Modern problems of socialization of teenagers at school

Ovchinnikov Dmitrii ORCID: 0009-0003-2327-336X PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Tolstoy Tula State Pedagogical University 300026, Russia, Tula region, Tula, Lenin Avenue, 125, room 309 ovchin2002@mail.ru

There are many definitions of the concept of "socialization" in science. However, within the framework of this study, the formulation given by sociologist Jan Shchepansky seems to us the most productive: "Socialization is the influence of the environment as a whole, which involve an individual to participate in public life, teach him to understand culture, behavior in collectives, assert himself and perform various social roles" ^{[11, p. 51]}. At the same time, sociologist I. S. Kohn notes that socialization is close in meaning to the Russian word "education". But, despite the identical etymology, the concept of "education" is somewhat broader. First of all, these are "directed actions through which the individual is consciously trying to instill the desired traits and properties, while socialization, along with education, includes unintentional, spontaneous influences, thanks to which the individual joins culture and becomes a full member of society" ^{[4, p. 134]}.

The process of socialization continues throughout a person's life. He accepts certain norms of behavior and acts in accordance with them. Socialization is both a source of the process of individualization and freedom. During it, a person develops his individuality, the ability to think and act independently ^[2].

A person always strives to achieve inner harmony (or its illusion). Solving this task, an individual can take any actions, change himself or influence others, or refuse to see things as they really are. Contradictory experience, which does not agree with what a person thinks about himself, introduces an imbalance in the structure of personality ^{[6, p. 134]}.

Childhood is recognized as the most important stage of a person's life to ensure the foundations of an individual's socialization. Moreover, if what is almost missed at the subsequent stages of socialization can be made up, then the elements of social life that were not mastered in childhood (language, rules and behaviors, customs and traditions, knowledge and skills, etc.) are practically irreplaceable at the subsequent stages of the life path ^{[3, pp. 92-93]}.

The transition age activates the work of self-awareness, an assessment of their prospects and capabilities is brought to the fore: a teenager thinks about who he can and should become. Friendship and love reveal the richness of his inner world, and ideological search helps to find his place in public life ^[9].

Sociologists, psychologists and educators identify several factors influencing the process of socialization – family, equality "relations", schooling, mass media, labor, various organizations.

Let's focus in more detail on such a factor as schooling. The school is no less a unique institution of socialization than the family. Firstly, it determines the social formation of individuals at a certain stage of their life path in almost all countries of the world. There are no more successful widespread institutes of socialization of the younger generation in the world that have a worthy alternative to modern school as an institution of socialization. Secondly, school influences the social development of every young person systematically and over a long period of time (11 years). The socio-psychological patterns of the school's influence on students remain unchanged regardless of the type of school, its location or the quality of education it provides. It should be noted that the socializing functions of the school attract the attention of a much smaller number of researchers than its educational functions, since educational functions are direct, and socializing functions act only as a side effect ^{[1, pp. 55-56]}.

A special role in modern socialization belongs to education and the acquisition of a profession. Education, the most important element of human potential, can be considered in two aspects in relation to young people. Firstly, to what extent are modern youth ready to take a leading role in the formation and development of a knowledge-based economy in the near future in terms of education level. And secondly, how education can help young people successfully self-actualize, integrate into modern social life and economic reality ^[8],[10].

As a practical confirmation of the theoretical provisions noted above, we conducted sociological studies in schools of the Tula region (based on similar questionnaire material with a 5-year time difference in surveys), which highlight three main groups of issues: satisfaction of subjects of the educational process with the quality of knowledge received at school, the desire to continue education in higher and secondary vocational education systems, high school students' choice of the sphere of professional activity.

Thus, according to the obtained sociological data, over the past 5 years there has been a tendency to reduce the lack of knowledge of schoolchildren in various academic subjects: significantly – in computer science, noticeably – in foreign languages, geography, biology, mathematics, physics, slightly – chemistry, history, etc. But the lack of knowledge in the Russian language has increased.

As for the choice of a future profession by high school students, the modern Tula youth is mainly focused on such fields of activity as economics, management and management, medicine and healthcare. The percentage of those who are going to devote their lives to law, industry, pedagogy, and the service sector has significantly decreased over the past 5 years. It is also worth noting the increase in the number of young people who did not make their choice at all on the eve of graduation.

Due to the emergence of such opportunities, the number of people wishing to enroll in non-state educational institutions of higher education or in state ones has increased (over the past 5 years), but on a commercial basis (for a fee), which makes it possible to think whether young people are looking for easy ways to get an education and whether its quality is so important for the younger generation of Russians. The percentage of those who made a choice in favor of nonresident universities is significantly higher: these are mainly medical educational institutions.

I would also like to note that young people are increasingly inclined to see their own efforts and hard work as the main conditions for success in modern society, while the role of education has decreased over the past 5 years, albeit slightly.

Touching upon the conversation to what extent modern school contributes to the adaptation of schoolchildren to life, the following data can be given. In accordance with the results of the sociological research, a rating of those aspects for which the school should prepare was formed. According to high school students, this is:

1. Continuing education.

2. Cooperation with other people.

3. Life according to generally accepted norms of morality.

4. Professional career.

5. Independent business life.

6. Careful attitude to your health.

7. Working life.

8. Socio-political career.

9. Family life.

Obviously, such a alignment of value orientations may indicate that the school in our time is not such an agent of socialization that promotes the development of adolescents' ideas about the family as the basic unit of society. And despite the fact that life according to generally accepted norms of morality is put by schoolchildren in the third place in the structure of values. The question arises: what standards of morality are guided by our society? What should young people prepare for: earn money, live beautifully, but only for themselves?

It is also interesting to provide data on the role of school in the formation of a teenager. High school students tend to say that the school in which they study has not had a significant impact on such positions as "plans for the future", "formation of moral qualities of a person", "formation of an active life position", "choice of profession". Here we turn to such a task of school education as the health of the child. After all, it is the influence of school on health that is characterized by a clear negative assessment of high school students.

A comparative analysis of the data of socio-pedagogical monitoring over the past 5 years in the surveyed schools indicates that the use of tobacco products and alcoholic beverages by high school students is gradually decreasing. However, interest in narcotic substances is growing: over these 5 years, the number of teenagers who have tried any drugs has increased from 0.9% of the total number of teenagers to 3.2%.

In addition to education and health care, a modern school should perform another important task – the formation of a tolerant (in the true, and undistorted understanding!) relationships to the outside world. But the data of sociological studies indicate that students of grades 8, 9, 10 are practically not familiar with the concept of "tolerance".

This is not surprising, because in the ranking of institutions responsible for fostering a sense of tolerance in society, the school ranks third after the family and the state with a significant lag (the media is in fourth place). Nevertheless, the school is able to have a significant impact on the formation of a tolerant consciousness of adolescents. According to our sociological research, the majority of teachers are aware of the need for tolerant behavior in society, but only 52% of teachers talk about the activities carried out at school aimed at the formation of tolerance.

Currently, it is especially important that the school is an agent of the cultural heritage of the country and the world as a whole. There is an opinion that two fundamental academic subjects play a special role in the spiritual formation of a young person – history and literature ^{[5, p. 2]}. It is on their basis that the socialization of the individual through historical images, the formation of national identity, national pride, national dignity takes place. History and literature provide answers to many questions that arise throughout a person's life, give an idea of the moral norms and rules prevailing in society.

It is known that in modern society there is a problem of reducing the reading activity of the age group from 9 to 15 years. According to parents, the two main factors influencing a child's reading preferences are family and school. However, the analysis of our sociological research data on the classical works read from the school curriculum indicates that the percentage of girls reading is higher than boys (among fifth graders – every 5 girls and every 7 boys, among high school students – every 3 girls and every 5 boys). It is likely that this is due to the fact that the school literature program is designed mainly for girls, and literature teachers are often women, so it is easier for them to find a common language, to understand each other. In such a situation, boys remain outside of discussions due to differences of interests. However, do not forget about the personality of the teacher-writer. His professional skills primarily consist in the ability to involve teenagers in a discussion on the problems of culture, morality and morality that classical literature affects, and not just to designate them in the form of a synopsis or essay compiled with the help of special "manuals" and "cheat sheets" that have filled the market of educational literature for schoolchildren, especially in electronic form.

Not the formal fulfillment of the teacher's official duties, but a creative approach in teaching schoolchildren will also help solve the problem of raising the status of a literature teacher in the eyes of students, the existence of which can be judged by the following data from our sociological research: only 2.9% of schoolchildren share their impressions of the books they read with their teacher; 1.4% of fifth graders and 1.1% of high school students; when choosing a book in the library, only 13.8% of students in grades 8-10 are guided by the advice of their literature teacher.

  In conclusion, I would like to note that socialization is primarily designed to ensure constant personal growth. But this does not mean that it occurs as a progressive upward movement. This is a complex, contradictory, dynamic process, which, especially in young years, is accompanied by crises. Some crises can be overcome, others cannot. A person cannot always cope with the crisis of socialization, and the further development of his personality may not be ascending.

As sociologist Neil Smelzer notes, socialization can never be one hundred percent effective. In particular, children resist the efforts of adults and change the process of socialization at many stages of their development ^{[7, p. 126]}.

It is customary to call socialization successful if an individual masters the necessary social roles, assimilates values approved by this society, social community, social norms, behavior stereotypes.

In the conditions of modern Russian reality, it is worth seriously thinking about educating a new generation of citizens of such a great country as Russia.