Vocational teacher training in Russia at the present stage: Conceptual aspect

Introduction . The features of vocational teacher education (the system of vocational teacher training), its understanding and management complexity, dynamics of modern changes, and needs of educational practice call for conceptual visualisation of its present-day state. The paper presents the authors’ vision of this phenomena based on the ideas of humanisation, continuity, and democratisation of vocational teacher training system. The authors put forward some principles developing these ideas and outline the conditions for their implementation. Aim . The current research aims to present the conceptual foundations of vocational teacher training in a systematic way, providing its complete explanation and facilitating its designing amid socio-economic and socio-pedagogical changes. Methodology and research methods . The research is conducted in the context of humanistic educational paradigm, which seems to be the most advantageous for achieving the goal set, based on systemic, activity-shaped personality, integrative, and managerial-and-technological approaches, as well as theoretical and methodological analysis of the scientific sources concerning the object under study. The research is based on the nearly 100-year experience of training teaching staff for educational organisations of vocational training, the results of pedagogical research on the training problems, analysis of the history and current state of Russian vocational teacher training and relevant foreign experience, the results of experiments on introducing state educational standards and designing the vocational teacher training content. Results and scientific novelty . The conceptual foundations of vocational teacher training are represented in the unity of three components. The first component represents the general methodology, which reveals its history (development stages), role and place in the social, economic and educational system of the country. The second component determines the development prospects of vocational teacher training, which include the following aspects: its purpose, consisting in creating and maintaining conditions necessary for effective and high-quality training of teachers for the system of professional education and vocational training; conditions necessary for the development of a personality capable of self-implementation in vocational education; objectives including the formation of a versatile, socially functional, and continuously developing personality, ready for effective vocational and professional training; the guiding ideas of humanisation, democratisation and continuity of vocational education and training, as well as the conceptual principles of humanitarisation, fundamentalisation, action orientation, self-organisation of educational activities, public administration, correspondence of the content of continuous vocational teacher training stages to the main stages of personality development, continuity of training curricula, diversity of educational institutions, and the deployment of an advanced vocational teacher training system. The third component outlines the expected state indicated by the necessary conditions for the implementation of conceptual principles of vocational teacher training and concerning the selection of teaching content, building the structure of the system of vocational teacher training system supported with relevant management tools. Practical significance . The information presented in the article can contribute to the development of vocational teacher training programmes; serve as a methodological basis when forming the topics of fundamental, applied research and development on vocational teacher training, as well as for the organisation and coordination of relevant research and the implementation of the practical results obtained. The research results can also be taken into account in adapting different approaches to this type of education and in defining further development policies. There are reasons to believe that such a view on vocational teacher training complements the experience gained by other authors, and in turn, can be developed in further research.