic scheme. Some pursue a scientistic conception of an economic-driven production of service oriented skills, and reduce their curricula to language classes and a minimum of "general knowledge" disciplines. Some try to work out something new.

My teaching experience at St. Petersburg state university as well as at several private colleges and institutes enables me, I hope, to make a sort of comprehensive examination of humanities curricula which reveals some clear tendencies and at the same time shows problems of our educational system.

The older an institution is the more conservative it is. The majority of the departments and faculties of St.Petersburg state university preserve an academic approach structuring education in the humanities that is based on a positiviste analitic tradition. The academicians do not like to cross the borders and use opportunities for productive communal research because they are restructuring their own perseption at first. Main curriculum changes are linked with reforming methodology of philosophic disciplines teaching and course offerings. But at large the majority of the attempts to change the traditional canon of academic disciplines can be described as complimentary because of striving to preserve traditional divisions between disciplines themselves. Linguistics, history, sociology, for example, are considered to be absolutely separate studies and disciplines. At the same time the scheme and curriculum of teaching, say, linguistics, or history, uses what can be called a multidisciplinary approach. We even can find some remnants of the "humanistic" educational ideal of the 19th century, telling us that language students must have not only language classes, but lectures about history of language, as well as about history of the country, whose language they learn, and about its literary history too together with a course of general philisophy of history. Unfortunately, we live not in the 19th century when humanistic and historic approaches formed the basis of human perception, and synthesis was made automatically. Our students now usually look at all this subjects like absolutely separate disciplines. In the age of "the end of history", of virtual multiplicity of life and its perception synthetic picture must be originated artificially, namely, by developing interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. They are being developed gradually in our university, but usually as complimentary to the mainstream of the curriculum. Here the demands of labour market help a lot. Principle of interdisciplinarity is used in a peculiar form of "additional specializations". Say, at the phililogical faculty, some unusual combinations of disciplines and new ones are introduced for a student who wants to become not only "a language teacher" but "a business administrator of education institution in the humanities" as well.

Another manifestation on the academic level of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach is founding of cultural studies. Principles of organizing education in and scholarship of cultural studies are diverse. In the English language department of the philological faculty we have "British studies" and "American studies" as optional courses within the traditional canon of disciplines. At the same time at the faculty of international relations of our university that was opened 5 years ago "European studies" and "American studies" became the two main departments with the curricula showing a comprehensive approach adequate to the complexity of the phenomena under research and teaching. The most radical step in transdisciplinary initiatives within St.Petersburg state university was made, I think, by the phililogical faculty by introducing cultural ecology educational program "Paradise". It is based on multidimensional cultural concepts when some certain space is read like a complex text revealing culture as unity. The program now exists also as a complimentary educational option on a fee paing basis for two main reasons: it is rather popular within the public and can bring money to the university, and it still can't find its place within a traditional canon. Newly established private colleges and institutes often feel themselves free in transforming this educational canon, that's why they often include into their curricula cultural studies as basic disciplines, as it is, say, in Nevsky institute of languages and culture. Synthetical method of approach incorporating multiple perspectives allows to elaborate a complex understanding of culture and human activity that becomes good basis of further education in the humanities.

So, coming to the end of my contribution I must say that interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach is not yet an established phenomenon in the curricula in the humanities in St.Petersburg higher education institutes but has good perspectives and potential.

		Internationale Kulturwissenschaften International Cultural Studies Etudes culturelles internationales
		CULTURAL  COLLABORATORY