Problems of civic education in the multicultural environment of Yakutsk

This article analyzes the problems of civic education in the multicultural environment of the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Yakutsk. Attention is paid to the process of developing skills, knowledge and values, civic competencies that contribute to active and responsible participation in public life. The article reveals features of the program "Civic Education", introducing the fundamentals of the legal status of Russian citizens affecting interethnic relations and fostering tolerance, considering the forms of interaction between civil society, government and business. Civic education is not limited to general education, since in modern conditions, it is important to create a system of continuous civic education. The authors define features of civic education in the multi-ethnic and poly-confessional society of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), inhabited by representatives of more than 120 nationalities, and represented by more than 165 religious organizations. The authors describe problems arising in the implementation of goals of civic education in the modern conditions of globalization, eroding ethnic identity and transforming traditional social institutions. The priority areas in civic education are multicultural education and bilingual education.


Introduction
Civic education is a process of developing skills and acquiring knowledge that promote active and responsible participation in public life. Citizens have both a desire and competences to realize themselves as members of society.
"Citizenship" is an integrated personality trait that allows one to exercise oneself legally, morally and politically capable. The main elements of citizenship include patriotic, international feelings, moral and legal culture, expressed in self-esteem, in internal discipline, respect and trust in other citizens, the government and society.
Consequently, civic competences developed by civic education include: • research competence -analysis and assessment of the current social situation; • learning competence -learning in a changing environment; • communicative competence -interaction with other people, tolerance, empathy; • competence of social choice -making a choice and making a decision in a specific social situation; • competence of social action -implementation of decisions made [1].
Some authors add components such as "a critical and transformative attitude towards social reality." Others emphasize the link between citizenship and public life in the context of the democratic regime.
In the Russian Federation, there is a series of Civic Education programs that introduce the basics of the legal status of a person and a citizen, touch on interethnic relations and foster tolerance, introduce the world culture and give an idea of non-profit organizations, their types and activities, consider forms of interaction between civil society, governments and businesses. These programs help citizens to master modern political culture, understand ongoing changes.
The target groups of civic education are students, teachers, military personnel and law enforcement officers, state and municipal employees, prisoners and "risk groups", pensioners and people of the "third age". Civic education is not limited to the general education. In modern conditions, a system of continuous civic education is becoming increasingly important.
A citizen is brought up by the social environment, leaders of society and the government, the media, cultural institutions, political parties and movements. The ABC of citizenship can and should be taught at school. Samira Saleh Usman draws attention to the fact that the family should be involved in the development of civic responsibility, since teaching civic values goes beyond the curriculum, and some of these values are the result of a positive relationship between local civic responsibility of parents and adolescents. [2].
In the globalized world, it is necessary to educate the young generation who would be proud of their identity and citizenship and to develop global citizens who understand their own actions and decisions. Civic education acquires particular relevance in the multiethnic and multi-confessional society of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Representatives of more than 120 nationalities live there; more than 165 religious organizations of different confessions are registered in the republic. Therefore, many educational institutions adhere to the goal of developing the civic identity in schoolchildren: in primary schools -"I am a Yakut", in basic schools -"I am a citizen of Russia", in secondary (full) schools -"I am a citizen of the world."

Materials and Methods
Civic education is faced with many problems, which concern everyone who is interested in the well-being of citizens. True citizenship includes knowledge, and abilities to interact with different people, regardless of cultural differences, based on national and global values.
According to the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia No. 413 of 05/17/2012 "On the approval of the federal state educational standard of secondary general education", the subject area "Social Sciences" includes the following subjects: "Law" (basic and advanced levels); "Social Studies" (basic level).
There is no the subject "Civics" in the standards, although textbooks have already been developed: "Civics" for schoolchildren by A.F. Nikitin, and the educational kit for secondary schools, vocational schools, lyceums and gymnasiums by Ya. V. Sokolov and A.S. Prutchenkov. Thus, the issues of civic education are studied by students within the "Law" and "Social Studies" disciplines.
The important role of civic education is emphasized in the Act "On Education", regional laws, other legal acts, as well as in the Concept for the modernization of Russian education for the period up to 2010. However, the mechanism for implementing declarative norms is not sufficiently developed. Moreover, the nature of the regional system of civic education has not been determined; there are no principles and approaches to its development.
The changing 21 st century is causing conflicting assessments. The accelerated process of globalization is a difficult to understand trend. There are different definitions of globalization. A number of researchers consider globalization to be a politically correct version of Westernization. Others refer to the formation of a unified world, a unified social system.
The world has accumulated many problems that require drastic solutions. Pandemics, environmental issues, military conflicts and international terrorism, protection of human rights concern everyone, the responsibility for their resolution lies with the global world, rather than governments. It is very difficult to imagine that one nation can solve them, since many of the issues are international in nature.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), formulated in 2015 by the UN General Assembly, and their 169 targets represent one of the most meaningful and measurable expressions of global citizenship. The main goal is to create a society of global citizens responsible for sustainable society where there will be no poverty and hunger, and medicine and education will be available to everyone [3]. To achieve these objectives, the SDGs requires: -to realize our global interdependencies; -to strengthen assistance to the world community and commitment to its ideas; -to educate future generations by fostering empowered learners who can solve global problems.
The UN sets a goal to create a world in which the human rights will be enshrined [4].
Globalization has its positive and negative sides. It is problematic to develop the system of national civic education. National civic education aims at fostering patriotism and loyalty, while global education is outside the scope. Globalization opens up new and wider opportunities for the universal peaceful and sustainable development. The charter of the United Nations begins with the words "We, the peoples of the United Nations." In addition, the development and spread of the Internet, being a part of globalization processes, create favorable conditions for deepening the process of globalization. Some researchers argue that the Internet is forming a new cosmopolitan citizen [3]. There is a complex and ambiguous process of the development of a new person, a new way of life. Social sciences have abandoned the worldview determined by individualism.
Humanity is united by similar fundamental needs and desires, and globalization serves the interests of the entire planet. Based on this, the goal of global citizenship education is to help students acquire knowledge and skills that will enable them to be competitive and successful on the world stage. There is no doubt that life is a very complex network of connections, in which decisions of each person can influence society at the regional, national, and international levels. Globalization is an opportunity for humanity to move to a new level of material and spiritual development.
Global civic education is faced with the problem of the traditional understanding of the process of assimilating knowledge, as a one-way transfer of information from teacher to student instead of using transformational approaches.
In addition, until recent years, teachers viewed globalization as an issue of the existence of the world, rather than as a responsibility for solving global issues of social, economic and political importance. Western studies consider civic education as a continuous life activity, an endless process of choice, innovation and cooperation [5].

Results and Discussion
The modern system of Russian education is focused on the development of a global approach to learning, as well as international cooperation to solve common human problems. The goal of Global Citizenship Education is to enable students to take responsibility for solving and addressing global challenges and to take an active part in building an open and secure world. It is necessary to develop a sense of belonging and responsibility for the world, respect and acceptance of different views and cultures, an ability to take actions that can improve the global civil environment, personal responsibility for making decisions in a rapidly changing space, in a system of continuous innovation. Due to its geographical position and historical destiny, Russia is the best example of globalization. Russia can combine the best from both the West and the East.
In these conditions, the priority areas of civic education in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) are multicultural education and bilingual education.
The multicultural nature of the Russian educational space is due to the multinationality of Russia. Yakutia has accumulated considerable experience in multicultural education and the discipline "World Studies" was introduced into the curriculum in order to acquaint students with achievements of world culture. The disciplines "Culture of the peoples of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)", "World art culture" are taught in the republic. In the process of multicultural education, the child learns his native culture, Russian culture and world culture. A combination of national and human types of culture is based on the principle "from mastering native culture to familiarizing with world culture" [6].
A great role is assigned to teachers of the humanitarian disciplines. One of the basic principles of social sciences in a multicultural society are "from critical thinking to empathy". The knowledge gained in social studies lessons should develop the ability to enter into a constructive dialogue with other cultures. A significant role belongs to empathy. Role-playing games can help students to find arguments in defense of the other side, representing a conflict situation on behalf of the enemy, understanding someone else's pain and pride -all this can develop the ability to behave with dignity in a conflict situation, to reach compromises.
It is necessary to use active methods of teaching. The leading role belongs to creative activities, discussions, role-playing games, in which students gain experience in solving problems related to the peculiarities of interaction in a multicultural environment, and which are aimed at forming a culture of communication.
Yakutia is one of the multinational regions, where linguistic and cultural diversity is unique, characterized by a bilingual (polylingual) environment, because indigenous people are all bilingual or trilingual.
It is officially recognized that the education system of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is built on the bilingual basis. Two languages -in Russian and Yakutare used in teaching. In places of compact residence of the indigenous small peoples of the North, native languages are learnt (Even, Evenk, Yukagir, Chukchi, Dolgan). But a child choosing a native language will be taught in this language only up to grade 4; then he will be taught in Russian; an exception is made for the subjects "native language" and "native literature" [7].
In 2020-2021, in 52 municipal educational institutions of Yakutsk, there were 48478 children. Of these, 49 organizations had 1374 classes with Russian as the language of instruction; in 23 schools there were 359 classes with the native (Yakut) language of instruction. In schools №26 and 38 the Evenk language was studied [8].
Bilingual education plays an important role in the development of multicultural competences. Learning in two or more languages contributes to the development of communication skills, memory, makes the student more mobile and tolerant. The problems of multicultural education, development of a Russian civic identity were discussed at the interregional scientific and methodological seminar "Prospects and problems of multicultural and multilingual education in the Russian Federation", held by the Bashkir State Pedagogical University in October 2021 [9]. The seminar was attended by researchers from Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, North Ossetia-Alania, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya, and Chuvashia.
In accordance with the urgent tasks of multicultural education, associated schools are among priority areas. For example, the North-Eastern University Educational District Association was created. It deals with additional education for children -international summer camps, schools ("Lingua", "Uuneiis" (Rostok), "Intensus", "Tuymaada") which invite teachers of foreign languages from far abroad hold international Olympiads, forums, and competitions.
Another area of civic education is determined by the poly-confessional nature of the Yakut population. The diversity of religions is especially pronounced in Yakutsk (Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, Protestant, Catholicism organizations). The religious factor in civic education has to be taken into account.
10 years ago, the subject "Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics" (ORCSE) was introduced into the primary education curriculum. The subject consists of several modules, both religiously oriented ("Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture", "Fundamentals of Islamic Culture"), having a secular orientation ("Fundamentals of Secular Ethics"). The course was unified, since the modules fulfilled the same pedagogical goal and tasks of civic education: to develop a system of knowledge about the history and content of religions: Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism, education of tolerance, opposition to religious extremism and radicalism.
In the draft Federal State Standard for Primary Education of September 4, 2019, four modules were removed: Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture, Fundamentals of Islamic Culture, Fundamentals of Buddhist Culture and Fundamentals of Jewish Culture. This measure made it possible to solve the problem that had emerged during the approbation, namely, the organizational and financial complexity of separate teaching of the subject modules. Independent training required significant costs: teachers, specialized classrooms, teaching and methodological aids.
It is assumed that the effectiveness of this component of civic education can be increased by introducing the uniform disciplines "Fundamentals of Religious Cultures of Russia" and "Fundamentals of Secular Ethics". In other words, the most popular and compromise modules of the discipline were chosen, since at the testing stage, exclusively religious modules did not enjoy wide support of the population. Parents and students chose the "Fundamentals of secular ethics" [10].

Conclusion
The specificity of the multicultural educational environment of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and Yakutsk creates difficulties in the implementation of the goals and objectives of civic education. In particular, a significant number of the titular ethnic group consider themselves adherents of traditional polytheistic cults. Supporters of the Yakut national religion "Aar Aai" have united in four communities officially registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. They position their creed as an ancient common Turkic religion -Tengrianism. The Aiyy Center for Spiritual Culture has been created in Yakutsk [11].
It is impossible to calculate the total number of believers in "Aar Aiyy" due to the lack of registration of membership in their communities; however, according to opinion polls, the number of those who identified themselves as adherents of traditional Yakut religious beliefs ranged from 26-28% of the entire believing population.
Thus, the education department of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) has to add the national-religious component to the invariant part of the program of the discipline "Fundamentals of Religious Cultures of Russia".
The next problem is multi-ethnic classes, where it is difficult to maintain a balance in teaching the basics of religious cultures.
The decree of the Head of the Republic of Sakha of December 12, 2019 approved the program "Strengthening the all-Russian civic identity and ethnocultural development of peoples in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for 2020 -2024"; its goals are to strengthen the unity of the multinational people of the Russian Federation, to harmonize interethnic relations" [12]. One of the goals was to ensure interreligious peace. Thus, the ethno-confessional direction in civic education is officially recognized and in the focus of attention of the government.
To conclude, it should be emphasized that modern civic education implies an endless process of choice, innovation and collaboration.
Globalization, transforming traditional social institutions, eroding cultural and ethnic boundaries, opens up new and wider opportunities for universal peaceful and sustainable development. The problem of global civic education is urgent. Under these conditions, in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the priority areas of civic education are multicultural and bilingual education. In the process of multicultural education, the student is introduced to his native culture, the Russian culture and the world culture. Bilingual education is aimed at the development of interlingual and intercultural exchange and contributes to the development of civic competencies. To solve the problems associated with the polyconfessional nature of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), civic education implies teaching the basics of religious cultures and secular ethics.