Transformation of Educational Practices in a Crisis: the Realities of Ukrainian Society

Abstract

The aim of the article is to study new models of educational practices that became the most common in Ukrainian society during the period of crisis associated with quarantine conditions, accompanied by forced self-isolation of citizens and determining roles in online learning, allowing formulating new strategies for adapting to the conditions of limiting social activity. Since this problem is currently relevant for the Ukrainian society, which is trying to adapt to fundamentally new realities of life, due to quarantine restrictions and a high level of risks to the health of citizens, the authors conducted their own sociological research using the method of Internet survey of the po­pulation of Kiev and Kiev region. Its results made it possible to identify trends in the educational practices of Uk­rainians under quarantine. Particular attention is paid to the study of age-related features of awareness and perception of online education, as well as the analysis of new educational practices that have begun to be applied comprehensively with the old ones. The study of the reaction of ordinary citizens to the crisis and the study of models of society’s adaptation to existing realities allowed the authors to review the processes of personality choice of behavioral stra­tegies, social action strategies, and educational practices, focusing on the fact that previously developed adaptation methods do not work, and social reality requires the creation of new adaptation models.

The results of a sociological study fully confirmed the hypothesis about the essential role of educational practices in society. Non-formal education has become a mechanism for Ukrainians to adapt to crisis phenomena and social transformations. There was a tendency towards an increase in the interest of the older age group in non-formal types of education and a decrease in the interest of young people in formal education, which turned out to be unprepared for such challenges as the transition to on-line. The complex of crises that Ukrainian society is experiencing has become a certain impetus for ordinary citizens to improve the mechanisms of social adaptation, one of which under the fundamentally new living conditions was non-formal education.