Education in the conditions of digital culture: axiological analysis

Abstract

The article performs an axiological analysis of the transformations experienced by education in the context of the formation of digital culture as a complex sociocultural phenomenon that extends beyond technological discourse and shapes the modes of communication, cognition, self-identification, and value self-determination of the individual. The digital environment, which fosters a fragmented, visually oriented perception of information oriented toward instantaneous feedback, enters into tense relations with traditional educational values of systematicity, depth, and reflexivity, while simultaneously generating new forms of solidarity, collaborative creativity, and open access to knowledge. The ambivalent character of the value effects of digitalization is identified, whereby the same technological solutions can both enhance the learner’s agency and reduce the educational process to content consumption. This leads to the erosion of the monopoly of institutional channels for value transmission and immerses the individual in a space of multiple, often competing value offerings. The analysis reveals a pronounced polarization of value priorities between teachers and students: the former attach high importance to the fundamental nature of knowledge, moral responsibility, cultural identity, and critical thinking, while the latter prioritize professional competence, communicative openness, creative self-realization, and self-organization skills. This reflects differing perceptions of the influence of digital technologies on the depth of content mastery, the quality of pedagogical interaction, motivation to learn, the formation of value orientations, and the development of critical thinking. Teachers predominantly evaluate these changes negatively, emphasizing the loss of live dialogue, reduced intellectual depth, and the weakening of education’s formative function, whereas students tend to see opportunities for the democratization of knowledge, new forms of collaboration, and self-directed learning. Differences also appear in preferred forms of educational interaction, with teachers favoring classroom lectures, seminar discussions, and individual academic supervision, while students prefer professional practice, group digital projects, and interactive online courses. This confirms a structural value dissonance conditioned by generational differences in cultural experience. It is emphasized that digital culture does not so much destroy or reinforce traditional values as it restructures them, in the course of which classical reference points lose their unconditional priority and yield to pragmatically and self-expressively oriented attitudes, while the internal inconsistency of both groups’ positions in the educational process is preserved. The proposed approach makes it possible to establish the main content of the scholarly work, determine its relevance for understanding the challenges of contemporary pedagogical reality, and make an informed decision regarding the need to consult the full text of the article in order to gain a detailed understanding of the mechanisms of value shifts under the conditions of the digital transformation of education.