Comparative Study of Social and Professional Values of Modern Teachers with Various Pedagogical Experience (the Case of Russia and Belarus)

Abstract

The paper investigated the changing system of values and value orientations of teachers belonging to different generations and cultures in the context of variability in globalization processes. The paper is aimed to identify cross-cultural features of social-professional values and value orientations of Russian and Belarusian teachers divided into three groups in compliance with their pedagogical experience and phases of professional development (from 0 to 5 years - a young teacher, from 6 to 20 years - a teacher - professional, and in case of more than 20 years - a teacher - expert). The leading research methods are questionnaires, experiment and comparison. Student's t-test, concordance coefficient and correlation analyses were applied to conduct statistical processing of research results. The study recruited 118 Russian secondary school teachers in the Republic of Tatarstan and 160 teachers of Brest region in the Republic of Belarus. It has been revealed that the value sphere of Belarusian teachers throughout their professional development is less subject to change in comparison with Russian teachers. We found out that both in Russian and Belarusian samples, teachers with various teaching experience mostly implement spiritual and moral values. Russian and Belarusian teachers are focused on displaying their decency throughout their professional career. Health and Happy Family Life refer to key values of teachers in two cultures regardless of the length of their professional experience. The structure of value sphere in Russian and Belarusian teachers with different teaching experience has its own specificity. Obtained results enabled to determine promising areas of highly qualified teachers’ training and retraining for work in modern multicultural educational systems.