The formation of functional literacy as a direction of interaction in the field of education with the countries of Southern Africa

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the need to identify organizational and pedagogical conditions for the formation of functional literacy in Southern African countries in the context of promoting the Russian language and culture. The purpose of the work is to identify the key areas and mechanisms of cooperation between Russia and the countries of Southern Africa in the field of education to improve functional literacy. The methodology includes a comprehensive analysis of regulatory documents, statistical data, and empirical research results (questionnaires of teachers (n=120) and students (n=450), semi-structured interviews with experts (n=15)). A comparative analysis of educational systems and practices of functional literacy formation in Southern African countries has been performed. The results showed that the key barriers are the low resource availability of schools, insufficient teacher training, and weak integration of functional literacy into the content of education. Promising models of interaction have been identified: exchange of experience and best practices, professional development of teachers, development of educational and methodological complexes taking into account national specifics. The theoretical significance lies in clarifying the concept of functional literacy in an intercultural context. The practical value is determined by the possibility of using the results to optimize educational interaction between Russia and African countries. The prospects of the study are related to scaling effective models of functional literacy formation to other developing countries. Russian Russian Ministry of Education's state assignment on the topic "Organizational conditions and methodological support for teaching the Russian language and promoting Russian culture in Southern African countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana)" (scientific topic code of the Kyrgyz Republic ZU-2024-0014)" was written as part of the fulfillment of the state assignment of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.