Scope, Policies and Strategies of Out-of-School Education in Russian Educational Research Literature of the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Abstract

Boris Deitch, Ped.D., Associate Professor, Head of the Chair of Theory and Methodology of Educational Systems, Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation. Email: deich67@mail.ru
Address: 28 Vilyuiskaya St., Novosibirsk, 630126, Russian Federation.

The paper investigates development of out-of-school education in Russia, which was promoted to this or that extent by the State, zemstva and personal initiative. Out-of-school education included diverse institutions and activities: people’s houses, Sunday schools, people’s libraries, people’s readings, excursions, etc. The author believes that diversity in out-of-school education brings up the challenges of determining the scope, classifying the major policies and strategies, and choosing the best organizational model of out-of-school education. These are the issues that were raised in pedagogical journals and professional literature back in that period.

As judged by the articles written by leaders of social and pedagogical movement, scientists and teachers, the 1890s and the early 19th century witnessed gradual development of a theoretical basis for out-of-school education. A good deal of work was carried out to prove importance of this type of education, to introduce its fundamental concepts, to identify not only organizational but also academic issues and inconsistencies to be solved, and to find the best possible forms and methods of work. An analysis of theoretical viewpoints of that time has shown that the key ideas of researchers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries did not contradict each other or the fundamental principles of social and pedagogical movement. Moreover, they had a lot of common points and often complemented each other.