On Planning Ideological and Political Work at a Higher Education Institution
Abstract Generated abstract
This article examines how ideological and political work in Soviet higher education should be planned as part of a scientifically organized system of student education. Drawing on Marxist-Leninist principles and experience at Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, it argues that such work should not be treated as a collection of separate measures, but as a coordinated network of tasks, functions, and feedback links among departments, party and Komsomol bodies, faculty units, and student groups. The author distinguishes long-term educational programs from operational plans and recommends participatory planning that begins at the level of groups and courses while remaining coordinated by institutional leadership. The article concludes that programming can make educational work more purposeful, continuous, and responsive to student development.
Full Text
ON PLANNING IDEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL WORK IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
V. M. Ya-Dvirnis
A specific feature of mature socialism is the need for the scientific organization of all aspects of social life and for the scientific management of social processes. The need for the scientific organization of such complex and delicate processes as upbringing—especially ideological and political upbringing—is becoming ever more perceptible. This need is conditioned by the solution of some socio-political tasks and the growing complexity of others, and by the intensification of ideological struggle. A new, higher stage in the development of socialism requires a corresponding level of ideological and political work. Over the years of Soviet power, rich experience has been accumulated in this field, and it is partly reflected in the existing literature. However, this experience has not been studied sufficiently. Publications devoted to the problems of ideological and political upbringing are descriptive in character and require theoretical generalization.
The need to raise the level of organization of ideological and political work has found expression in attempts to formulate the principles of party propaganda and to program the system of upbringing in higher education.1
Analysis of existing programs and plans for the education of students has shown that there is no unified methodological approach to solving this question. Ideological and political work is understood too narrowly. Most often it is reduced to the sum or system of measures carried out by the ideological sectors of public organizations and departments of the social sciences; it is built on the basis of traditions and previous experience, and is designed afterward. Such an approach divides students into an “educated” part—activists and the main mass, which, by this very system and style of work, is doomed to passivity. This does not facilitate, but rather hinders, the solution of the tasks of ideological and political education. The clarity of organization, the correct understanding of the tasks and functions of individual links, and the effectiveness of ideological and political work depend on the scientific grounding of the educational system, which requires serious theoretical analysis and fundamental, concrete sociological research.
In this article we attempt to offer several pieces of advice on the planning of ideological and political work in a higher education institution on the basis of those initial propositions by which the authors of the “Program for the Education of Full-Time Students for the Entire Period of Study,” created by the author collective of the Department of Scientific Communism of TPI in 1968, were guided.
The methodological basis for the study of the problems of ideological and political education, in our view, is the Leninist approach to the organization of party ideological and political work. We proceed from the fact that the process of education is a complex phenomenon that requires an all-round, systematic, and integral approach, as well as deep theoretical and socio-political analysis. Communist education embraces all aspects of personality development. Therefore, in pedagogical literature the following are distinguished as component parts: mental, labor, moral, aesthetic, and physical education2. They constitute directions of activity for the formation of various qualities of the personality. In higher education, mental education is connected with the formation of such qualities as determine the level of professional, political, and civic maturity and the structure of activity of future specialists. It permeates all aspects, forms, and means of the general system of education and acquires an ideological and political character. The complexity of the tasks, means, and connections of this aspect of educational work requires that, in programs and plans, spe—
main sections of ideological-political education. But this does not at all mean that ideological-political education in the higher educational institution exists as an autonomous system needing a special plan. It is organically woven into the educational and upbringing process and has a very relative independence. In practical work all aspects of education function simultaneously, in mutual connection and within the framework of a general integral system. The specificity of each of them is determined not by a set of elements, nor even by their arrangement, but by the structural-functional links among them. Ideological-political education gives the entire system unity and integrity, determines the general direction and a single class content.
Thus, ideological-political education is one of the aspects of the intellectual development of the personality and, along with the formation of dialectical thinking, determines the level of its political self-consciousness, ideological conviction, and social activity. The essence of this process in the period of mature socialism is expressed in the formation of a scientific worldview, communist conviction and activity directed toward the transformation of society and the individual in accordance with the principles and tasks of the formation of communism.
In terms of the method of organization, ideological-political education is not a sum, nor even a system, of measures, but rather a system of interrelations between the subject and the object of education in the realization of general goals and specific tasks conditioned by the essence of the socio-political system and by the structure of the particular collective in which the process of education is carried out. In higher education, ideological-political education is realized through the system of activity of both the subject and the object of education for the ideological and political development of the personality of each student and of the entire collective as a whole. The content and structure of this activity are conditioned by the regular objective and subjective interrelations of the educational system, by the tasks of training specialists, by the necessity of the all-round development of the personality and the formation of its political orientation and civic maturity.
If ideological-political education is a very broad concept and, in general, by its essence reflects objective processes, then the concept of “ideological-political work” means the purposeful activity of the subject in realizing the tasks of ideological-political education and is its constituent part, its means.
The forms of ideological-political work are conditioned by the essential content and structure of ideological-political education and are expressed in specific types of activity of the subject: theoreti-
political, educational-cognitive, labor, socio-political, organizational, etc. The sphere of ideological and political work may be both the educational process and the extracurricular production and socio-political practice of students, their leisure and everyday life. Through these spheres the various institutions of the higher educational institution realize the goals and essence of ideological and political education.
To ensure the scientific level and the necessary political orientation, it is necessary, first of all, to formulate and theoretically substantiate the general goal of ideological and political work and the specific tasks of each link, taking into account the profile of the higher educational institution, faculty, and year of study, and then to determine the means and methods.
It follows from Marxist-Leninist theory and from the tasks of communist construction and education that the general goal of the ideological and political work of all links of a higher educational institution consists in creating conditions for the free creative activity of students in forming the personality of the future specialist as a spiritually rich person, possessing a scientific worldview and communist conviction, having a highly developed political self-awareness, and ready to realize his abilities for the benefit of society. This general goal is concretized in the work of the various institutions of the intra-university system of education.
Observations and analysis of the practical work experience of public organizations at leading higher educational institutions of the country, including TPI, have shown that the principal tasks of ideological and political education are implemented in the faculties at the level of years of study and groups1. Therefore it is important correctly and clearly to formulate the specific tasks of each concrete subdivision, taking into account its place and role in the general system of student education. The correct understanding of the content, means, and methods of ideological and political work as a whole depends on this. The point is that these means and methods arise from the functions of individual elements, which in turn are determined by specific tasks and have objective conditioning. By functions we understand the directions of activity of one or another element of education in carrying out objectively existing and cognized tasks. Functions, like tasks, are differentiated in accordance with the structure of the administrative and educational subdivisions of the higher educational institution, and of party, Komsomol, and trade-union organizations. Thus, for example, the functions of the ideological and political sector of the Komsomol committee and of the faculty bureau are not identical. It is important to define the functions not only of each concrete ele-
places in the general system of education, but on this basis also to establish the links among them, to determine the nature of these links. In doing so, one should bear in mind that there are cross-cutting tasks that are solved at all levels. Such, for example, is the development of a creative attitude toward the study of Marxist-Leninist theory, without which the formation of a scientific worldview is impossible. There are specific tasks whose implementation depends on the activity of one particular link. Thus, the training of party and Komsomol activists is carried out, as a rule, by the party committee.
The organizational solution of the problems of ideological and political education is the responsibility of departments and public organizations. The necessity of a class-based, political approach to education determines the special place and role, in organizing ideological and political work, of the ideological sector of the party committee. It is precisely this sector that must have the closest ties with the other sectors of public organizations, determine the content of their work, and train for them personnel capable of coordinating the ideological and political functions of their own link with the other links of the overall system of education. It is the element in the network of functional links of ideological and political education, the node that can restore the entire network. A scientific substantiation of the tasks and functional links of the ideological sector of the party committee will make it possible to create the correct structure of its work and to determine, on this basis, the system of functional links of ideological and political education for all elements of the higher educational institution.
The guiding document here may be the “Program for the Education of Students...,” which, as part of the system of scientifically substantiated tasks and functions, will help establish correct and effective links. The program is designed for the entire period of students’ study not by chance. Defining the main directions of education, it sets the tasks of developing the student’s personality in accordance with the profile of the higher educational institution and the requirements of society. It should be taken into account that the program is not a plan. It provides the scientific, methodological, and organizational foundations for educating students and determines the criteria, the initial premises for operational planning. Operational plans directly implement the education program and determine the content and scope of work for the year or semester. Such plans make it possible to determine the basic models and directions of educational work and to take into account the specifics of a given faculty, course, and particular student groups.
Analysis of the problems of ideological and political work leads to the idea of the necessity of planning as if from two sides: from the side of the main governing institutions of the higher educational institution, departments, public-
organizations and on the part of student groups. This makes it possible to ensure a high scientific and theoretical level of work and to take account of the needs and level of development of the students. It seems advisable to us to begin planning by faculties with groups and courses. In this case the plans are drawn up on the basis of the available program of upbringing, with the most active participation of the teaching staff and students. The political information officer, the group monitor, the Komsomol organizer, and the trade-union organizer of the group, under the guidance of the curator, having studied the program of upbringing, the plans of departments, the recommendations of the head institutions of public organizations, and the needs of students, draw up a plan for their general-faculty, ideological growth and the formation of social activity. This plan is then discussed and approved at the general meeting of the group. It reflects the needs of the all-round development, professional and socio-political orientation of each student, makes it possible to establish effective feedback, and increases the effectiveness of the educational process. There is no need to have several plans of educational work in a group. Here, as in any other process of upbringing, an all-round, integral approach is necessary. The plan must be unified. But both in planning and in implementing plans, the specific character of the types and aspects of educational work should be taken into account. The general plan will make it possible to coordinate the activity of the group activists. It is known that the group monitor is responsible for planning and organizing activity connected with educational tasks, the Komsomol organizer for ideological and political upbringing, and the trade-union organizer for cultural and mass work; but all of them together carry out common goals and tasks and, consequently, act in a coordinated way, on the basis of a common plan, implementing it through the specific activity of the students.
The bureau of the courses (specialties), on the basis of the institute-wide program and the plans of the groups, draw up a general plan of ideological and political work for the course, which is also part of the general plan of upbringing. At the same time the plans of the student groups are adjusted. Working planning is completed at the level of the faculty bureaus. The head party and Komsomol bodies coordinate and supervise this work. The overall coordination and subordination of the functional links of individual elements, and the monitoring of the ideological and political work of departments and public organizations, are carried out by the rector’s office and the party committee.
In order to draw up optimal plans of ideological and political work, it is necessary to ensure the participation in planning of literally all staff members and students of the higher educational institution. To this end, it is necessary first of all that the program of upbringing be studied not only by the leaders of public organizations, but also by all students. This, in turn,
... is possible only under conditions of good feedback in education and a high level of social activity. On the other hand, it is necessary to study the needs and interests of students and to have a grasp of the model structure of the personality of the specialists that is expected to be formed as a result of education. Whoever develops or plans the program should study not by parts, but as a whole. This will make it possible to determine the place of a given subject in the system of education, the long-term and immediate tasks, and to establish the functional links of one unit with other units, the place of ideological and political education in the overall system.
When planning ideological and political work, it should be borne in mind that the sections of the program are distinguished conditionally and have close and direct connections, especially the first and second sections. The first section cannot be reduced only to professional education. It carries a great ideological and political potential. Therefore, certain tasks connected with the professional orientation of students are immediate tasks of the ideological sectors. Thus, the formation of interest in general engineering knowledge is carried out, in particular, through the reading of survey lectures on the most complex and current problems of modern science, through the holding of debates, conferences, and discussions on the history of science and technology5. This is the responsibility of the general-engineering and specialized departments, as well as of the ideological sectors of the Party committee and Party bureaus.
In studying the program of education, special attention should be paid to the formulation and correlation of tasks, of specific means, and of who carries them out, coordinates, and supervises ideological and political work. This will make it possible to determine the place and functional links of the concrete elements of education. The through-going tasks and means of education indicated in the “notes” column, recurring in several years, make it possible to ensure continuity in ideological and political work.
The experience of educational work of the department of scientific communism of TPI with fourth- and fifth-year students—in particular, round-table meetings, debates, discussions, meetings with practical workers, and seminar-conferences—has shown that, when planning ideological and political education, it is not advisable to take into account students’ levels and forms of activity indiscriminately. Therefore the program proposes to build ideological and political work according to the principle of making it more complex from year to year. Such an approach is unlikely to raise objections. But the work itself in this case must
5 “Program for the Education of Students of the Day Department for the Entire Period of Study at the Institute,” Tomsk, 1968, p. 13.
constitute not merely complex measures, but grow organically out of the preceding work. The experience of TPI shows that already at the present time many responsible and complex types of work in organizing ideological and political education are being carried out by senior students. The program has been drawn up with the aim of creating conditions for the creative activity of all students, regardless of faculty or year of study. In doing so, we proceed from the fact that the criteria of ideological and political work should be sought not in the quantity or quality of events, but in the method of their organization, in the degree to which students’ social activity is developed. In our view, such an approach fully coincides with Leninist criteria for evaluating the Party’s ideological and political work.
In creating an integral, differentiated, scientifically grounded system of education, programming will play a fundamental role. The first experience of implementing the program for educating students at TPI has shown that educational work has become more purposeful, and connections have become more orderly. Many heads of departments and public organizations, in their reports to the Party committee, note that the program has become a fundamental document in concrete planning*).
*) “Current archive of the TPI Party Committee, materials of the inspection of the implementation of the educational program.”