DIAGNOSING RELIGIOUS CLIMATE IN THE CLASSROOM: THE CASE OF RUSSIAN STUDENTS

Modern global society is undergoing a rapid complexification of its ethno-cultural diversity, creating new vectors of social relationships. There are two main opposing trends in the development of modern human consciousness. On the one hand, intensive globalization forms common information space, which encourages an active dialogue between different ethnic and religious communities and promotes their convergence faster than any other cultural, economic or political events. However, despite rapid integration, different ethno-cultural communities still strive to preserve their identity, cultural "otherness", based on the historical memory, a culturally-labeled view of the world verbalized by the language. Confessional contradictions are particularly acute today. After the events of 9/11, 2001 in the United States, religion has become a key topic of public debates globally. For a number of religious movements (e.g. Moslems, Yezidies) the desire to follow the traditional spiritual orientation was so strong that their adherents preferred principles of the religious identity to any others. For the majority of the world population the situation looks different. Preferring a secular lifestyle and paying less attention to the sacred values, they have chosen ethnic principles of self-identification as a major landmark (e.g. Christians, atheists). Fundamentally different principles of self-identification inevitably give rise to conflicts in everyday communication, education and in the context of international cooperation. Since the major institutions that contribute to the formation of personality are family and educational institutions, the study of students' attitudes toward the religious factor, their readiness to understand and accept a fundamentally different (religiously marked) view of the world, seems to be a means of promoting mutual understanding. To gain a better insight into the views and attitudes of young students in the age group 17-19, of different religious and worldview backgrounds the anonymous qualitative study was conducted. With regard to the mentioned point the questionnaire, including five questions, was distributed among the participants. All the questions were aimed at identifying the students' views and experiences of religion. The study didn't have a specific focus on a concrete religion, but as students in almost equal proportions formed three groups (Orthodox, Moslems and Atheists), it provided a realistic picture of their appreciation, having demonstrated the tension around the doctrine of Islam. According to the opinion of the respondents religious discourse can affect the peaceful coexistence, must be treated as one of the fundamental factors determining the effectiveness of the educational process and reevaluation of the existing educational system.