From diversity of pedagogical concepts to pedagogy and management of diversity: formation of meta-theory of diversity in Russian educational science

the article is devoted to leading ideas and value-notion guidelines of meta-theory of diversity in educational systems, which is a new direction in Russian and international science. The authors note that at present, the world scientific and educational research concentrates on different ways of interaction with various types of diversity (cultural, ethnic, religious, intellectual, social, etc.). Accordingly, there is a variety of pedagogical concepts corresponding to various types of diversity that objectively exist in society; these concepts are constantly expanding their borderlines as new socio-political and pedagogical realities, as well as new research teams, appear. The article underlines that at the present stage of development of educational science in the post-Soviet countries it is necessary to transfer from separate pedagogical trends, concepts and models to holistic meta-theory of diversity and its management. This meta-theory is currently formed under the influence of the theoretical heritage of US and Western Europe researchers and due to the active involvement of Russia and other Eastern European countries into international projects. The authors suggest the transdisciplinary methodological strategy as the methodological basis of the fundamental pedagogical theory of diversity. In the context of post-nonclassical science, the meta-theory of diversity is characterized by the transition from an interdisciplinary approach to transdisciplinary level of cooperation, covering cooperation not only between the specific disciplines (in this case, pedagogy and management), but also the study of diversity management phenomenon in society, economy, culture, science as a whole, and educational systems in particular. The article reveals the basic ideas of meta-theory of diversity, the most important among them are the broad philosophical and pedagogical understanding of inclusive education, the diversity of institutions offering education and training of representatives of various heterogeneous groups, the formation of a reasonable tolerance among students which is reciprocal to the absolute tolerance.