The value of education and educational values of Ukrainian high school students: factor determination

Abstract

The data analysis given in this article made it possible to find out that for high school students in Kharkiv, Odesa, and Cherkasy, the value of education is not terminal but rather instrumental, expressed in various instrumental values. First and foremost, it is the value of high intelligence and abilities. This value is shared the most by respondents from all three Ukrainian cities under study, who see it mainly as a means to achieve material well-being in the future, an opportunity to make a career both in Ukraine and abroad.The hypotheses about correlations between the values of education and high intelligence, abilities with gender, parental education level, the feeling of going to school, and the overall schooling assessment were not confirmed for Kharkiv and Odesa high school students, leading to factor analysis.It was concluded that high school students in the three cities have much in common in their value consciousness; the most crucial terminal values are the same. However, in choosing this value, high school students in Kharkiv and Odesa are guided by their other values (terminal ones), while Cherkasy students are guided by the conditions and circumstances of the external environment, namely the level of education of their parents and their experience at school. In addition, for Cherkasy high school students, their parents’ desire for them to enter a higher education institution is significantly more important than for Kharkiv and Odesa students.