Meaningful conditions for cooperation with the countries of Southern Africa in the field of educational activities in order to promote the values of Russian education

Abstract

The new guidelines of the Russian Federation's foreign policy, outlined in the annual message of the President to the Federal Assembly, are related to the development of relations, including with the countries of the African continent, which are dynamically developing today. Relations with the countries of southern Africa have a long history. Traditionally, promising areas for cooperation are such areas as geological exploration, mining and processing, personnel training, healthcare, and food security. These traditional areas of cooperation seem to have become the basis for the development of intercultural dialogue, training of personnel for southern African countries in Russian universities in priority areas, and the development of experience in organizing Russian language courses in these countries. The current stage of development of relations with the countries of southern Africa requires the formation of new instruments and contexts of interaction. According to the authors of this article, this stage involves not only scientific, technological, political and economic cooperation, but also cooperation in the humanitarian sphere, namely the transfer of humanitarian technologies. According to this logic, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation has assigned subordinate pedagogical universities the task of developing cooperation with southern African countries in the field of educational activities in order to promote the values of Russian education. This task is not limited to training specialists and strengthening the position of the Russian language. We are talking about the development of interaction at the level of educational and enlightenment traditions, values, approaches, and, ultimately, methods and technologies of education at all its constituent levels and in all spheres, including, of course, the humanities. If the experience of educational cooperation with the countries of southern Africa in the scientific and technological sphere has developed as a result of Russia's foreign policy at previous stages, then the task of developing cooperation in the field of teacher education requires consideration and identification of meaningful conditions for such interaction.