Образ человека будущего, Том 7 (СИ)

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Future Human Image. Volume 7, 2017 85

The Experience of Calling: Educational Aspects and

Cross-Cultural Comparisons

Yevhen Muliarchuk - PhD, Senior Research Fellow

H. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy

(Kyiv, Ukraine)

E-mail: [email protected]

The presented study of the phenomenon of calling in educational aspects is based on the results of the research accomplished in Ukraine in 2016. Calling experience of secondary school pupils and university students as well as of school teachers was examined in the surveys and in-depth interviews. Calling as a phenomenon appears to have the following structure: Desire - Talent - Realization - Social or Spir-itual Benefit. The aim of transpersonal goodness is the core of the phenomenon of calling and gives the integrity of its structure. The presented research in Ukraine mainly supports the results of the American research of calling for teaching performed at Liberty University, USA, in 2008. However, some cultural differences were revealed and analyzed.

Key Words: phenomenon of calling, lived experience, self-actualization, career choice, responsibili-ty, social and spiritual benefit, goodness, morality, ethics, teaching

Introduction

Calling as a basic cultural phenomenon was positioned in the social thought of 20th century by Max Weber due to his researches of social and economic history, politics and studies of religion [Weber, 1980; Weber, 1952]. Weber"s concept of calling was developed in particular within the analyses of Protestant ethics and evolution of capitalism [Weber, 1963]. The Ger-man philosopher and sociologist analyzed the process of secularization of calling from the initial religious tradition and its transition into the ethics of profession spread in the Western countries" culture. It is clear that at the beginning of 21st century calling is a relevant idea for the Western Christian countries [Bigham & Smith, 2008: 9], but there is a question if it is ac-tually vital in the other cultures.

The presence of the idea of calling in the contemporary Ukrainian society is not sufficiently researched. Calling belongs to romantic and religious tradition and it is important to know its role as a motivating factor in a rather secularized pragmatic world. Moreover, the reception of well-known cultural ideas and practices in the course of social transformation, as it is in

Ukraine, could be complicated. Ukrainian scholars pay attention to hybridization as a global cultural trend: "For the globalization unprecedentedly opens opportunities for a meeting of unmeetable and so often unmatchable phenomena" [Gomilko et al, 2016: 178]. That is why it is necessary to find out how specific is the existence of the phenomenon of calling in the con-sciousness of Ukrainians. A particular interest presents the significance of calling in choosing and practice of profession in education. Teaching in Ukraine is definitely underpaid, its pres-

╘ Muliarchuk, Yevhen, 2017

86 Future Human Image. Volume 7, 2017

The Experience of Calling: Educational Aspects and Cross-Cultural Comparisons by Yevhen Muliarchuk

tige is rather imaginary than real. We have a shortage of teachers in some regions especially rural. Many successful students of pedagogic professions prefer to get other jobs. Pupils at schools do not often feel that their teachers are motivated to work and are not motivated for learning themselves. Nevertheless, the moral aspects of the motivation for the profession are highly important. An honest work in various fields often requires a kind of devotion. It is true that the salaries from the state budget in Ukraine hardly cover the living expenses of teachers and people of many other jobs as well. We do not expect a fast improvement of the situation. Thus the topic of calling is maybe more important in Ukraine than it is in the other countries.

Methodology

The origin of this study is the author"s metaphysic wonder of calling. Wherefrom comes the call we do not know exactly for sometimes it is from outside and sometimes it is intrinsic or both directions are present in our consciousness. Still we live in a responsive way and the most important is how we respond. There is a kind of hermeneutics behind every philosophic question and a big deal for ethics concerning many human deeds. Although we cannot know exactly the principal things in our life, we need to understand them.

As for our research, hermeneutic phenomenology is a method and a strategy of thinking. The way we have got the experience of calling revealed is in-depth interviewing. When con-ducting an interview we are asking, hearing and speaking to our interviewee. We reconstruct and repeat what we have got from our interlocutor to bring the phenomenon of calling into the light of understanding. The in-depth interviews were preceded by target surveys to get some statistics about the factors of choosing future professions and about the share of those who declare having the experience of calling. That gives a piece of solid social reality for the represented phenomenon.