Cultural Traditions and Innovations in Education Reforms. Review of the book: Vanhemping E., Novak M. Innovative Practices and Civic Initiatives in Teaching Generation Z, 2020

Abstract

The monograph Innovative Practices and Civic Initiatives in Teaching Generation Z by Elina Vanhemping and Maria Novak summarizes the authors’ experience of working in the education systems of Kazakhstan, Russia and Finland, identifies innovative trends in the three countries and analyzes the education reforms administered during the period of social transformations in the Russian Empire and in present-day former Soviet republics. The authors bring up the question of why the Bologna recommendations fail to be implemented in the education systems of Kazakhstan and Russia for discussion by the academic and teaching community and propose a scenario for including the two countries in the global educational environment with due account taken of the peculiarities of their historical and cultural development.
Our review mainly focuses on the philosophical aspects of university and school reformation issues discussed in the monograph as well as on the relationship between cultural and historical traditions and innovations in theories of liberal arts education.