Multicultural approach to professional training of education professionals
Abstract
The article is devoted to the problem of the multicultural education, which has become a global necessity, a specialized form of teaching, which requires a differentiated approach and reforming of the educational process based on the positions of equality. The scale of changes under the influence of the globalization demands a significant increase in the educational level of the population as a whole. It demands a high-leveled training of the specialists, who are able to work in conditions of ethnic and cultural diversity based on the equal rights of national majorities, ethnic and cultural minorities and who support the cultural pluralism. The actualization of modern education occurs within the educational process while building the relationships that are grounded on the feeling of self-esteem. It should help people construct their own cognitive space based on coexistence, cooperation, ethics, mutual understanding and find tolerant and compromise solutions of the problems and conflicts. Nowadays in order to be academically competitive the institutions of higher education have to modernize the educational programs, methods and forms of education, which would rest on the balance of cognitive growth of students, expand of their creative skills and instilling the students an understanding about the viability of society under the condition of ability to live and work together and to respect other cultures. The higher educational institutions find their task in the formation of a multicultural personality through a system of activities, which help to participate in a multicultural environment and are: putting the individual in a multicultural educational environment, taking part in cultural practices, full-time and online learning in foreign universities etc. In the context of the competence approach in the educational process the multicultural competences should be considered as a component in the forming of the professional qualities of the student.
