The Problem of Terminological Uncertainty of the Concept of “Secularism” in Social Science Courses. Peculiarities of Perception of the Term by Students

The study provides a systematic analysis of the concept of "secularism" in order to identify universal constructs for defining the term, typologizing secularism, studying the level model of the principle implementation, separation and cooperative variants of its application. The study of normative legal documentation of a universal and regional nature revealed the absence of a fixed term, the use of contradictory characteristics for its identification, which was reflected in the everyday perception of synonymization of the concept of "secularism" with irreligion and atheism, and in international practice – in the gradual abandonment of the use of the term with its gradual replacement by a simpler and conceptual term "neutrality". The analysis of the law enforcement of the provisions of universal legal acts also did not reveal a common understanding of the principle. The appeal to the educational literature aimed at the formation of civic identity within the framework of social science disciplines demonstrated the lack of a common understanding of the term, its study within the framework of the modules "Spiritual Culture", as antagonistic in content to the concept of "religious", and in the legal block in the meaning of "neutral in relation to religion and its institutions", which predetermined the interchangeability concepts and difficulties in building relationships between secularism and its elements. The revealed feature of the textbooks is also an attempt to reduce the principle itself to several of its elements or only to freedom of conscience, as well as to equalize freedom of religion with secularism, which leads to the deformation of the term, the formation of an exclusively religious context of law enforcement without connection with other ideological possibilities, the right to choose a worldview position without a religious context. This narrowness has become one of the reasons for belittling the importance of the principle, recognizing it as insignificant for citizens. Empirical research data were collected through surveys and questionnaires of students in grades 9–11 of School No. 283 with the correlation of data with individual elements of the study "Peculiarities of self-identification of students on religious grounds in a secular state". Despite the fixed idea of Russia as a secular state, students have difficulties defining the principle of secularism and its criteria, building relationships between individual elements of the principle and their implementation in practice, focus on the secularization model of secularism, which is facilitated by an independent analysis of constitutional norms without explanations to them. The study of the principle of secularism as an element of a democratic state and the constitutional principle of the Russian Federation provided for by the FЕP (FOP) is not detailed through mandatory signs, which manifests itself in the quantitative and qualitative difference in the disclosure of the principle. The difficulty in understanding secularism can be offset by the formation of a set of tasks for working out the term and its elements of non-representative content, requiring critical understanding of situational examples, argumentation of the author's position, and identification of implementation features. Such an opportunity for SGE can be realized through building a relationship between the concepts of secularism and freedom of conscience.