Social Determinants of Education in the Postmodern Society
Social Determinants of Education in the Postmodern Society

Summary/Abstract: The main problem of postmodern society is how to deal with plurality, heterogeneity, and different lifestyles, values, experiences, specialization of sciences, and worldwide social developments, so that it would contribute to human dignity in a society. It is necessary to innovate teacher training and teacher readiness to help the young generation to deal with the choices and current social problems. The following social changes must be considered as determinants of all educational activities. 1. Freedom of speech, great possibilities to travel, enormous flow of information (sometimes antagonistic), mass advertising of all kinds of goods creates unrealistic vision of reality. 2. Economic growth is seen as the main priority of present society, justifying all means of reaching prosperity. 3. Parental care is reduced to ensuring satisfaction of material needs of their children, due to overwork and exhaustion. 4. Atrophy of emotionality and repression of emotions in favor of desired performance. That is why only very strong events break into ones mind and we need constantly stronger, more shocking experiences and stimuli. 5. Pressure on the family budget rises, and the number of free time activities provided by schools and educational institutions free of charge decreases. This represents a great barrier for many children in participating in free time activities. 6. New concepts of family coexistence, where parental roles constantly change lead to distorted socialization. 7. Recent school systems concentrate on efficiency of educational processes, performance, and reaching the required level of knowledge, but do not effectively manage social deviations of an individual. The difficulty of the situation of a young individual is obvious and should be considered in all educational contexts.

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