key: cord-0057920-unn35wmy
authors: Klymenko, Elena Yuryevna; Alpeissova, Sholpan Essenbaevna
title: The Experience of Ukraine and Kazakhstan of Digitalization Education Under Quarantine Conditions
date: 2021-02-17
journal: Advances in Digital Science
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-71782-7_15
sha: 66310bb02d87ef9538ef0046aaa342118211b8cf
doc_id: 57920
cord_uid: unn35wmy

The article aims to study features of digitalization of education in the post-Soviet space under quarantine conditions: the experience of Ukraine and Kazakhstan. While the society of Western Europe starts all the transformations from the personality change, waiting for changes from outside is a characteristic feature for our sociocultural, the post-Soviet area. The existing crisis of social transformations gives an essential stimulus to active formation of a new paradigm of social relations. Both for developed countries, which believed that the onset of a crisis was a problem for the future, so for Ukraine and Kazakhstan, which already live in conditions of combined social systems, the pandemic came as a surprise. Thus, the education must response quickly to such changes, forming new approaches, forms and methods of knowledge of social discourse. The aim of the article is to study new models of educational practices (in particular digitalization) that became the most common in society during the period of crisis associated with quarantine conditions, accompanied by forced self-isolation of citizens and determining roles in online learning, allowing to formulate new strategies for adapting to the conditions of limiting social activity. The authors disclosed its main components, identified key aspects of Internet prospects of studying. Two relatively separate directions of this phenomenon analysis have been analyzed. Special attention has been paid to the research of priorities of digital education.

of Ukraine and Kazakhstan as independent states. They give rise to the strange phenomena in politico-social and economic life, lead to the shift of features of different types of societies. These phenomena look counterintuitive in the view of their contradiction to the logical laws. Combination of different commonly contradictive sources, which can't exist theoretically, but they do exist in a real sense, have combined character, and consist of different by quality components − these are the peculiarities of social changes in modern Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Considering the crisis as a certain impetus to the development of society, analyzing not only its negative but also positive factors, we tried to analyze which way of adaptation (active or passive) to the fundamentally new living conditions will be chosen by ordinary citizens, people from fundamentally different sociocultural environments of Europe and Asia, who have formed a traumatic Soviet experience.

In recent years, both in Ukrainian and Kazakh societies has developed ways to adapt people to life in crises, among which there are both passive and active models of adaptation. The conditions of quarantine not only limited the opportunities for movement and communication of people, forcing ordinary citizens to abandon traditional social actions and move to rational ones, they sharply reduced the list of possible technologies of personality adaptation, as they changed the temporal-spatial construct of life. The only space that has more or less remained stable and for which time does not matter is the Internet.

In the article, we tried to study the differences between the models of social adaptation to quarantine conditions between the countries of Europe and Asia, which have a common experience in the formation of socio-cultural space in Soviet realities.

In this context to identify the status of the state of modern society in the post-Soviet space one can freely use the notion «transforming». Moreover, under transformation one should understand significant changes of forms and contents of modern social phenomena and processes, as well as global economic transformations. Whereas the transformation can't go with lightening speed -immediately and to the full extent, the society feels the influence of factors of both: its past state and its future one. Therefore, all social transformations of present day have combined character, where qualities and properties of the past overlap the modern times and the future, creating difficult and mixed picture of the social life. This circumstance produces the complex of paradoxes and we are the witnesses of their existence. An example that brightly illustrates such phenomena could be the following: digitalization of education and distance learning.

Thus, our contemporary society lives within the frames of several paradigms at once, that determines formation among people not only of different points of view but also of different mental matrixes and makes an impact on formation of processes of communication between them. The sphere of scientific knowledge is not an exception in this context. Today education is a starting potential in defining the future life path of every person and is notable for constant focus on the adult world. The future of the society depends on the quality of education, conditions under which the process of socializing is taking place -formation of personalities.

In 2020, the crisis became a major problem not only for politicians, civil servants, political scientists, sociologists, but also for most ordinary citizens, as it somehow affected all spheres of life, both Ukrainian and Kazakhstan societies, in particular, and the world community in general. Today, there is almost no person left whose social actions would not be affected by the spread of the terrible disease -COVID-19 and the forced restrictions associated with the introduction of quarantine measures. A specific feature for the post-Soviet society was the situation in which global trends affected the already protracted systemic crisis, which has its roots in the events of the XXI century [1] . A number of crises -political, economic, cultural, which over the past ten years accompanied the lives of Ukrainians and Kazakhstan combined with global, which caused by a pandemic, which created a situation of high threat to national security.

According to the United Nations, more than 6 million Ukrainians are below the poverty line (from 27% to 44%), with one in two families at risk zone and the most vulnerable are single-parent families and families with young children [2] .

Due to the pandemic, Kazakhstan is facing the worst economic turmoil in nearly two decades. Prior to this, the country's economy suffered from the fall in oil prices, which affected the stability of the financial sector According to the United Nations, more than 800 thousand people Kazakhstanis are below the poverty line, which amounted to 12.7% [3] .

The conditions of quarantine not Ukrainian and Kazakh societies only limited the opportunities for movement and communication of people, forcing ordinary citizens to abandon traditional social actions and move to rational ones, they sharply reduced the list of possible technologies of personality adaptation, as they changed the temporal-spatial construct of life. The only space that has more or less remained stable and for which time does not matter is the Internet.

With an active model of adaptation to fundamentally new social realities, virtual space is used by humanity as an environment directly in which you can find a job, additional opportunities for earnings, new ways of self-realization and gain the necessary knowledge. Otherwise, the virtual environment can serve as a means of passive model of adaptation to life, in times of crisis, by communicating in the Internet community, listening to music, watching movies, reading fiction, reading information sites.

Transformations in the life of society have actualized the issue of mass transition of educational practices into cyberspace. According to UNESCO, 165 countries have introduced quarantine measures through COVID-19, which is why more than 1.5 billion people (91.4%) have switched to distance learning, although according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD) only 53% of teachers have experience online learning [4] . It is clear that educational institutions have been forced to switch to distance learning, but no less interesting is the experience of involving young and middle-aged people in non-formal education on the Internet, as an option to make the most effective use of quarantined time for self-improvement.

Transforming processes in our state have been taking place continuously starting from its formation and it doesn't seem possible to define their end, because they have stable character. The society used to numerous reforms, bypassing from one to another like noise of the sea, adjusted to them and tries to live without taking notice of them. Thus, the factor of variability has become a habit, routine, stimulus for adjustment -combination of incompatible by implication. To describe such state there is a term «oxymoron» in the Greek mythology that is translated like «silly things are ingenious».

Awareness of changes in the spatio-temporal characteristics of social reality in sociology was associated with the concept of forming a new state of world civilization, which W. Beck described as a state of «globality». It is based on the individual's understanding of the impossibility of closing the social space through the commonality of any social relations, which can no longer be processes of national-state scale, because, due to the rapid dissemination of information, inevitably become the property of the world community. Among the most obvious consequences of this condition, W. Beck considers the rapid spread of scientific and educational information [5] .

The theory of crises and social change was developed in the first decade of XX century by famous American Sociologist K. Thomas. Crisis, in his opinion, is a phenomenon that «disrupts the normal course of events» and requires a person to form a «new model of behavior» to adapt their actions to the new conditions of changed social reality. The researcher emphasized three main factors, the presence of which contributes to the successful overcoming of the crisis by a social group − the presence of leaders; sufficient level of development of the group, including the availability of the necessary technologies, and most importantly − the desire for progress and flexibility of perception of objective reality [6] .

Thus, the study of crises and the study of models of adaptation to them for sociology is not new, but today's realities have necessitated a revision of some aspects, due to the situation in which one crisis is superimposed on several existing ones, complicating the process of individual behavior and strategies of social action, because previously developed methods of adaptation do not work, and social reality requires the creation of new models of adaptation.

Therefore, the mainstream of research is the analysis of the pandemic paradox in education, that lies in, on one side that pedagogues and psychologists recognize the significance and importance of Internet education development in the social space the idea of its inherent worth is emphasized, but, on the other side, sociologists say that educational process is a preparation period for «normal» adult life -socialization. In their turn, the pedagogues, who rank pupils and students by level of knowledge, abilities, and perspectives for future life in general, made no less contribution to the development of the scientific knowledge.

In this context, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact, that crisis, are studied by scientists who are experiencing it themselves, each of them has his own experience and, in the measure of his existence, could be considered to be an expert. At the same time, scientists consider this pandemic from the perspective of present, changing social background. On one side, pedagogues, psychologists and sociologists take in the significance and importance of digital development, emphasize the idea of his inherent worth, but on the other side, they say that study is just a period of socialization, preparation for an adult life.

In this context, referring to the traditions of classical sociology, research prospects could be divided into those, which focus on questions connected with the development of individual education, and those, which consider social -«collective», structural education, namely, constructs and practices typical for many pupils and students. In terms of P. Berger and T. Luckmann, they went through the process of «habitualization» [7] and became at the end constructs of education space. Such point of view resonates with the scientific theory by S. Bernfeld, who turned his attention to the problem of inconformity of idea about the category of education with realties of child's life. Children, in the scientist's opinion, are recognized by the adult world as a means of pursuing economical, social, political and other goals, and so can't be rightful part of the society [8] .

Therefore, the traditional analysis within the theory of functionalism doesn't recognize educational practices as a part of the society and culture adult life, which doesn't allow singling an individual's independent choice of the method of obtaining knowledge.

Interdisciplinary disputes within the mentioned problem also come down to contradiction, concerning the questions of impact of social changes and crisis on children's life and prospects of the society development. Things which are taken by children from their childhood become basis for the development of subsequent generations. Therefore, entering by an individual the definite age stage can't be considered only within structural processes of socialization, as, for example, in the theory by N. Luhmann [9] . Even if we recognize that digital education fits into the context of classical social relations, the need to determine its content and principles that will be applicable to educational practices in a pandemic becomes obvious.

For a long time, education has been studied in the context of a social order, which in the opinion of E. Durkheim, is possible on condition that stable value orientations and patterns of requirements will be impressed to each individual [10] . Moreover, the fact of socialization as adaptation of individual interests and requirements to the social order is a basis for understanding of contrast between an individual and the society in the classical sociology. Thus, educational practices studying in the context of the theory of socialization assumes the analysis of two categories -competent, organized participants of life in the society (adults), and also imperfect participants, because of their incompetence and disorganization (children). Therefore, pupils and students is considered only in the context of knowledge transfer from one generation to another.

However, in the concept by T. Parsons, one of the brightest representatives of the classical sociology, exceptional attention is paid to the studying of peculiarities of adjustment of developing individual requirements to social frames that totally changes the concept of person's adaptation to the social order during the life [11] . This theory became a basis for creating, in the context of evolutionism, the concept of social identity by G. Mead. He reasonably noted that socialization only teaches a person the skill to look at himself from the outside, in terms of social environment, cultural norms and traditions [12] . Therefore, targeted development of the ability to accept roles by an individual forms the basis for the mechanism of cooperation of social groups.

Taking into consideration the above mentioned, one could summarize that studying educational practices in crisis situations in the context of socialization leads to the narrowing of the scientific discourse till the limits of research of little groups (family, collective body) and personal features (adaptation, deviation). E. Klymenko spoke about this in her article [13] .

This theoretical base led to the working out of the concepts of social and cultural capital, where a child acts as a subject of social process. So the Nobel prizeman for economy Gary S. Becker stated: «people can provide for old age indirectly, investing money in education of children…» [14] . In other words, the theory of one generation investing into another, which appeared in the end of the twentieth century, became another stimulus for studying the role of education in society. Such approach reduces scientific knowledge to the analysis of the level of relations between parents and children, as a criterion for defining of stability of the social institutes in society.

The specificity of social space is closely related to the specificity of social time, which is the internal dimension of social life, which is forced to rely on the physical rhythms of natural processes. Social time is a quantitative assessment of the path taken by society. It is a measure of the variability of social processes and changes that have historically occurred in people's lives.

The crisis facing Ukrainian and Kazakh societies has changed the understanding of social space and time, limiting them to the immediate living conditions of specific individuals and shifting communication with society from the real three-dimensional space to the Internet environment. The most significant changes in this context were education, which was forced to radically change the methods of providing educational services, completely transforming the process of formation of knowledge, skills, and abilities, leaving unchanged only the necessary quality of learning outcomes. With the latter, serious problems arose in education before the quarantine. Thus, crisis trends have affected existing social problems. In our study, quantitative and qualitative systematization of data presented by the media, the results of the monitoring of regulatory documents of legislative bodies and ministries of the executive branch are used, a secondary analysis of sociological studies conducted by other research organizations which in freely available in the free Internet. The methodological basis of the article includes the results of sociological research conducted by the authors.

The empirical basis of the article was the data of the author's sociological studies conducted from April 27 to May 11, 2020 in each country in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Namely:

1. The results of an online survey of the population of Kyiv and Kyiv region, a total of n = 800 respondents (with the general population 2 million 967 thousand), aged 17 to 50 were interviewed, 46% of men and 54% of women. 2. The results of an online survey of the population of Nur-Sultan and region. A total of n = 400 respondents (with the general population 1 million 107 thousand), aged 17 to 50 were interviewed, 48% of men and 52% of women.

The sample represents the adult population of Ukraine and Kazakhstan according to the main socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, type of settlement, level of education). The sample is multi-stage, random, at the last stage -quota. The method of collecting information is to fill in a google form upon visiting the Internet platform.

The statistical error does not exceed 2.2%. The coefficient of normal deviation directly depends on the probability with which we extrapolated the results of the sample to the general population in our study, it is equal to 95.45%. Therefore, the sample was defined as n = 800 to n = 400, because in comparison, the general population of Kyiv is twice as large as the general population of Nur-Sultan.

To compare the main indicators, the respondents were conditionally divided into two age groups 17-25 years -young people who are forced to study remotely, and 26-50 years old, those who independently acquire knowledge to improve skills and expand personal worldview.

In Kyiv and Kyiv region respondents have different levels of education: complete general secondary education -42.9%, higher education -29.9%, incomplete and basic higher education -16.1%, vocational education -5.0%, basic higher, basic (incomplete) -3.4%, degree -1.1% (see Fig. 1 In Nur-Sultan and region respondents have different levels of education: complete general secondary education -43.2%, higher education -30.1%, incomplete and basic higher education -12.8%, vocational education -8.0%, basic (incomplete) average -4.7%, degree -1.2% (see Fig. 1 ).

Thus, the quota nature of the sample made it possible to achieve balance and equivalence for the indicated general populations of Kiev and Nur-Sultan (in %).

In living conditions, when neither the environment nor the space in which social interaction takes place over time, a person begins to get used to the surrounding paradoxes of life.

The phenomenon of addiction is one of the passive mechanisms of adaptation of the individual to new conditions and way of life. However, its content can be both positive and negative. Depending on the path of the individual, they will choose forms of social interaction from traditional ways of organizing everyday life (sofa and watching TV, computer, and social networks) to radical changes in life (cosmetic repairs, new hobbies). The results of a sociological survey show that the majority of Ukrainians choose more active forms of adaptation.

To the question «What kind of activity during quarantine/self-isolation did you prefer?» (it was possible to choose no more than three options) the answers of the respondents were distributed as follows: 49.1% stated that during the quarantine they studied and/or improved their skills; 48.4% paid more attention to sports and improved their physical condition; 46.4% devoted free time to housework (cleaning, repair); 34.2% compensated for forced isolation and social distance by communicating with others, using digital resources (social networks, interest groups on various Internet platforms). Almost every third (30.2%) of the respondents said that during the quarantine period they preferred cooking (cooking), 29.3% had fun (joined computer games, team virtual competitions, browsing the Internet), 18.9% improved their cultural level, and 11.0% engaged in homesteading (see Fig. 2 ).

The analysis of respondents' responses to the identified patterns of behavior (activities) in the period of new social realities shows some age differences in the choice of adaptation strategies. The age group of 17 to 25 years was the most motivated to study online, apparently to avoid homework and additional household workload, using the time to study in order to communicate with peers on social networks. Thus, according to the survey, 63.0% of young people during the quarantine period were involved in training, 54.2% preferred physical training, 39.3% openly admitted that they established communication with others using digital resources. Such a high rate of involvement in education is primarily due to the requirement of formal educational institutions (schools and universities) to continue distance learning during the quarantine period, and secondly, this socio-demographic group was the least protected during transformations and crises. Therefore, for young people, education has acted as a mechanism for adapting to new social realities.

Respondents of the older socio-demographic age group from 26 to 50 years old noted that during the quarantine period the most popular activities for them were: 59.0% homework, 37.0% physical training 35.0% cooking (cooking), obviously these two indicators are interrelated and presuppose each other. However, it was interesting that 30.6% of the representatives of this age group actively used their free time to study and improve their skills.

Perhaps such a high level of torture in educational practices is due to high professional demand. According to a sociological study, the most in-demand professionally during the quarantine period were respondents of the oldest socio-demographic group aged 26 to 50 years. Thus, 71.5% of respondents said that they continued their professional activities offline or remotely. In the age group of 17 to 25, only 55.8% of young people were able to stay in their jobs, of which 23.3% said they had gone online. Thus, for most young people, the phenomenon of crisis accustoming, as an organization of individual life in conditions of extremely limited resources, both economic and social, became a trigger for radical changes in forms of activity, which led to a change in perception of social space. Because in the conditions of deficit of practices of social interaction and absence of the developed adaptation strategies the youth directs the basic attention to the preservation of already available potential, and therefore reduces social actions to banal satisfaction of basic needs. All life is centered around recreating yourself physically and having a good time. Therefore, almost 30% of respondents completely ignored the need to participate in distance learning. To the question «Did you find an interesting activity during the quarantine?» 22.7% found it difficult to answer, 36.7% did not find it, but 40.6% were able to take an interest in something (most of them discovered of physical culture).

It is worth noting that there were no significant differences in the answers of age groups to the questions regarding the attitude to quarantine. To the question «Do you like the lifestyle that you formed during quarantine/self-isolation?» only 20.4% of all respondents answered in the affirmative. Interestingly, almost every third part (34.0%) of those respondents who were at a remote job during the quarantine period, noted that they liked this lifestyle. But the majority of Ukrainians (75.3%) said they did not like the lifestyle formed during the quarantine. This is confirmed by studies of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, according to which during the quarantine only 45.0% of Ukrainians considered themselves quite happy [15] .

Interestingly, the changes that took place in the social practices of Ukrainians during quarantine did not affect the distribution of gender roles in household management. In this area of domestic life, society has chosen actions of an exclusively traditional nature. Thus, 80.0% of surveyed women continued to cook (cook), 70.5% did housework, while 50.0% of men started working on homesteads, and responsibilities were divided in half. Perhaps the latter is due to the desire to increase the time spent in the air.

In times of crisis, the individual during social interaction can not build their life strategies in the usual way, because it lacks the resources: material, social, psychological. This sharply reduces the options of their life choices, forces them to adjust their social behavior, limiting her to short life projects based on immediate opportunities. V. Kryvosheev drew attention to this phenomenon, noting that the reverse side of adaptation during a crisis may be derivation, which will extinguish social conflicts [16] .

In this sense, education is not just an effective mechanism for adapting to radically changed living conditions but acts as a stabilizer of life practices. According to KIIS sociological research, the level of happiness is directly proportional to the level of education -the higher the education, the higher the level of happiness. Thus, among people with incomplete secondary education, 50% of respondents consider themselves happy, among people with higher education -77%.

As noted above, studying during the quarantine period became the most popular activity for which Ukrainians spent their free time. In general, almost every second -49.1% of respondents studied during forced self-isolation. One reason for this popularity was the requirement for formal education to continue distance learning. However, 32.9% stated that they joined studying because of being motivated by their desire for personal growth, and 29.5% of respondents joined the studying process for professional growth. Also, it was found that 17.6% of respondents studied because of free time, 12.6% were motivated by the opportunity to join free courses of reputable universities and platforms, which were previously paid and 10.6% admitted that they joined the study out of boredom.

The analysis of motivation for educational practices of different age groups demonstrates the following priorities. 34.4% of young people aged 17 to 25 said that the main motivation for learning was the desire for personal growth, and 29.4% -professional growth. This socio-demographic group has the highest rate of respondents (13.7%) who joined the study out of boredom.

At the same time, almost every third 30.0% of respondents from the senior sociodemographic group joined studying during the quarantine, the same number of those who studied, noted that the main motive was the desire for personal growth; and 28.4% sought professional development, 20% filled their free time in that way.

Thus, the results of the sociological study demonstrate the high potential of education as a mechanism of adaptation to social change in crises, in terms of space-time disorientation and abandonment of traditional forms of social interaction, which is relevant for all age groups of modern Ukrainian society.

In Kazakhstan, the overwhelming majority of respondents rate the effectiveness of online learning below average (42%) and average (41%). Only 12% of the respondents gave a high rating to the new form of education. The overwhelming majority of respondents are convinced that distance learning has an extremely negative impact on the country's education system. The main disadvantage of distance learning is stress for children, teachers, parents. In addition, learning is mainly hampered by technical difficulties and slow Internet connections, as noted by 44% and 40%, respectively. According to 19% of respondents, the main disadvantage of online learning is the low quality of education. 9% of respondents consider the lack of a computer to be the main difficulty. The quality of the Internet connection is one of the main factors in online learning [17] .

It is interesting that on the question of what form of education citizens consider the most optimal in the context of the global coronavirus pandemic, the opinions of the respondents were approximately equally divided. 35% believe that people should be given the right to choose a convenient form of education; 33% of Kazakhstanis are for online education, as this is a forced measure; 29% expressed skepticism about the online format. In their opinion, it is better to go to school and university, as before -«illiteracy is worse than the COVID-19».

Thus, the results of a sociological study fully confirmed our hypothesis about the significant role of educational practices in the society which for individuals have become a mechanism for adaptation to the crisis in the country and social transformations, which change the spatial and temporal perception of social reality. At the same time, there was a tendency to increase the interest of the older age group in non-formal education and reduce the interest of young people in formal education, which was not ready for such challenges as the transition to the online format. The crisis did not affect most of the everyday life practices of all ages, they remained unchanged, which contributed to the choice of traditional forms of social action during domestic interaction. Women played a leading role in housework and cooking.

The complex of crises that post-Soviet societies are experiencing have become a kind of the impetus for ordinary citizens to improve the mechanisms of social adaptation, one of which under the fundamentally new living conditions was non-formal education. However, the outlined problem field requires further scientific research and more detailed sociological research.

The results of the sociological study demonstrate both in Ukrainian and Kazakh societies the high potential of education as a mechanism of adaptation to social change in crises. In terms of space-time disorientation and abandonment of traditional forms of social interaction, this is relevant for all age groups of modern Ukrainian society and in modern Kazakh society, similar trends are characteristic of young people and middle-aged people. For elderly people, passive forms of adaptation and the use of only entertainment options of the Internet information network are more characteristic.

Potentially relevant for further research, both in Ukraine and in Kazakhstan, will be questions of the peculiarities of social interaction and communication in a non-contact society, a radical change in consumer and leisure practices. The transition of business to online mode will contribute to the already voluntary distancing of workers, for most of whom their own home will become an office, which will contribute to the emergence of many social problems that will require serious scientific understanding in both Europe and Asia.

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