Soviet Education Under Perestroika Papers from the IV World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies, Harrogate, UK, 1990

Soviet education, like other areas of Soviet society, has been undergoing rapid changes since 1987-8, but at the same time restructuring has been inhibited by economic constraints and by unreformed attitudes and behaviour. The situation has been further complicated by increasing decentralization of authority. This is the first book to provide a description and analysis of these complex developments across the educational spectrum. An historical survey, written partly with the non-specialist in mind, makes particular reference to the influence of the "new (progressive) education" on state schools, and the story of educational policy and innovation in this sector is continued to the start of the 1990s. Curriculum case studies deal with computing, music, art and literature as aesthetic education; and stances for living (the incipient transition from aesthetic to religous education). Provision for disadvantaged children features in contributions on the impact of perestroika on earlier innovations to help slow learners, and on a charitable initiative, the Lenin's Children's Fund. Changing demands on and policies for vocational education are scrutinised.;This book should be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in comparative education and Soviet Studies.