Ethno-Cultural Education in the Republic of Kalmykia: Is Civil Identity Formation in Danger?

The article examines the issues of ethno-cultural education in the Republic of Kalmykia within the general framework of maintaining balance between the all-Russian and ethnic identities. The authors explore the dynamics and ways of introducing ethno-cultural content into education standards since the early 1990s. At the same time special attention is paid to the reducing influence of ethno-cultural education on shaping the all-Russian civil identity. The empirical studies aimed at discovering the experience of implementing ethno-cultural educational component in Kalmykia indicate a rather balanced combination of ethno-cultural and all-Russian civil educational subjects. The analysis of the empirical survey results has identified a difference in understanding the meaningful focus of ethno-cultural subjects by generations of parents and pupils. In parents’ opinion, the main goal of teaching those subjects is to shape the ethno-cultural identity. The young people, on the one hand, take a pragmatic approach to the use of this aspect of knowledge but, on the other hand, they do understand that the knowledge is targeted at maintaining customs and traditions. To actualize the interest of Kalmykia’s youth in ethno-cultural education it is required to proceed to active methods of education that would meet their present-day needs. The collected data also points out that a common civil identity prevails in the republic alongside the trend towards reproduction of ethnic culture.

ethno-cultural education, common all-Russian civil identity, ethnic identity, Kalmyk language, federal, national and regional component, school education

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