On the possibility of using the experience of spiritual and moral education of the orthodox old believers in modern education
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6127-2025-6-7-18
The article analyzes the possibilities of using the experience of spiritual and moral education of the Old Believers in education. The material for analysis is the basic principles of spiritual and moral education developed by the religious denomination, as well as the experience of representing the Old Believer culture in the educational environment of a modern pedagogical university. The most important principles of spiritual and moral education in the Old Believer community are respect for the child’s personal freedom, the absence of coercion, and the use of personal example. The knowledge about religious culture that the child receives is adapted to their age and capabilities. These approaches to education are in line with modern pedagogical approaches and technologies, making them suitable for use in modern education. However, experience in working with the confession shows that the translation of the principles of spiritual and moral education into the modern educational environment is associated with a number of problems. Among them, we can mention the change in the target audience: instead of representatives of the confession, it is made up of people who are “spiritually alien” to them. In addition, when working with a secular audience, the goal is not to integrate into the confession, but to gain knowledge about it. All of this necessitates the adaptation of existing methods and approaches to the new situation. Another problem is the long-term isolation of the denomination, which leads to the perception of the non-denominational audience as “foreign” and complicates the presentation of the culture, as was established during the attempt by representatives of the denomination to present the Old Believer culture at the exhibition-seminar “Tomsk Old Believers: History and Modernity”. However, the audience was most interested in learning about the everyday elements of the denomination, the environment in which the upbringing of the denomination takes place.
Keywords: spiritual and moral education, foundations of Orthodox culture, Orthodoxy, Old Believers, and pedagogical experience
References:
1. Kostyukova T.A. Traditsionnyye dukhovnyye tsennosti i sovremennaya obrazovatel’naya praktika [Traditional cultural wealth and modern educational practice]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta – Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin, 2011, no. 13 (115), pp. 141–144 (in Russian).
2. Ozhiganova A.A. Religiya v shkole: analiz uchebnykh posobiy po kursu “Osnovy religioznoy kul’tury i svetskoy etiki” [Religion at school: analysis of textbooks on the course “Fundamentals of religious culture and Secular ethics”]. Otechestvennaya i zarubezhnaya pedagogika – Domestic and foreign pedagogy, 2015, no. 1 (22), pp. 82–99 (in Russian).
3. Yanushkyavichene O.L. Dukhovno-nravstvennoye vospitaniye kak pedagogicheskaya kategoriya [Spiritual and Moral Education as a Pedagogical Category]. Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svyato-Tikhonovskogo gumanitarnogo universiteta – Bulletin of the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities. Series IV: Pedagogy. Psychology, 2025, vol. 77, pp. 36–44 (in Russian).
4. Ivlyanova E. Shkol’naya religiozno-uchebnaya literatura i yeyo izucheniye v ramkakh podgotovki pedagogov v PSTGU [Educational religious literature for schools and its study as part of teacher training at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the humanities]. Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svyato-Tikhonovskogo gumanitarnogo universiteta – Bulletin of the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities. Series IV: Pedagogy. Psychology, 2022, vol. 66, pp. 37–46 (in Russian).
5. Kostyukova T.A., Shaposhnikova T.D., Kazantsev D.A. Podgotovka pedagogov k realizatsii predmetnoy oblasti “Osnovy dukhovno-nravstvennoy kul’tury narodov Rossii”: problemy i resheniya [Preparation of Teachers for the implementation of the subject area “Foundations of spiritual and moral culture of the peoples of Russia”: problems and solutions]. Nauchno-pedagogicheskoye obozreniye – Pedagogical Review, 2021, vol. 6 (40), pp. 53–63 (in Russian). DOI: 10.23951/2307-6127-2021-6-53-63
6. Lazarev M.A., Stukalova O.V. Deval’vatsiya gumanitarnogo znaniya v vysshem obrazovanii: puti preodoleniya krizisa [The Devaluation of humanitarian knowledge in higher education: ways to overcome the crisis]. Nauchno-pedagogicheskoye obozreniye – Pedagogical Review, 2020, no. 2 (30), pp. 161–171 (in Russian). DOI: 10.23951/2307-6127-2020-2-161-171
7. Gorbunov V.I., Evdokimova O.K., Lyapaeva L.V. Intelligentnost’ studentov regional’nogo tekhnicheskogo vuza: postanovka voprosa, sredstva otsenivaniya, probnyye rezul’taty [The Intelligence of Students at a Regional Technical University: Formulation of the Question, Assessment Tools, and Trial Results]. Vestnik Chuvashskogo osudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta im. I.Ya. Yakovleva – Bulletin of the I.Ya. Yakovlev Chuvash State Pedagogical University, 2016, no. 1 (89), pp. 82–90 (in Russian).
8. Ornatskiy F., prot. O sposobakh razvitiya i ukrepleniya religioznykh i nravstvennykh nachal v uchashchikhsya [On the ways of developing and strengthening religious and moral principles in students]. Ministerstvo narodnogo prosveshcheniya. Trudy Vysochayshe uchrezhdennoy komissii po voprosu ob uluchshenii v sredney obshcheobrazovatelnoy shkole. Vypusk IV. Trudy podkomissiy [Ministry of Public Education. The works of his Majesty established the Commission on the question of the improvement in the secondary school. Issue IV. Proceedings of the subcommissions]. Saint Petersburg, 1900. Pp. 61–62 (in Russian).
9. Trofimov A.V. Problemy religiozno-nravstvennogo vospitaniya uchashchikhsya na urokakh Zakona Bozhiya v rossiyskoy svetskoy sredney shkole kontsa XIX nachala XX v. [Problems of religious and moral education of students at the lessons of the Law of God in the Russian secular secondary school of the late XIX-early XX centuries]. Khristianskoye chteniye – Christian Reading, 2019, no. 5, pp. 251–261 (in Russian).
10. Meshcherinov P., igumen. Pochemu deti votserkovlyonnykh roditeley ukhodyat iz tserkvi? [Why do children of ecclesiastical parents leave the church?]. Pravoslaviye i mir – Orthodoxy and the world (in Russian) URL: https://www.pravmir.ru/pochemu-deti-vocerkovlennyx-roditelej-uxodyat-iz-cerkvi/ (accessed 18 September 2025).
11. Pochemu ukhodyat iz tserkvi deti svyashchennikov? [Why do the children of priests leave the church?]. Pravoslaviye i mir [Orthodoxy and the world] (in Russian). URL: https://www.pravmir.ru/inogda-dazhe-deti-svyashhennikov-uxodyat-iz-cerkvi/ (accessed 18 September 2025)
12. Bolonev F.F. Semeyskaya zhivaya starina za Baykalom [Semeyskaya Living Antiquity Beyond Lake Baikal]. Ulan-Ude, 2015. 424 p. (in Russian).
13. Korobeynikov N.G. Obrazovaniye i dukhovno-nravstvennoye vospitaniye v staroobryadcheskoy sem’ye v XX-XXI vv. [Education and Spiritual and Moral Upbringing in the Old Believer Family in the 20th and 21st Centuries. Master’s thesis]. Tomsk, 2022. 71 p. (in Russian).
14. Interv’yu nastavnika Ul’yanovskoy Pomorskoy obshchiny o. Pavla Arinina saytu “Samarskoye staroveriye” [Interview with the mentor of the Ulyanovsk Pomeranian community fr. Pavel Arinin to the website “Samara Old Belief”]. Samarskoye staroveriye [Samara Old Belief] (in Russian). URL: https://samstar-biblio.ucoz.ru/publ/73-1-0-119 (accessed 19 September 2025).
15. Polovinkin P.V. Vtoraya Moskva (selo Samodurovka – Belogornoe Saratovskoy oblasti) [Of the Second Moscow (the village Samodurovka – Belogorie Saratov region)]. Samarskoye staroveriye – Samara Old Belief (in Russian). URL: https://samstar-biblio.ucoz.ru/publ/44-1-0-1042 (accessed 19 September 2025).
16. Veselova A.P. Sem’ya v staroobryadcheskoy kul’ture: opyt istoricheskogo issledovaniya. Avtoref. dis. kand. ist. nauk [The family in the Old Believer culture: the experience of historical research. Abstract of thesis cand. hist. sci.]. Tomsk, 2007. 27 p. (in Russian).
17. Danilyuk A.Ya., Kondakov A.M., Tishkov V.A. Kontseptsiya dukhovno-nravstvennogo razvitiya i vospitaniya lichnosti grazhdanina Rossii v sfere obshchego obrazovaniya: proekt. Rossiyskaya akademiya obrazovaniya [The concept of spiritual and moral development and education of the individual citizen of Russia in the field of general education: project. Russian Academy of Education]. Moscow, Prosveshcheniye Publ., 2009. 29 p. (in Russian).
18. Shchurinova I.A., Belyankova E.I. Metodicheskiye priyomy pogruzheniya uchashchikhsya v problemu uroka istorii i obshchestvoznaniya v kontekste realizatsii trebovaniy FGOS [Methods of immersion students in the lesson of history and social science in the context of the implementation of the requirements of the FSES]. Psikhologiya i pedagogika dostizheniya i tendentsii razvitiya: sbornik statey II Mezhdunarodnoy nauchno-prakticheskoy konferentsii. Pod obshchey redaktsiyey G.Y. Gulyayeva [Psychology and pedagogy: achievements and trends. Collection of articles of the II International Scientific and Practical Conference. Under the general editorship of G.Y. Gulyaev]. 2016. Pp. 58–65 (in Russian).
19. Afanas’yeva A.B. Dni pogruzheniya v fol’klornuyu temu (tsikl urokov po narodnomu tvorchestvu) [Days of immersion in the folklore theme (cycle of lessons on folk art)]. Kak vospitat’ v rebenke tvorcheskuyu lichnost? [How to bring up a creative personality in a child?]. Rostov-on-Don, 2004. Pp. 190–196 (in Russian).
20. Maleko E.V. Osobennosti ispol’zovaniya interaktivnykh form obucheniya v protsesse formirovaniya lichnosti shkol’nika na urokakh mirovoy khudozhestvennoy kul’tury [Features of the use of interactive forms of learning in the process of forming the student’s personality at the lessons of world art culture]. Ustoychivoye razvitiye nauki i obrazovaniya – Sustainable development of science and education, 2018, no. 2, pp. 154–159 (in Russian).
21. Osnovy religioznykh kul’tur i svetskoy etiki. Osnovy pravoslavnoy kul’tury. 4 klass: uchebnik: v 2 chastyakh [Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics. Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture. 4th Grade: Textbook: in 2 Parts]. Part 1. Moscow, Prosveshcheniye Publ., 127 p. (in Russian).
22. Osnovy religioznykh kul’tur i svetskoy etiki. Osnovy pravoslavnoy kultury. 4 klass: uchebnik: v 2 chastyakh [Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics. Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture. 4th Grade: Textbook: in 2 Parts]. Part 2. Moscow, Prosveshcheniye Publ., 127 p. (in Russian).
23. Sazonova N.I., Loskutova M.G. Interaktivnoye pedagogicheskoye vzaimodeystviye na ekskursiyakh religiovedcheskoy tematiki: spetsifika, vozmozhnosti primeneniya, rezul’taty [Interactive Pedagogical Interaction in Religious Studies Exhibitions: Specifics, Application Possibilities, and Results]. Nauchno-pedagogicheskoye obozreniye – Pedagogical Review, 2023, vol. 2 (48), pp. 58–67 (in Russian). DOI: 10.23951/2307-6127-2023-2-58-67
( 685.87 kB ) 
( 678.63 kB )
Issue: 6, 2025
Series of issue: Issue 6
Rubric: GENERAL PEDAGOGY, HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY AND EDUCATION
Pages: 7 — 18
Downloads: 8