Trends in the Regulation and Participation of Religious Institutions in Education and Educational Policy in the Countries of the Former Soviet Union

This thesis is dedicated to the study of trends in the regulation of the participation of religious organizations in education and educational policy. The subject of the study is studied through the analysis of legal acts regulating the participation of religious institutions in education and educational policy in the countries of the former Soviet Union, as well as through the analysis of literature on this topic. Conceptual frameworks of state-church relations and cultural code were formulated for the analysis. Within the context of the concept of state-church relations, a comparative model was highlighted, which implies the division of states into 3 groups according to the level of separation of church and state (state religion, legal recognition and state with complete separation from the church). In order to analyze the regulation of religious institutions' participation in education, the concept of cultural code was also considered, within the framework of which it was concluded that religious confessions are one of the key agents of cultural code and they can influence the educational process despite the aspects of regulation of their participation in education and educational policy. The article concludes that post-Soviet countries can be conditionally divided into countries with Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim majorities, which determines the trends of regulation and the very participation of religious institutions in education and educational policy.