Russia: Media Education in Secondary Schools

This work was the part of EUROMEDIAPROJECT (Director of this project is Prof.Dr. Andrew Hart, UK). This work was also supported by the Research Support Scheme of the Open Society Support Foundation, grant N 18/2000

National social, political and economic context

I can distinguish the following Russian social, political and economic context since 1991 (the year of liquidation of the Soviet Union): the beginning of economic reforms and the revival of private property; the sudden division of society into the few rich the vast majority of poor people; the crisis of reforms; attempts to solve economic problems with the help of the money borrowed from foreign countries; the decay of Russian industry; unemployment; the virtual abolition of censorship’s effect on Russian media producers, giving them the first opportunity to turn to the most vital themes that were banned before.

Media Education context

Provision & development

Just like the education on the whole, media education in Russia resided under harsh ideological pressure for many years. Access to media information (films, books about movies, etc.) was denied by censorship. However media education in Russia has existed for about 80 years.

Contemporary media education can be distinctly divided into three main directions: media education of future professionals - screenwriters, directors, cameramen, actors, film-critics, etc.; - media education of future media educators in universities; media education as a part of traditional education of pupils and students in primary schools, high schools, colleges, universities, etc.

The history of Russian Association for Film & Media Education based goes back to the Russian Association for Film Education. The first attempts to instruct in media education appeared in the 1920’s but were stopped by Stalin’s repressions. And a new history of Russian Association for Film Education began the 1960s. The end of the 1950s - the beginning of the 1960s was the time of the revival of media education in primary & secondary schools, children summer centers (Moscow, Petersburg, Voronezh, Samara, Kurgan, Tver, Rostov, Taganrog, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, etc.), the revival of film clubs, media education seminars & conferences. Today media education in Russia is not compulsory for all schools & universities. Media education can be integrated into aesthetic (literature, art, music, artistic culture, aesthetics), linguistic (Russian and foreign languages), historical & philosophical (history, philosophy, legal studies) and some other courses. Another variant: optional media education courses. Unfortunately, media education in Russia has been facing and is still facing numerous difficulties (financial, technical et al.). Many Russian schools and universities don't have the money for modern audiovisual and Internet equipment. And many teachers do not get their salary paid regularly.

Curriculum space

Media Education is not compulsory in Russian schools (except for some secondary schools on an experimental basis). Some primary & secondary schools offer optional media education lessons to their pupils.

Russia has not of the compulsory General Curriculum in the field of media education but the Laboratory for Media Education (a section of the Russian Academy of Education, Moscow) publishes the programs and literature concerning Media and Film Education. The key themes of these media education programs are “media language”, “media audience”, “media perception”, “media category“, “media technology”, “esthetic qualities of media text”, “media representation”, “media agency”, etc.

Some Russian teachers consider the basis of media training to be practical, hands-on studies of media materials, but some teachers prefer theory to practice: analyses of the aesthetic value of films and TV programs with the audience. For example, Moscow's Cinema Lyceum and some other schools conduct group discussions of the merits and demerits of media texts from the viewpoint of their artistic conception.

Teacher education and training (pre-service and in-service)

Pre-service teacher education has existed in Russia (Pedagogical Universities in Kurgan, Tver, Voronezh, Rostov, etc.) since the 1960’s. For example, a course in media education has been offered in the Taganrog State Pedagogical Institute since 1981. Its students are trained to teach media education classes in schools. To fulfill diploma requirements some of them write reviews and assays on themes of media education. Some special media education courses (or short seminars) exist also for in-service Russian school teachers (Moscow, Kurgan and so on).