Socialization Through Informal Education: The Extracurricular Activities of Russian Schoolchildren

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a large-scale study on the scope of extracurricular education services and an assessment of the potential role of education outside the classroom and informal education in solving children's socialization issues. The study was carried out by questioning students as consumers of education services. A new instrument was developed and tested to allow for a detailed description of various aspects of extracurricular activities and their correlation with studies and social and psychological characteristics of students.

An extensive set of statistics (over 6,000 questionnaires filled out by schoolchildren from several regions of Russia) was used to analyze the degree of engagement of children of different ages in out-of-class activities; the most popular types of activities of specific age groups; the age range when children are most engaged in such activities; the reasons for nonparticipation in extracurricular activities; the infrastructure of education beyond the classroom; the relative frequency of structured and nonstructured activities; the correlation between out-of-class activities and development of self-esteem, a feeling of community, and satisfaction with school. Age- and gender-related profiles of various activities are described. It appears that structured extracurricular activities, unlike unstructured ones, correlate with higher self-esteem (both overall and academic), and a stronger sense of belonging in and better satisfaction with school.

This article is the republished version of:

Socialization Through Informal Education: The Extracurricular Activities of Russian Schoolchildren

Notes

English translation © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2014 “Voprosy obrazovaniia.” “Sotsializatsiia cherez neformal'noe obrazovanie: vneklassnaia deiatel'nost' rossiiskikh shko'nikov,” Voprosy obrazovaniia, 2014, no. 3, pp. 174–96. Valeriia Aleksandrovna Ivaniushina, candidate of biological sciences, is a senior research fellow at the Research and Study Laboratory “Sociology of Education and Science,” National Research University–Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg). Email: [email protected]. Daniil Aleksandrovich Aleksandrov, candidate of historical sciences, is deputy director of the National Research University–Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg, and head of the “Sociology of Education and Science” Research and Study Laboratory. Email: [email protected]. Translated by Kenneth Cargill. Translation reprinted from Russian Education and Society, vol. 57, no. 4. DOI: 10.1080/10609393.2015.1068553