Paper short abstract:

The objective of this paper is to examine how various educational approaches in Russia tackle this national concern over the weakening civil society, with the ‘Orthodox culture’ concept and it's integration into curriculum serving as bridge between secular and religious spheres.

Paper long abstract:

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, there has been a concerted effort by both the Russian state and the Russian Orthodox Church to institute K-12 classes such as the Foundations of New Orthodox Culture, which familiarizes students with religious themes found in Russian history and culture. This trend in Russian education, centered on proper moral upbringing of Russia's youth, simultaneously serves the state's interest of increasing civic engagement and solidifying Orthodox hegemony. Rather than interpreting this trend as 'secularizing religion', the Church Patriarchy would insist that they are correctly reapplying humanism back into education and argue against drawing a rigid line between the secular and religious. Opponents to this view are in a precarious position of being charged of continuing the Soviet tradition of scientific atheism, a pedagogical approach that has been presented as inciting an 'anti-culture', "a culture in opposition to God, becoming anti-religious and anti-humane" (Willems 2007). Understanding the repercussions and potential conflicts of Orthodoxy's increased presence in education is essential, particularly in a country of multiethnic and multi-denominational populations. Public schools are becoming an emerging arena for building and articulating national conceptions of morality as well as a place to emphasize the role of communities in a child's upbringing, no longer seen as a private family affair. The objective of this paper is to examine how various educational approaches tackle this national concern over the weakening civil society, with the 'Orthodox culture' concept serving as bridge between secular and religious spheres.