Performative education: is sociology required outside the humanities?

Abstract

This article analyzes the importance of sociological education in the professional training of specialists outside the humanities from the point of view of “performative education”. The “performativity” of education is understood as the production of knowledge and educational activity and it becomes meaningful only in the situation of their demand and efficiency (J.-F. Liotard). The сurrent trends in the formation of the curricula of higher educational institutions by academic disciplines of a “performative” nature have been expressed in reducing the hours of general humanities, among which the sociology teaching has been minimized or completely eliminated. The material for the empirical stage of the research was the organizational and methodological documentation accompanying the educational process in a number of Russian universities. The authors performed a content analysis of the curriculum of higher education. The following methods of collecting information were used: analytical-synthetic, induction and deduction, content and comparative analyzes. The performativity of sociological knowledge and the study of sociology at the individual level is expressed in several aspects: 1) in the formation of the self-consciousness of the individual and the development of a professional integrated into social relations; 2) in the development of graduates’ ability to analyze and forecast social transformations; 3) in maintaining the value basis and civil law culture in society. The practical significance of the findings is expressed in strengthening the position of sociology as a science and academic discipline in the simulation of educational programs for professional training of university students.

The aims of humanities in the training of medical students on the example of history subjects

“…По разным оценкам, от 30 до 60% опрошенных российских работодателей недовольны уровнем подготовки выпускников ВУЗов. В связи с этим возникает вопрос: насколько оправданы решения о сокращении числа дисциплин общегуманитарного цикла (в частности, социологии) и количества учебных часов, отводимых на их освоение [6].…”