ISSN 0798 1015

Vol. 38 (Nº 50) Año 2017. Pág. 29

Concepts and strategies of cultural diversity management at higher school

Conceptos y estrategias de gestión de la diversidad cultural en la escuela superior

Mikhail Naumovitch PEVZNER 1; Rosa Moiseevna SHERAIZINA 2; Irina Anatolievna USHANOVA 3; Petr Anatolievitch PETRYAKOV 4; Irina Aleksandrovna DONINA 5

Recibido: 11/09/2017 • Aprobado: 20/09/2017

Content

1. Introduction

2. Methodology

3. Results of research

4. Discussion

5. Conclusion

Acknowledgments

References

1. Introduction

1.1. Problem Introduction

In epoch of globalisation, different countries face the continuous expansion of cultural, ethnic, social diversity, including the education sphere. This is an objectively proceeding process independent of the appraisal of ruling elites and society on the whole. In regard to social appraisal of diversity in different historical periods, the treatment of diversity by society was defined by the tendencies of humanization and democratization, on the one hand, and centralization and standardization, on the other one. In the course of the first tendency, diversity is considered as a positive phenomenon, a resource of social development, mutual enrichment of cultures. In the course of the second tendency, the emphasis is laid on danger of diversity for social stability and aspiration of the society to limit diversity by definite legal and moral-ethic frames. The influence of these tendencies affects distinctly the development of the inner environment and culture of educational organisations. In modern circumstances of intensification of external and internal migration, the academic and student staff of the Russian higher schools becomes increasingly heterogeneous, each social group making its specific demands on the university, meeting specific educational needs and expectations of its representatives.

1.2. Exploration of Problem Importance

Social-political processes of recent years, the influx of refugees, the growth of nationalistic feelings in society, popularity of right-wing populist parties – all these factors once again induce to return to the problem of cultural diversity, especially in educational organisations. As Russian academician A.G. Asmolov notes, education is an institute of achieving social trust, tolerance, and prevention of xenophobia; therefore, “under conditions of growth of social diversity in the country, the educational system faces more prominently standing out tasks of provision of social and psychological harmonization of different strata of society, the reduction of social tension among the representatives of different confessions and national cultures” (Asmolov A.G. 2010, 15). The problems of cultural diversity management in the higher education system also receive high priority in view of necessity of formation of cultural openness of higher schools as a criterion of their competitiveness. Overt conflict situations on the international/interethnic basis, manifestations of xenophobia, discrimination in the academic environment, as well as maladministration of heterogeneous environment, not allowing achieving the potential of cultural differences to the full extent, can serve as an obstacle to it.  Even in Germany, where similar problems have already been solved for several years systematically at the state level, xenophobia in the society, including educational organisations, remains to be an unsolved problem. According to the data of the Competent Сentre of diversity management development, KomDim, established as a platform for diversity management at higher schools of North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), xenophobia is on the rise among students (KomDim, 2016). Such unexpected results were demonstrated by the online poll, conducted in 2016 by the student association AStA. About 1660 students took part in the poll, and the majority of them expressed racist or nationalistic viewpoints. About 10 percent of them used undisguised categories (“Alle Muslime raus”, “Durch die Internationalisierung gehen unsere deutschen Werte verloren”). And although AStA emphasizes that the online poll was not representative, the first results turned out to be “frightening” for everybody (Leister, 2016).

Thus, the urgency of the problems, connected with cultural diversity management at higher schools, is conditioned by the necessity of search of answers to various problem questions, among which it is possible to single out several general ones:

1. Which higher school today is the higher school of equal opportunities, providing access of different heterogeneous groups to educational resources?
2. How to train higher school teachers for interaction with different heterogeneous groups in the framework of the unique educational space?
3. What are the needs and expectations of foreign students (representatives of different ethnic groups), studying at Russian higher schools?
4. What are the strategies of formation of inclusive educational environment in the university of equal opportunities?

1.3. Description of Relevant Scholarship

Over the past decade, the problem of diversity as the whole and cultural diversity in particular was studied by pedagogues, sociologists, culture experts, philosophers. At the turn of the XXth-XXIst centuries, the interest in the problem of cultural diversity was newly evolved in the concept of multiculturalism (U. Kimlika, Ch. Kukatas, B. Berry, Ch. Taylor, S. Benhabib) that gave fresh impetus to scientific and political discussions about the role of cultural diversity and approaches to its understanding. In Russian humanities and social sciences, the ideas of multiculturalism were considered within the framework of different theories and approaches, predominantly taking into account the national identity. Thus, in the seventh volume of “The Fundamental problems of culturology”, published with the support of the RFFR under the common title “Cultural diversity: theories and strategies” (2009), the detailed, at the same time critical, analysis of both understanding cultural diversity in epoch of globalisation and pressing problems of Russian multiculturalism development, was presented (Tonkova, 2009). The understanding of the fact that multiculturalism is the real presence of cultural diversity, and the policy of multiculturalism is, correspondingly, the support of the latter in contrast to cultural unity, is common for multiple discussions. As Ch.K. Lamazhaa notes, cultural diversity should be understood as “a result of grand socio-cultural evolution, as a fact, from which there is no getting away. Therefore, it is a question of not what to do with this cultural diversity, but of how to consider it for the purposes of modernization, how to arrange management solutions, how to formulate and realise multiculturalism as a policy” (Lamazhaa, 2013).

One more vector of cultural diversity development is observed in different conceptions of multicultural education, having been widely spread in pedagogy of Russia and other countries of post-soviet territory in the late XXth - early XXIst centuries (Bolotina and Mishina, 2014). Ethno-regional education can be called a relatively new pedagogical approach to the problems of cultural diversity. Didactic problems of integration of learners-inophones into new cultural and language environment of educational institutions have been actively developed in recent years. The research of the problems of inclusion in educational organisations and the work with heterogeneous groups also include the problems of cultural diversity management (Krylova, 2014; Podobin and Shcherbinina, 2016, Petryakov, 2016).

Among foreign approaches, the pedagogy of diversity (Sander A., Hinz A., Prengel A., Biewer G.) and the diversity management (Cox and Blake, 1991; Krell, 2004; Wagner and Voigt, 2007) are of particular interest for this research. Taking into account the orientation of this research towards cultural diversity, the fact how the concepts “diversity” and “cultural diversity” correlate is of interest. Analysis of the German literature shows that cultural diversity is often understood as a component of diversity as a whole. However, some authors reasonably emphasize a particular significance of namely this part, ascribing it the following features: ethnicity, nationality, ethnic origin, citizenship, migration background, cultural background, language, skin colour, and religion (Voigt, 2013). It is necessary to consider cultural diversity at individual, interpersonal, and organisational/institutional levels (Voigt, 2013). The first two levels are directly connected with the problem of identity, personal and collective ones, and all three – with the problem of recognition as an integral condition of individual integration into a new socio-cultural environment (Honneth, 1992). The theories of recognition assume their evolvement in the pedagogical context, first of all, in cross cultural pedagogy and the pedagogy of diversity (Prengel, 2015; Mecherill, 2005; Mecherill, 2015; Stojanov, 2006; Micus-Loos, 2012).

In Novgorod State University, the staff of scientists (Pevzner M.N., Petryakov P.A., Donina I.A.) have been studying the problem of diversity, diversity management and the work with heterogeneous groups over the last five years, which was embodied in a number of papers, proceedings and the prepared manual, titled as “Diversity Management” (2017).

1.4. Setting up Hypotheses and their Correspondence to Research Design

The (cultural) diversity management at higher school faces a number of new problem questions, which were earlier incompletely dealt with in scientific literature. The number of such questions may include the following: Is it necessary to mark the existing cultural differences in the educational environment or will this lead to separation or discrimination of bearers of such differences? Are they to be preserved or to be graded? How to use the potential of cultural diversity of students/teachers/employees for effective development of higher school?

The search of answers to these and others questions makes this research urgent and of high demand to both pedagogical sciences and territorial communities. The authors of the paper proceed from the assumption that the integration of inophones into inclusive educational environment of higher school will be successful if special training of teachers/employees for the work in heterogeneous (multicultural) groups and students for interaction with fellow-students-inophones is arranged. Therefore, the aim of this research is development of the system of organisational-managerial and pedagogical measures, aimed at successful integration of students-inophones into educational environment and at formation of cross-cultural openness of higher school.

2. Methodology

The methodological basis of the research is comprised by the following scientific approaches: systemic-synergetic, information-communicative, and socio-psychological approaches.

The essence of the systemic-synergetic approach consists in consideration of management of educational systems as an integral aggragate of interconnected elements. This approach is a system-forming approach of the research, allowing provision of integrity and systemacity of the process of educational organizations management.

The information-communicative approach implies application of modern information and communicative technologies to organisation of successful interaction of subjects. In the context of this research, the information-communicative approach substantiates the application of information technologies for management of educational organizations, meeting prospective and current demands for information, based on which management decisions can be made. This approach allows studying those aspects of cultural diversity management, for which the process of information exchange and successful communication is essential.

In the course of the socio-psychological approach, the theoretical provisions and concepts, implying formation of cultural differences understanding in students and teachers as a potential and a development resource, are developed. The approach is aimed at revealing the peculiarities of realization of the principle of cultural diversity in the educational environment of higher school and at the analysis of arising difficulties at the organisational level. At the individual and interpersonal levels, within the framework of the approach, the problems of recognition and support of positive cultural identity, development of empathic and communicative abilities, allowing students and alumnae to participate in the successful intercultural communication, development of abilities to include the elements of alien cultures into their own system of values, that is, to use cultural diversity as enrichment, are considered.

In the research, theoretical and empirical methods were used: analysis and synthesis of philosophic, methodological, pedagogical, psychological, socio-cultural literature; study of legislative, normative-legal and programme documents, actual foreign and domestic experience of diversity management in education. Discourse-analysis and social polls will be used as empirical methods.

3. Results of research

The authors envision the strategy, the basis of which is underlaid by a large-scale philosophical-pedagogical vision of inclusive education, as the most fruitful strategy of management of higher school as a heterogeneous organization (Petryakov, 2016). In accordance with this vision, the main purpose of inclusive education at higher school is establishing the university of equal opportunities. The diversity management at higher schools can be realized at several levels – organizational, research, academic, pedagogical ones. Any strategy requires elaborated measures, which include organisational-managerial (establishment of organisation structures at higher schools, development of network interaction with municipal authorities and social partners, information-communicative support) and pedagogical (psychological-pedagogical support, involvement of representatives of heterogeneous groups in the mutual extracurricular activity, etc.) ones. Let us consider the degree of effectiveness and sufficiency of these measures for cultural diversity management by the example of Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University

3.1. Analysis of statistical data and normative documents

In this part, the analysis of the modern situation with cultural diversity by the example of the Novgorod region of the Russian Federation and materials of the empirical research, conducted by the composite authors, are presented. The Novgorod region, as well as other territories of the North-West Federal District of Russia, is included into migration processes, connected with population flow both inside Russia and beyond it. On the website of the government of Novgorod region, it was indicated that the demographic situation in the Novgorod region has aggravated: over 2015, the population of the region has reduced by 3000 people or by 0.5% (Demography, 2016). In 2015, 7345 children were born, which is by 88 children less than in 2014. The resident population size of the Novgorod region by the 1st of January, 2016, made up 615.7 thousand people, and by the 1st of January, 2017 – 612.5 thousand, including urban population – 433.7 thousand people (70.8% of the total number), rural population – 178.7 thousand people (29.2%). The migratory increase in 2015 was 439 people. In the urban area, the migratory decrease formed – 805 people, in the country, an increase of 1244 people took place. 2382 people arrived from foreign countries (the CIS and far-abroad countries) in the Novgorod region, of whom 1056 people – from Ukraine, 307 – from Uzbekistan, 190 – from the Republic of Moldova, 186 – from Tajikistan, 171 people – from Kazakhstan (Novgorodstat, 2017). It is necessary to note that in Veliky Novgorod, a noticeable place is occupied by the representatives of the migration wave of the early 90s of the XXth century (Armenians, Azerbaijanis, etc.) and representatives of the Gipsy diaspora.

Analysis of the indices of the natural population increase, as well as the death and birth rate, marriage and divorce ratios, shows that the demographic situation in the Novgorod region remains unfavorable, the population is ageing and declining. In Novgorod region, according to the data of 01.01.2017, 73136 young people at the age of 16 to 29 years old inclusively reside, while in 2015, this figure was 77399 people, and in 2013 – 85184 (Novgorodstat, 2017). The increase of the number of young population at the expense of migration does not cover the indices of natural population reduction. Besides, the outflow of young residents of Veliky Novgorod to other regions, mainly to Moscow and Saint Petersburg is observed. According to the data of studies, one out of six representatives of the youth of Veliky Novgorod would like to leave for other cities or abroad (Strategy, 2016). Therefore, the task of primary importance for regional government and municipal authorities, as well as for the university, is establishing favourable conditions for attracting the youth to the region. In this connection, the youth policy in the region must be made in such a manner that the interests and needs of young people, independently of their belonging to this or that heterogeneous group, were taken into consideration. Next, let us consider the ways of solution of this task at the level of municipality and the educational organization (university) in more detail.

In the framework of this research, two municipal programmes were analysed: “Development of the culture sphere and the youth policy of Veliky Novgorod for 2017– 2026” and “The strategy of the municipal youth policy on the territory of urban district Veliky Novgorod for the period until 2025”. Since the 1st of January, 2017, the municipal program of Veliky Novgorod “Development of the culture sphere and the youth policy of Veliky Novgorod” for the period of 2017 – 2026, has come into force, to the subprograms of which “Realisation of the youth policy on the territory of Veliky Novgorod” and “Development of the culture sphere and the youth policy of Veliky Novgorod” can be referred. Both programs correlate with the above-mentioned strategy of the municipal youth policy in terms of the content.

Analysis of the strategy of the municipal youth policy showed that its foreground tasks include formation of the value system, which anticipates the establishment of conditions for upbringing and development of the youth (…), displaying the knowledge of their cultural, historical, national heritage and respect for its diversity, as well as development of the culture of constructive inter-ethnic relationships in the youth environment. In addition, realization of this task anticipates implementation of different measures, which in their content correspond to the strategies of diversity management. This is realization of educational and other programs, aimed at consolidation of social, international, inter-confessional agreement in the youth environment; at involvement of youth into realisation of the programs of preservation of the Russian culture, the culture of the Novgorod region and Veliky Novgorod, historical heritage and traditional crafts of Novgorod land; at system support of programs and projects, aimed at formation (…) of the national-state identity, upbringing the respect for representatives of different ethnic groups, consolidation of moral values, prevention of extremism, interaction with the youth subcultures and informal movements.

For realisation of the youth potential in the social and economic sphere, as well as introduction of the technology of a “social elevator”, the development of the institute of mentorship in the educational and other organizations, including enterprises and bodies of municipal authority, is planned; in addition, the development of cooperation with youth organizations of compatriots, residing abroad, is targeted.

Planned formation of the information field, favourable for youth development, is an important task, which implies the establishing of conditions for enhancement of the information security culture in the youth environment as an effective tool of extremism prevention, discrimination by social, religious, race, national and other features.

Thus, on the whole, both municipal programmes are oriented not to the outer organizational efforts, as it is traditionally accepted, but towards involvement of the active youth in social processes, taking into account their aspirations, peculiarities, and specifics of behaviour. Besides, the assigned tasks and measures, aimed at their solutions, agree entirely with the concept of formation of the inclusive environment in Novgorod State University (NovSU).

3.2. Poll of students-inophones and discourse-analysis of publications in newspaper “Novgorodsky Universitet”

Establishing inclusive environment at higher school is impossible without active interaction of the university with future consumers of educational services, with municipal authorities, future employers and social partners. In spite of the broad spectrum of heterogeneous groups, special attention of the rectorate and the teaching staff of NovSU is focused on two of them – persons with special needs and foreign students. Inclusion of these groups into the educational environment of higher school is a complex managerial, socio-pedagogical and psychological task.

As of today, in NovSU, the courses “Inclusive higher education: organization and support of the educational process” are run for the employees and divisional managers, as well as the Center of Inclusive Education, established in accordance with the order of 18.11.2017, No. 1197, for the purpose of provision of availability of higher education for people with special needs, with specific educational needs; rendering necessary information, psychological, socio-pedagogical, methodical assistance to them, is functioning. In May, 2016, at the university, the international conference “University as a heterogeneous organization: strategies of establishing heterogeneous environment”, at which the problems of inclusion of students-inophones were discussed as well, was held. Attraction of foreign students, as well as entrants from other regions of Russia is of particular urgency today, taking into account unfavourable demographic indices of the region. Therefore, the category of cultural diversity deserves special attention when developing organizational and managerial measures on establishing inclusive environment of higher school. In NovSU, 480 students study (408 are from the far-abroad countries, 62 – from the CIS), which makes up approximately 10% of the total number of the day students. Besides, among the Russian students, there are many representatives of different ethnic groups (Daghestanis, Chechens, Azerbaijanis, Armenians). The image of the university and the state of socio-psychological climate at higher school depend on students’ successful adaptation. To clarify the real situation in NovSU, in 2016 70 foreign students studying in the preparatory sections, at the Dentistry and Pharmaceutical departments, as well as at the Institute of agriculture and natural resources, were polled. The results of the poll showed that the majority of students had been preparing for the study in Russia: 60% of the polled students had attended classes in the Russian language in their own country, 40% had read the information and watched films in their native language about Russia. The period of adaptation to life and training in a new cultural and educational environment proceeded differently: 33% had hard times living apart from relatives; 66% experienced difficulties in adaptation to independent living in the students’ dormitory. The main difficulties of the adaptation period were: language barrier, climate conditions, health conditions, conflicts in cross-cultural environment, financial difficulties. As regards the measures on the inclusion of students-inophones, about half of the polled first-year students (of African countries) considered the psychological-pedagogical support of their learning activity as insufficient. In case of senior students, such evaluation is changing into a positive side. At the same time, foreign students from European countries (Germany), on the contrary, consider the support as sufficient. More than half of the polled are ready to recommend the study at NovSU to the representatives of their own countries. On the one hand, this is evidenced by the fact that the students are satisfied with the study at higher school and with their residence in the region. On the other hand, the necessity of development of additional measures for attracting a greater number of students to the university is obvious.

The necessary measures for establishing inclusive environment and cultural diversity management include the measures of information-communication support. In the course of the empirical research, the discourse-analysis of publications in the newspaper “Novgorodsky universitet” [Novgorod University], a weekly university newspaper, which is issued both in paper version and is distributed free of charge in all subdivisions of the university and in the electronic form on the university website, was conducted. Analysis of publications for the period from January 2016 to January 2017 revealed regular addressing the topic of cultural diversity. Two basic discursive lines, passing through all the issues of the newspaper, can be identified as “NovSU – an international higher school” (34 articles from 42 issues), and “NovSU – a multinational higher school, the university of equal opportunities” (14 articles in 11 from 42 issues). The first line represents international collaboration with external partners. The second line directly reflects the situation with cultural diversity within the walls of higher school. In the framework of this paper, the discourse-fragments of the second line are of primary interest: “So different, but at NovSU  – together!”, “The students of all countries ― unite!” and through the prism of the personal “I” “I and hieroglyph”, “I have chosen Novgorod. And I recommend it to everybody!”, “I would learn Russian just to …”. Only one of 14 publications – “The most “delicious” holiday” – is devoted to representatives of different ethnic groups of Russia and the CIS, the rest – to the students-inophones, studying at NovSU. On the whole, publications can be divided by several thematic clusters: communication in the regional educational landscape, holding joint extracurricular events, reflection of students-inophones. Thus, network interaction at the level of municipal governments and the region in the course of the youth policy of the region is presented in the paper “On the university in terms of arts” (#32 (1094) November 17, 2016), devoted to successful participation of foreign students jointly with Novgorod students at festivals of the national cultures “Friendship of peoples” and “Bridges of friendship” in the districts of the Novgorod region.

Joint events, aimed at rapprochement of foreign and Russian students, are traditionally widely covered in the press and on the website of the university. Thus, the article “Delicious and skillful” (#17 (1079), May 26, 2016) describes the annual culinary contest “Jelly-show”, in which foreign students take part, and emphasizes that they not only present their culture to visitors and participants, but become closely acquainted with Novgorod coevals in the informal setting. One of the issues of the newspaper (#12 (1074) April 14, 2016) was published with a special rubric “Fresh eye: Our university is international” and articles about two international student festivals held within the precincts of the university – “Got to know each other”, which is about the annual festival of foreign students of the preparatory section “Let us get acquainted”, and “The most “delicious” holiday”, which is about the holiday, when the students present cuisines of the Russian and the CIS nations. The organizers of the latter were the university and the Chechen-Ingush Center “Renaissance”. The main message of these articles is that foreign students are open for perception of the Russian culture, traditions, and communication.

The interviews of foreign students, which are quite often published in “Novgorodsky universitet”, are the most demonstrative for the analysis. Thus, the publication “I have chosen Novgorod. And I recommend it to you!” represents an interview of two medical students from Ghana (#29 (1091) October 27, 2016). It is indicative that the article begins with the statement: “As is known, among the students of NovSU, there are not only Russians and immigrants from the CIS countries – the students from the far-abroad countries also study at our university”. In this introduction, first, the marking of three basic groups of students is vivid (Russian, immigrants from the CIS countries, students from the far-abroad countries). Second, a relative homogeneity of the region and the university in the ethnic sense is displayed implicitly (Russians). Then the interview is preceded by the information note about the participants of the interview, where their active involvement in the academic and scientific life as a sign of success and recognition is repeatedly emphasized. The students’ answers can be grouped with consideration of problem questions. The reasons of NovSU choice are: “I had an acquaintance here”, “I started speaking Russian well in three months – because I talked a lot to Russian acquaintances and they helped me in it”. About practice work in the hospitals: “Here I had practice work in the regional hospital. Patients treated us well”, “In our home country, we also have practice work every summer. There are many doctors, who studied in Russia; there are even Russian doctors, who work there. They always help us, we socialize in the Russian language finely.” About the teachers and mutual enrichment: “They always single us out because we try to do everything on time. In addition, we read materials both in the Russian and English languages. We keep a lot in our heads and teachers admire us.” About negative moments of study: “We see that many people enroll to study in preparatory sections, intended for foreigners. But when I had just come, I saw people, also Africans like me, who graduated from our university, and at present they work as doctors”. On the whole, the answers to the questions of the journalist justify the results, obtained in the above-mentioned poll. Also, it is necessary to note that, when choosing higher school, the presence of compatriots at this higher school and their opinion are important for students-inophones; therefore, for successful attraction of new foreign students, a positive image of the university concerning cross-cultural openness is of paramount importance.

Basing on the results of the discourse-analysis of publications in the newspaper “Novgorodsky unversitet”, it is possible to suggest the presence of media discourse of diversity at NovSU, which is not limited by one newspaper, but can be applied to the university website, namely the part “News”, where the majority of events obtain additional coverage.

4. Discussion

The conducted empirical study, on the one hand, gives answers to separate questions, set in the first part of the paper, but, on the other hand, reveals several new discussion aspects of cultural diversity management at higher school. Analysis of normative documents showed the presence of prerequisites for development of inclusive environment and successful integration of students-inophones. The results of the poll and the discourse-research clearly demonstrate the needs and expectations of foreign students. It is evident that the students are actively involved in the events of cultural and country studies character, which allows them to rapidly get accultured in a new socio-cultural environment, and receive qualitative psychological-pedagogical support during study in the preparatory section. However, in the course of the further study, definite difficulties arise. Besides, the discourse-analysis showed that students-inophones, more precisely their cultural differences, are marked and emphasized. In the majority of cases, this happens in a positive context; however, thereby the differentiation of students is reinforced. Pedagogical activity, aimed at differentiation of students-inophones, can simultaneously enable both their recognition and their separation, which contradicts to the principles of establishing inclusive environment of higher school.

The problem of recognition in the context of cultural diversity remains of key importance during the past twenty years. Recognition is one of the key concepts in European social and political discourses and, first of all, in the migrational discourse. The problems of refugees, their legal status, the growth of xenophobia moods in society represent “the struggle for recognition” (Kampf um Anerkennung). According to the opinion of the famous German philosopher, Axel Honneth, recognition exists in three basic forms – love, right, and solidarity (Honneth, 1992). Thus, the human being “fights” for emotional and legal recognition, social respect and assessment of individuality. Namely the third form emphasizes the individual qualities of the person, his/her differences, and represents “gradual evaluation of specific qualities and abilities” (Honneth, 1992). Recognition becomes a necessary condition for formation conflict-free interpersonal relationships and a positive personal identity. For the educational sphere, the second and the third forms, singled out by A. Honneth, are principally important. Namely owing to social evaluation, “cultural-biographical recognition”, individual autonomy, “social participation ability” are possible (Stojanov, 2006). As Christiane Micus-Loos notes, recognition in education is assigned an important role when developing identity and self-awareness; at that, recognition of Another in the institutionalized educational environment represents a special challenge (Micus-Loos 2012, 302). Effective management of different people demands that their differences should be recognized, but it is a question of conscious recognition. “Recognition of diversity can be implemented only if differences and the common are realized” (Kimmelmann, 2010). Recognition of importance of the individuality is also an important aspect of successful diversity management. In the context of diversity management, the problem of recognition is primary when developing corresponding strategies and measures.

Taking into account the results of the conducted empirical study, it is necessary to specify and to extend already known organisational-managerial and psychological-pedagogical measures on diversity management at higher school.

At the organizational level, it is possible to suggest the following organisational-managerial measures in the context of cultural diversity:

- including the factor “cultural diversity management” into the mission of the university;

- including such values as (reasonable) tolerance and cross-cultural openness into the corporate culture;

- network interaction with external partners (urban administration, FMS (Federal Migratory Service), representatives of diasporas) with consideration of the municipal youth policy;

- attraction of enterprises with heterogeneous staff as a place for undergoing manufacturing/academic practice;

- holding extracurricular events for heterogeneous groups, aimed at team building and enhancement of communication effectiveness among the representatives of different cultural/ethnic groups;

- establishment and development of structures for working with heterogeneous groups;

- cultural-ethnic monitoring of the educational process and results;

- involvement of students-inophones in the process of making decisions, for example, in the activity of student unions;

- implementation of information-communicative support at a regular basis.

A part of the above-mentioned measures is aimed at formation of cross-cultural competence in Russian students as well. Thus, regular coverage of cross-cultural problematics in electronic media and social networks can become more effective if the students of philological (journalists, linguists) or psychological-pedagogical departments would be involved in it.

Development of cross-cultural competence of teachers and collaborators is an important prerequisite of solving the tasks on cultural diversity management at the academic and scientific levels. Therefore, as staff measures, it is necessary to proceed with professional development of collaborators and teachers in their work with specific heterogeneous groups, the support of their participation in thematic seminars, conferences and contests. Teachers have to be ready for realization of interpersonal and public communication in the heterogeneous educational environment, taking into account cultural specific peculiarities of students-inophones, their expectations, on the basis of observance of the principles of tolerant attitude.

Psychological-pedagogical measures at the level of the educational process must be aimed at solution of several problems: how in terms of didactics to combine and use the potential of cultural diversity and to minimize its risks; how to realize the principle of individualization; how to include components, enabling formation of cross-cultural competence and sensibility of all students, into the content of modules. Training in collaboration, bilingual education, access to multilanguage library, psychological-pedagogical support, etc. can be referred to such measures. By the results of the held poll, the first-year students experienced lack of psychological support. However, namely elaborated support of students-inophones is considered as one of the factors of their successful integration into a new educational environment. Thus, three levels of such support are singled out in Kostroma State University: 1. individual support of students-inophones; 2. support in an academic group; 3. support under university conditions (Podobin and Shcherbinina, 2016). At the same time, the support in the academic group is of paramount importance for the development of the tolerant socio-cultural environment since it creates conditions for mutual acquaintance with national and cultural peculiarities, as well as for interpersonal interaction in the group.

5. Conclusion

As a result of the conducted research, the authors managed to reveal the problem field of cultural diversity in the educational environment taking into account modern socio-political conditions. Analysis of domestic and foreign studies allowed allocating the main approaches to understanding of cultural diversity as a challenge and a potential for higher education. The conducted empirical study allows the authors to make a conclusion on the necessity of realization of special measures for preparation of teachers, collaborators and students for interaction with representatives of different ethnic groups in the framework of the integral educational environment of higher school. Cultural diversity management at higher school may proceed at different levels - organizational, research, academic, pedagogical ones. The strategies of establishing inclusive environment of higher school and formation of its cross-cultural openness requires developing elaborated measures: organizational-managerial (establishing organizational structures at higher school, development of network interaction with municipal authorities and social partners, informational-communicative support) and pedagogical (psychological-pedagogical support, involvement of representatives of heterogeneous groups into mutual extracurricular activity, etc.) ones. Information-communicative environment of higher school can be considered as one of the tools of cultural diversity management.

In future, considering the obtained results, the authors are planning a more detailed study of the potential of the information-communicative environment of higher school, namely the whole media space, presented by not only university printed matters, but also the television, the website, groups in the social networks. Under conditions of realization of coordinated organizational-managerial and pedagogical measures, higher school media space can become an important resource for formation of value attitudes, development of tolerance and intercultural perceptiveness of students and teachers.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for provision of the grant “Formation and development of pedagogical metatheory of diversity management in educational systems” (state assignment of the Ministry of Education and Science of the RF No. 27.2617.2017/PCH), within the framework of which the research on the strategies of cultural diversity management at higher school is conducted.

We express sincere gratitude to the teachers and students of NovSU, who supported this research and made their contribution to realization of its aims and tasks. We express our gratitude to all members of the research team, participating in realization of the project. We would like to express great gratitude to the director of SIC NovSU, D.V. Kovalenko, for administrative and financial support of our research.

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1. Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University (NovSU) Russia, 173003, Veliky Novgorod, ul.B.St.Petersburgskaya, 41

2. Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University (NovSU) Russia, 173003, Veliky Novgorod, ul.B.St.Petersburgskaya, 41

3. Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University (NovSU) Russia, 173003, Veliky Novgorod, ul.B.St.Petersburgskaya, 41

4. Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University (NovSU) Russia, 173003, Veliky Novgorod, ul.B.St.Petersburgskaya, 41

5. Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University (NovSU) Russia, 173003, Veliky Novgorod, ul.B.St.Petersburgskaya, 41; E-mail: doninairina@gmail.com