Abstract:

Today, Russian society and the system of higher education are under conditions of economic and social uncertainty. There is a growing demand for a new strategy regarding the pedagogical community development. The Russian teachers are striving to acquire new skills and competences. They are trying to master new standards of professional activity and realize their pedagogical and scientific potential in a new way. However, this is not always possible under the institutional and organizational conditions that exist in the universities, especially in the Russian macro-regions. Teachers are not satisfied with a rigid, authoritarian management system that does not allow freedom and variability in the choice of activities and professional development. They are concerned about administrative control, decision-making methods of changing academic profession. They are not satisfied with the limited possibilities of their participation while choosing the University development model, and, hence, the strategy of its development.

The author considers non-linear strategies to be the most productive ones for the development of the pedagogical community in the conditions of social turbulence. They can be implemented in the transition to a non-linear model of higher education. At the core of this model is participatory University management, where teachers are involved. One of the important resources is trust between educational communities and University management. The organizational structure of this model is horizontal communication and networking, while active academic mobility can be regarded as a key process.

The main goal of the manuscript is to reveal the principles of non-linear strategy of pedagogical community development in the universities of the Ural macro-region. The object of the study is the teachers of the Ural universities. The empirical base of the article is represented by the results of sociological research of higher education in the Ural Federal district of Russia. Among the research methods were the analysis of the higher education statistics, a mass survey of teachers, and interviews with experts.

Such principles of non-linear strategy of pedagogical community development as alternative, choice, innovation, flexible combination of educational and research activities, academic freedom are articulated and justified. The conditions of implementation of these principles are defined. Among them are involvement of teachers in the University management, improvement of their social status; freedom of choice of areas and methods of professional activity; variability of the use of educational and research technologies, opportunities for non-formal education.

The practical significance of the research is related to the fact that it shows how, due to what resources there are impulses of development of the pedagogical community and how its transformation into an actor of economic, social, cultural development of the macro-region can occur.

Keywords:

Academic community, pedagogical community, higher education, university, Ural macro-region, non-linear development strategy, non-linear model of higher education.