IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHENTIC MODEL: AXIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF PARENTAL ENLIGHTENMENT IN RUSSIAN TRADITION

Abstract

The article is devoted to an axiological comparison of the Western European «Enlightenment» project and the Russian understanding of enlightenment (prosvetitelstvo). The aim is to identify the principles for building an authentic model of parental education in Russia. The methodological basis of the work is the comparative-historical method, conceptual analysis, and the method of synthesis. As a result, three paradigms that had formed in the Russian thought by the mid-19th century are identified: the sacred (patristic), the secular-Western, and the philosophical-anthropological. Based on these, Russian pedagogy (K. D. Ushinsky, S. A. Rachinsky) developed an integral model that overcomes the dichotomy of «Enlightenment vs. morality». Its principles are the synthesis of knowledge and tradition, joint activity, subjectivity of the parent, and continuity. Overcoming the identified «value gap» in contemporary educational practice, where declared traditional values lack support from an adequate cultural foundation, is seen in building an authentic model of parental education. Such a model should be organically developed on the basis of the identified historical principles by integrating a dialogue between science and tradition into the activities of parental communities.