Trends in the Modelled Direction of Education and Context Tensions

The article analyses the problem of Lithuanian modelled education direction and context tensions in the current stage of the development of Lithuanian education, raising a problematic research question: why do tensions form between the envisaged education direction and the assessment of its current development? The methodological approach is based on qualitative documentary research. The theoretical basis of the research is the conception of threefold education reforms: equal opportunities, financial considerations, competition-driven, the conception of two approaches to education: humanistic-cultural and pragmatic-technological. Conclusions are presented based on the data analysis carried out by applying the deductive version of a qualitative content analysis method. From the very start of the reform, the analysed government-level education documents reveal a comparatively consistent adherence to a reconstructionist mission of education, value principles such as humanity, democratic character, national dimension, renewal, however, the philosophical basis of education and upbringing that would provide the system a paradigmatic direction has not been named directly. Some of the education experts participating in the investigated discourse on education describe the state of education using such concepts as eclecticism, marsh, abyss, etc. This assessment is constantly reproduced by the mass media and may result in the stagnation of education practice and the formation of the negative attitude of society toward education. The experts who assess the state and problems of education moderately affirm the establishment of market relations in education, prevalence of economic-financial expedience in decision making, i.e. they acknowledge that alongside with the reform of equal opportunities, modelled during the start-up period of the education reform, reforms driven by financial considerations and competition begin to prevail. For this reason, post strategic educational decisions which represent the directions of threefold reforms and contradict each other on a philosophical and value basis make assumptions for the formation of tensions in assessing the current direction of the development of education.