Higher Education for Indigenous Peoples: International and Russian Experience

One of the events that opened the second day of the conference was the round table 'Higher education for indigenous peoples: international and Russian experience.' Despite the critically early time, the discussion of problem areas and of the constructive experience in creating an educational environment in universities that supports cultural diversity was rich and lively. The presented reports discussed the value orientations of the development of higher education for indigenous peoples, the problems of adaptation of indigenous peoples to the learning environment, the strengths and limitations of various organizational forms and educational practices.

In the report of Tatiana Vlasova, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Udmurt State University, the results of an empirical study based on a quantitative survey of students and in-depth interviews with teachers of the Udmurt Philology training course were presented. The study explicated the key characteristics of the environment created within the framework of the educational program, including building relationships between teachers and students according to the type of "family" ties. To a certain extent, such a context allows students to adapt more easily to the conditions of the urban environment and study at the university, on the other hand, it is fraught with the danger of fixing paternalistic attitudes in the system of value orientations and behavioral practices of students.

The report of Galina Vershubskaya, researcher at the Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology of Moscow State University, and Andrey Kozlov, Doctor of Biology, Professor, leading researcher at the IL SIR, presented a range of approaches to measuring the level and qualitative characteristics of adaptation of indigenous students to the conditions of study in universities in large cities. Among the stress markers considered, both medical (cortisol secretion level, glucose level) and psychological (anxiety, tendency to novelty, tolerance) indicators were considered. A comparison of the results of the survey of indigenous students studying at the medical university of Khanty-Mansiysk and the pedagogical university of Perm demonstrated a more successful adaptation of Komi-Permiak students studying as part of the culturally homogeneous groups of the Komi-Permiak language and literature department. The recorded differences made it possible to call into question the necessity of forcibly including representatives of indigenous peoples in culturally heterogeneous groups.

The report of Maria Kozlova, Ph.D. in history, chief researcher of the IL SIR, which concluded the session, based on the results of in-depth interviews with students of the Komi-Permiak language and literature department, among the factors contributing to both a more successful adaptation of indigenous peoples to the conditions of study at the university, and the integration of representatives of ethnic and cultural minorities into the macro-social context, presented the availability of special academic courses, in particular on native history, language and culture, the development of the institute of "intra-group mentoring" and the inclusion of indigenous students in both culturally homogeneous and culturally heterogeneous interest groups. These factors, forming conditions that allow an individual to independently vary the degree of closeness-openness, inclusion-exclusion, become the basis for the development of "soft" inclusion strategies and the actualization of intercultural dialogue as a form of recognition for representatives of indigenous peoples.