Religious Component in Higher Education Programs and the Formation of Intercultural Competences

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of methods of forming the students' rational scientific approach to religious phenomena. Religious component is present at all levels of the Russian educational system. The religious component is included in the educational programs of secondary and higher education of different directions and levels of training in the form of an individual discipline, a structural component in social and humanitarian courses, or as an independent area of training. Religious training of students is part of the process of formation of professional competences of a university graduate. The result of religious studies is the student's ability and willingness to use the acquired knowledge, skills, and personal characteristics in professional activities, in the communication on religious issues and in the analysis of events and processes occurring in the religious sphere. Graduates with intercultural competences will be less likely to use discriminatory and exclusionary practices in their professional activities. In a global sense, the development of intercultural competences in students will contribute to the transformation of social institutions, whose activities will also be subject to the principles of inclusion, recognition of the diversity of traditions, and respect for human dignity.

The Importance of the Cultural and Religious Components in Higher Education

“…Religious studies should be understood as the transmission of the history of religion or an objective scholarly assessment of contemporary religions. As for ethics education, according to the scholar, it is an objective comparative overview of different views of ethics and character education, and although such courses are not religious, they are also part of the policies and goals of religious education in educational institutions (Shutaleva, Dyachkova, Tomyuk, Ivanova & Smolina, 2019).…”

Political and legal institutionalization of a religious component in modern Russian education

“…Лейтмотивом для внедрения религиозного компонента в образовании выступает духовно-нравственное воспитание, которое, в свою очередь, является необходимым фактором социализации личности и в широком смысле способствует консолидации и солидаризации общества (Shutaleva et al, 2020). Так, в рамках данного исследования под духовно-нравственным воспитанием будем понимать «деятельность, направленную на формирование духовного мира человека, обеспечивающую гармонию человека с внутренним миром, природой, социумом, поиск смысла жизни и своего места в ней, определение критериев добра и зла, оценку по ним людей и событий, формирование мотивов поведения в согласии с общечеловеческими принципами нравственности» (Крестовский и Беловолов, 2007, с.…”