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DOI: 10.15507/1991-9468.095.023.201902.303-321
Paradoxes of Students’ Non-formal Education
Galina Z. Efimova
Associate Professor of Chair of General and Economic Sociology, Tyumen State University (6 Volodarsky St., Tyumen 625003, Russia), Ph.D. (Sociology), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4826-2259, Scopus ID: 57195971011, Researcher ID: N-8362-2016, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Evgeniy V. Zyuban
Associate Professor of Chair of Economic Security, Accounting, Analysis and Auditing, Tyumen State University (6 Volodarsky St., Tyumen 625003, Russia), Ph.D. (Economics), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8310-6721, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Marina N. Kicherova
Associate Professor of Chair of General and Economic Sociology, Tyumen State University (6 Volodarsky St., Tyumen 625003, Russia), Ph.D. (Sociology), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5829-7570, Researcher ID: Q-3629-2019, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Ekaterina O. Muslimova
Assistant Professor of Chair of Modern History and International Politics, Tyumen State University (6 Volodarsky St., Tyumen 625003, Russia), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3866-450X, Researcher ID: O-4133-2019, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Introduction. The research topicality lies in the inference that formal education system loses its ability to respond quickly to socio-cultural and technological changes in society. The purpose of the article is to study the international and domestic experience of non-formal education, to identify the practices of non-formal education among students, and to examine the prospects and para doxes of non-formal education.
Materials and Methods. The study encompassed such levels as macrosocial, mesosocial, and microsocial. The authors’ methodology comprised two stages. The first part of the research was theoretical. The second part included in-depth interviews (N = 126) and questionnaire results processing (N = 894).
Results. The examples of foreign countries show institutional opportunities, regulation mechanisms, and means of recognition of non-formal education. The scale of distribution of non-formal education in the world is presented. The empirical research shows that the absolute majority of the Russian students are not involved in non-formal educational practices. The main objective of non-formal education is to obtain actual knowledge, living and vocational skills within a short time period. Only a third of respondents admit that non-formal education has had a positive ef fect on their employment.
Discussion and Conclusion. The study allows to deepen knowledge about the education system transformation, to identify possible strategies to remove young people’s qualification gaps and retards and overcome barriers existing on the labor market. The study results can be used to develop theoretical concepts and conduct a comparative analysis, as well as in practical activities of educational organizations. The study will help identify the opinion of employers regarding their readiness to recognize qualifications earned through non-formal education.
Keywords: formal education, non-formal education, higher education, student, educational system, youth, employment, employer
Funding: The research was supported financially by Russian Foundation for Basic Research within the framework of the Project “Non-formal education as a factor in human capital development” (Project No. 19-011-00701).
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the students of the Russian universities for taking part in the interviews conducted for this research and the revi ewers of the journal.
For citation: Efimova G.Z., Zyuban E.V., Kicherova M.N., Muslimova E.O. Paradoxes of Students’ Non-formal Education. Integratsiya obrazovaniya = Integration of Education. 2019; 23(2):303-321. DOI: 10.15507/1991-9468.095.023.201902.303-321
Contribution of the authors: Galina Z. Efimova – development of the concept and program of sociological research; writing the questionnaires, conducting the interviews; collecting and processing the statistical data with SPSS software; visualization of data in the text; making critical analysis and formulating conclusions.
Evgeniy V. Zyuban – development of the concept and program of sociological research; conducting the interviews; collecting the statistical data; revision of the draft; making critical analysis and formulating conclusions.
Marina N. Kicherova – research supervision; writing the questionnaires, conducting the interviews; collecting and processing the statistical data; making critical analysis and formulating conclusions.
Ekaterina O. Muslimova – concept development; reviewing the relevant literature; revision of the draft; translation.
All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Submitted 26.11.2018; revised 28.12.2018; published online 28.06.2019.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
