Principles of students’ patriotic education

Introduction. The study of current state of patriotic education of students is a socially important task: they represent a socially active group in terms of age-specific psychological characteristics and have a great potential for comprehensive development, on the one hand, while experiencing certain difficulties in self-realisation, communication, adequacy of life perception, hardships in combining study and work, on the other hand. The purpose of the work is to justify the principles of patriotic education of students. Materials and methods. The authors used scientific publications of the period 2017-2023, that highlight various aspects of patriotic education of students and cadets, as well as rely on the basic provisions of the Methodological Recommendations “Foundations of patriotic education of Russian Federation citizens”. Results. The analysis of modern theoretical and applied studies on patriotic education has shown quite a high methodological level of articles linking the concept of patriotism with patriotic culture, homeland security concept, personal values, conscious and creative fulfilment of civil and military duty, etc. Both positive and negative psychological phenomena in perceiving patriotism were observed: from the students’ evident understanding of the importance of patriotism and active involvement in patriotic work to underestimation of the role of patriotism and passivity in this sphere. It is necessary to secure objective evaluation of the patriotic sentiment as well as the creation of due conditions for its development through all resources and means of the educational organisation. Conclusion. The following principles of students’ patriotic education have been substantiated: scientific rigour, consistency, continuity, relevance, activity, integrity, creativity, regularity. The proposed approach to understanding the principles of patriotic education of students is considered as a methodological contribution to the further development of the theory and practice of patriotic education at higher school.