Regional approach to studies of the gifted

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REGIONAL APPROACH TO STUDIES OF THE GIFTED

M.M. Kabanets

Problem Statement. The problem of studying approaches to social and pedagogical support of gifted students in different countries and regions of our country emerged full blown in connection with the need of implementation of the state policy in education and training taking into account regional specific features. In general, the aspect of regionality is found in differentiation of conditions: internal and external, objective and subjective, material and ideal, spiritual and cultural, historical and contemporary. That creates a specific `face' of regional educational space, its dissimilarity to other regions.

The issue of the regional dimension in historical and pedagogical research is important because the current state of education is determined by history, and all the achievements, accomplishments or negative results have their roots in the past and are related to the specific historical conditions.

Since Ukraine became independent, regional historical and pedagogical research works have spread widely. But it should be noted that clear methodological foundations of such studies have not been developed yet.

Review of literature. Current scientific works represent increased attention to the regional aspect of research of various scientific and educational problems. Thus, the methodological basis of the regional approach in the study of history of education is presented in the works of L. Vakhovskyi, V. Kurylo, O. Sukhomlynska and others. Over the past decades representatives of Ukrainian pedagogy and psychology made a significant contribution to research in the field of gifted education. Various aspects of giftedness were investigated by such scientists as V. Alfimov, O. Antonova, O. Bocharova, M. Gnatko, S. Goncharenko, I. Zverev, L. Koval, O. Kulchytska, V. Moliako, O. Musyka, S. Sysoieva, V. Palamarchuk, V. Jurkevich et al.

Singling out unsolved aspects of the problem. East-Ukrainian region has considerable experience of educational support of gifted students, which can help improve the efficiency of educational practices with that specific category of students in Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to analyse the peculiarities of the regional approach in pedagogy of the gifted.

Main findings. The issue of human abilities and talent initially caused heated debate among scholars, having in each period tough opponents and enthusiastic followers who took care of gifted individuals. This category of people is characterized by universality of expertise and depth of penetration into the investigated processes or objects that provide an opportunity to understand internal patterns and predict their further development; originality of thinking and creativity, the ability to enrich the science and art with fundamentally new ideas, discoveries leading to the creation of new fields of knowledge, new theories, paradigms, trends or styles in art, which can eventually lead to revolutionary progress in human culture or new interpretations of old, well- known concepts; independence and freedom of thought, significant impact on social and spiritual life; perseverance in achieving goals [3, p. 30-31].

The regional approach to researching problems of gifted education refers to specific scientific methodology of educational research. The regional approach in the definition of the methodology of scientific and pedagogical research is generally considered in the unity with such approaches as systematic, environmental, cultural, ethnopedagogical, participatory, synergistic and axiological ones. In encyclopaedias regional dimension is defined as the detection of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of pedagogical phenomena studied [7; 8].

According to A. Stehniy and M. Churilov `a region functions as an objective fact with its existing physical space, problems and interests, as space subjectively perceived by individuals'. This allows us to consider the fullness of the interaction of individuals in their territorial social and cultural environment, while implementing the essential quality of education, that is to be organically included in the overall process of objective reality, in various forms of economic, cultural and everyday activities of a community of people [9].

In the methodology of scientific research the category of `approach' is considered as a fundamental methodological orientation of the research, as a point of view, which is used to consider the object of study, as a concept or principle that controls the overall research strategy, research mind-set on the research object that subordinates the logic of understanding and evaluation of the facts under study, a set of scientific concepts of the process of describing, studying, planning, predicting and transforming the object of cognition and others. The need for specifying a particular methodological approach or selecting a set of methodological approaches to meet the challenges of the scientific research is associated with the choice of the most efficient methodological tools (principles and methods).

Special attention of researchers to the regional approach is determined by the need to analyse the development of regional educational systems in the context of dialectical interrelation of processes of globalization and regionalization, increasing attention to the concept of `region' in current mass media and in everyday communication.

Obviously, the region is an interdisciplinary concept, therefore in contemporary scientific works there are geographic, political, sociological, educational, integrated views on the phenomenon. Andrew Thompson believes that the region is quite an amorphous concept, although you can certainly say that the region is a territorial unit. In a broader meaning the term `region' is applied to those units which operate between the levels of local and national governments. These are administratively defined territorial units as lands in Germany, autonomous communities in Spain or administrations in the UK, which got certain federal powers. Thus, a region is a part of the state [11].

The interdisciplinary research context of the term `region' determines the reference to scientific research in the fields of geography, social philosophy, ethnology, psychology, economics, political science, sociology. Scientists admit that a unified definition of `region' does not exist. From a philosophical point of view, a region is an analogue of a special `world' with its typical mentality, way of thinking, traditions, outlook and attitude to the world [1].

The interdisciplinary structure of the concept `region' is represented in a well-known definition of A. Markusen: `the region is a compact territorial community that historically evolves and that contains physical, social, economic, political and cultural environment and spatial structure, different from other regions and units, such as a city or a nation' [14, p. 17].

In the geographical context the region is usually defined as a space that covers a part of the country, or a group of countries, or a part of the continent that differ from other parts in a set of historical features. Sociologists and politicians focus on the uniqueness of the social structure and political components of the region.

L. Butenko explains that the humanitarian dimension of the concept `region' implies also another view on the problem of regionalization. Since borders of a region are determined by interrelations, common activities of people, they may not reflect its political and administrative boundaries. A region as a humanitarian formation should be considered in the context of proportionality as to a particular person that allows a person to feel «embedded» (or open) in the social space.

Using the regional approach in scientific and pedagogical research includes: the relevance of studying pedagogical problems in regional context; determining conceptual framework (essentialist, constructivist, integrative approaches) and scientific approach to the disclosure of the concept of «region»; choice of criteria for identification of region typology; determining spatial and temporal characteristics of the regional dimension of the investigated problem; determining a place of the region that is studied in a larger system using the systemic approach; ensuring the representativeness of the system of scientific facts (for applied pedagogical research) or sufficient resources (for historical pedagogical research).

In sociology `region' means a geographically differentiated community of people. A region is not only economic space, but the space presented by particular social structures, organization of authorities and cultural traditions. In regional environment there are certain framework conditions for lifestyle of inhabitants of the region [6, p. 5].

Region, in the social sciences, is a cohesive area that is homogeneous in selected defining criteria and is distinguished from neighbouring areas or regions by those criteria. It is an intellectual construct created by the selection of features relevant to a particular problem and the disregard of other features considered to be irrelevant. A region is distinguished from an area, which is usually a broader concept designating a portion of the surface of the Earth. Regional boundaries are determined by the homogeneity and cohesiveness of the section. In many contemporary national political systems the forces of history and administrative necessity have joined to produce regional communities at an intermediate level between the local and the national community. In some cases - the Swiss canton, the English county, the German Land, and the American state - these regional communities possess their own political institutions and exercise governmental functions. In other cases, however, the territorial community is a product of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, physiographic, or economic factors and maintains its identity without the support of political structures. As subnational political systems, regional communities are sometimes based in tradition, even tracing their origin to a period prior to the founding of the country; in other cases, they are modern administrative units created by national governments for their own purposes [13].

Region within the meaning of economics is a space with certain economically defined features, such as the movement of assets, capital or labour. Bohdan Yalovetskyi believes that in most cases an area defined by specialists as a region is an artificial construct created for ordering and classification of reality. He notes that a sense of territorial identity of residents seems the most important criterion for singling out a region, which is not an abstract creation of experts, not a political entity with a greater or lesser degree of autonomy, but a real existence, which is consistently present in the consciousness and everyday lives of residents. Therefore, in the sociological sense a region is a territory where inhabitants have a sense of identity so well-formed that it is a daily experience [12].

V. Kurylo believes that the region can be defined as a social and geographical space in which there is socialization of a human, formation, preservation and transfer of standards of life [4].

Some academics' opinion about artificial singling out of a particular region requires certain comments. If one accepts this opinion, we must acknowledge the lack of common geographical, economic, social, political and cultural characteristics which allow us to determine a particular area as an integral unit, which has specific features. Thus, the existence of specific features that distinguish the scientific space of one region from the others is an obligatory condition for its singling out.

In order to consider the region as an independent scientific space, it must have the following characteristics:

- geographic, economic, social, political and cultural differences from other regions;

- high level of independence that is possible in a decentralized state;

- specific system of education;

- a significant number of scientists whose activities are aimed at solving educational problems of the region;

- developed scientific infrastructure consisting of scientific institutions, scientific publications and conferences.

As it is known, most pedagogical research works are examples of a reductionist approach. This approach is justified by the need to investigate specific (local) problems. But this approach complicates the use of the consequences of individual studies because educational activities and pedagogical science have systematic, holistic nature compared to local studies of minor parts of this reality.

The subject of pedagogy determines the necessity the use of holistic approach to its analysis. All most significant achievements of pedagogy, e.g. works of Y. A. Komenskyi, A. Makarenko, V. Sukhomlynskyi, are all examples of systematic, holistic approach to solving educational problems. They almost completely cover the subject of pedagogy.

The holistic approach does not deny reductionist one. If the holistic approach is the basis for the formation of integrated large-scale educational theories, which makes the first step in forming pedagogical paradigms, the reductionist approach provides specification of ways of solving individual educational objectives.

The history of pedagogy shows the different ratio of reductionist and holistic approaches. Pedagogical science develops through the gradual accumulation of certain facts (the reductionist approach) and further systematization, generalization, designing integrated education systems (the holistic approach). Regional historical and pedagogical research works are examples of the reductionist approach.

O. Sukhomlynska singles out two methods of using the regional approach in pedagogy. Conceptualization of historical educational processes in the regional dimension involves the use of specific research methods and clearly defined goals and objectives of the planned investigation. Every regional feature (i.e. specific, typical) should be considered in comparison, identifying the particular against the general or universal. And then if the features are different from the general ones, the phenomenon, the fact can be seen as a regional manifestation. Another method of measuring regional development in the history of education is the interpretative method, i.e. a method of reality description realities in their detail and variety / uniqueness. Description as a research method is widely used in ethnography and local history, where evidence (artefacts) are arranged so as to more fully acquaint readers with the life of a certain region. An important basic principle of the regional approach in pedagogy is its dialogical character with the present that promotes not only regional reconstruction of the past, but is a measure of current trends and new areas of educational and training process [10]. The process of globalization has led to the emergence of a new situation in the scientific field. Science eventually loses its national and regional features and becomes an international affair and the result of the integration of efforts of representatives of different countries. Nowadays scientists in their research are generally guided by international academic standards, problems that are relevant to all mankind and new research technologies.

Conditions for those processes are created with new information technology, internationalization of higher education, transnational social migration, leading to the emergence of transnational social and academic space. These processes occur especially fast in fundamental, natural and technical sciences.

But these processes are beginning to affect social sciences and pedagogy as a field of scientific knowledge. In pedagogy two opposite trends always coexist: preservation and development of national traditions in education and convergence of global models of science and education.

Focusing on preserving national traditions in education is a condition of the formation of national consciousness of citizens, preservation of national identity and independence. The tendency towards convergence of national models of education and science is a condition for overcoming ethnic discrepancy and formation of the international community, which may become an important factor for accelerating social development.

Thoroughly investigating formation and development of education system and pedagogical ideas in Eastern Ukraine in the twentieth century, V. Kurylo considers the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions as a unified East Ukrainian region. The author believes that Donetsk and Luhansk regions have specific features that distinguish them from other regions of Ukraine and that are common for them. Their characteristics are significantly different from the neighbouring Kharkiv region.

They are characterized by specific features of landscape, the presence of minerals, structure and direction of the industries, the level of cultural and educational potential of inhabitants. According to the scientist, singling out East Ukrainian region enables to consider it as a specific social environment in which socialization and individualization of a personality takes place, as a set of certain conditions and means of solving educational problems, as a `field' where comprehensive and professional education system functions, as a unified educational space [4, p. 8-9].

Since 1997, regional programmes of support of talented young people have been developed in some regions of Ukraine. They are aimed at the development of intellectual potential of the nation. In Donetsk and Luhansk regions, for instance, their own systems of work with gifted children were designed through the implementation of a number of regional programmes and projects which were developed in accordance with the objectives and priorities set by the state laws of Ukraine and local educational acts.

Conclusion and recommendations for future research. Over the last two decades, there has been an increase in regional studies in pedagogy, which focus on analyzing specific ideological, national, cultural and pedagogical aspects of education development of a certain region. The regional approach in pedagogy influences its development and promotes awareness of diversity and regional specificity of educational systems within one country. There is still a need for more research in the area of social and educational support of gifted young people in regional terms.

pedagogical education region

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