SOME "LESSONS" OF THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CIVIC EDUCATION
The article examines topical issues of civic education. The subject of the analysis is a contradiction between specifi goal setting of the educational process, on the one hand, and the variety and unpredictability of political life, on the other. This contradiction is particularly pronounced in transitional-inversion types of societies, including Russia. The aim of the article is to study approaches to the construction of a modern model of civic education that provides effective functional and dynamic interaction of the political system and its social environment. The main attention is paid to what theoretical developments may constitute the conceptual framework of a modern model of civic education. The competence approach to civic education is generalized. This approach emphasizes the importance of matching the cognitive, emotional and behavioral components of citizenship, as well as its effective implementation in the relationship of the citizen with the public and political institutions. At the same time the perspective directions of civic education (civic engagement, rational behavior, the balance of interests of the state, society and the individual, et al.) are determined in view of “skills of the 21st century” (leadership, critical thinking, problem solving, individual responsibility, cooperation and curiosity). It is shown that many of these skills can be implemented in different socio-political contexts, as indicated by the examples of historical and today’s local and regional expertise. It is concluded that solution of the contradiction between “education and politics” is possible in the framework of a broad approach to the definition of civic education. Civic education includes all processes that affect beliefs, obligations, opportunities and actions of people as members or prospectiveПолис. Политические исследования. 2016. № 1. C. 175-191members of society. This definition implies eclecticism of civic education and reflects the interaction of the different social, cultural and political contexts. It is not so much the ideological content of a particular model of civic education that is important, as the development of knowledge, values, attitudes and skills that enable the individual to coordinate the cognitive, emotional and behavioral components of its relationship to society and the state.