Schooling the New Russians

The current education reform in the Russian Federation is tied up with monumental and unprecedented political, economic and social transformation between 1985 and 2004, which began with Mikhail Gorbachev’s radical policy of glasnost and perestroika, was actively and strongly promoted by Boris Eltsin, and later continued by Vladimir Putin. The education reform challenged the excessively centralized Soviet education system by introducing decentralization. Responsibilities for general education were given to the regions.

The book contributes to the existing knowledge of education reforms and schooling in the Russian Federation between 1991-2004 in several ways. First, it examines the politics of curriculum reform and education policy changes during the 1990s. Second, it considers various curriculum documents and their intended and unintended outcomes. Thirdly, the book evaluates the likely impact of education reforms, particularly decentralisation, differentiation, education standards, and a national system of assessment on excellence and quality of schooling. Finally, issues of equality, access and equity are discussed. My six central questions are as follows:

• What has education reform brought to Russian society at large and to individuals in diverse social settings in particular?
• Are all likely to benefit from the education reform?
• To what extent have teachers been affected by it, particularly by differentiation, pluralism and decentralisation?
• What are the new experiences and outcomes of the reform, as seen through the eyes of teachers and principals, given the unequal distribution of resources and funding?
• Is there a new social inequality in education, based on wealth, income, privilege, and family background (the unequal distribution of cultural capital)?
• Is there a new, post-Soviet ‘underclass’ in Russia, as a result of economic restructuring, social stratification, and differentiated schooling?