Ideas of the basic school students about the socio-professional structure as an element of their readiness for professional self-determination (a case study of the Perm region)

Professional self-determination of students, its economic, pedagogical and psychological prerequisites are becoming increasingly relevant subjects for research in Russian science. However, the issues related to the social prerequisites of this process remain much less studied: the students’ ideas about the socio-professional structure of the society, the adequacy of their ideas about the content of jobs in professional areas they might choose. As a theoretical basis of the study, the author considers the psychological and sociological theory of self-determination (self-determination theory), which focuses on the autonomy of the individual in various fields of activity, including educational and labor. The author notes the importance of taking into account the objective factors of professional choice considered in Soviet works on this issue as well as in classical articles of the structural functionalism representatives. The empirical base of the research is the materials of diagnostic surveys conducted in the Perm region since 2017 to assess readiness of basic school students for professional self-determination. The author analyzes the indicators characterizing the students’ ideas about the objective conditions of professional self-determination concerning two areas: the adequacy of students’ ideas about the socio-professional structure of the society and various ways of considering the significance of particular factors in choosing the future path by students. The survey allows us to identify a number of problems regarding the adequacy of students’ ideas about the socio-professional structure of the society: despite the wide range of different activities that students are able to name and evaluate in terms of their relevance in the region, to a considerable extent basic school graduates do not possess a clear idea of the content of jobs as well as the conditions of professional activity.