Integration of ethnic culture into the educational process: a benefit or a trend?

XXI a. dėl globalizacijos procesų vykstanti visuomenės transformacija kelia iššūkių ir švietimo kokybei, susijusiai su jaunimo tautinio tapatumo ir savivokos ugdymu. Pastarasis dažnai įvardijamas kaip viena iš aktualiausių šiuolaikinių socialinių-pedagoginių problemų, kuriai spręsti 2012 m. LR švietimo ir mokslo ministrui atnaujinus pagrindinio ir vidurinio ugdymo etninės kultūros bendrąsias programas etninės kultūros ugdymas grindžiamas holistiniu požiūriu. Straipsnio tikslas – įvertinti etninės kultūros integravimo ugdymo procese padėtį įgyvendinant minėtą programų atnaujinimo įsakymą bei išanalizuoti jo veikimą 2014 m.Although ethnic culture is considered to be the cultural background of each citizen of Lithuania, the Lithuanian schools of general education did not have an established comprehensive system of ethnic culture education until 2012. In order to improve this situation, on April 12th 2012 the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania issued Order No V-651 On the Approval of the Ethnic Culture Programme in the National Curriculum of Basic Education and the Ethnic Culture Programme in the National Curriculum of Upper-Secondary Education (Official Gazette, 2012, No. 46-2252). According to the aforementioned act, from the 1st of September in 2012 the syllabus of ethnic culture education had to cover all areas of formal and non-formal education related student activities in all schools of general education in Lithuania. The focus of this article is the integration of ethnic culture into the educational process of general education schools. The aim is to evaluate the state of the integration of ethnic culture into the educational process in the implementation of the most recent national ethnic culture programmes and the effectiveness of the aforementioned order drawing on the experience of the general school teachers of the city of Klaipeda. Thus we aim to find answers to the following problem questions: How motivated and able are the teachers to integrate ethnic culture? How do they integrate it into the subjects they teach? What does integration of ethnic culture mean? What is the benefit of this integration: to enhance understanding or to show the significance of ethnic culture as part of our identity (and state) or, on the contrary, this integration (in) directly indicates that ethnic culture is only a remnant in the contemporary education system and society? The methods used in the research include analysis of scientific literature and content analysis of documents, the analytical method, a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview. The research was conducted in 2014. Using a questionnaire designed by the author, 81 general school teachers of the city of Klaipeda were interviewed. All teachers integrated ethnic culture into a number of subjects in forms 5 to 12. The findings of the research show that the model of integration of ethnic culture into all school subjects and most activity areas of the general education schools in the city of Klaipeda since 2012 has ensured flexible implementation of the principle of continuity in ethnic culture education and enhanced effective learning of school subjects in forms 5 to 12. However, the achievement of comprehensive integration of ethnic culture and benefits thereof requires to address the issues of the insufficiency of professional development and training for the teachers of other subjects, the shortage of dissemination of good practice of motivated qualified teachers and competent specialists of ethnic culture, the gaps in methodological materials and coursebooks, and poor resources. There needs to be a close dialogue between the administrative staff and the community of the school, which could ensure consistent communication of ethnic culture, increase the teacher motivation for ethnic culture education and develop positive student attitudes towards ethnic culture