“Toxic” pedagogical communication: analysis of its state, causes and signs

Changes in socio-pedagogical interaction between a teacher and a student in the university, should be carefully analyzed and monitored, because they have a direct impact on the quality of higher education. The relevance of the research is dictated by the attention-grabbing situations of “toxic” communication in a higher education institution. Thе authors analyze pedagogical communication in terms of its “toxicity”. The respondents are the teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages of the South Ural State University and their students. The authors defined the concept of pedagogical communication in the university in relation to the presence of “toxicity” issues in pedagogical interaction; analyzed the concept of “toxic” communication and its characteristics; and identified the causes and preconditions of “toxic” communication between teachers and students. “Toxic” communication is caused by the features of digital generation of students, poor communication skills due to the impact of digitalization and information society on students’ personality, social and cultural differences of teachers and students. The authors used the methods of literature analysis, observation and created an anonymous questionnaire for the teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages and the 1st and 2nd year undergraduate students of SUSU. The results show that there are no critical deviant tendencies in educational-pedagogical interactions. Nevertheless, to prevent possible manifestations of “toxic” communication, the authors, suggested the idea of teaching-pedagogical interaction modeling within the developed system of educational (extracurricular) work of SUSU Department of Foreign Languages, implemented by the teachers in foreign language classes and in extracurricular activities through department educational events. The authors believe that educational (extracurricular) activities of teachers and students aimed at developing personal qualities and communicative skills are the favorable learning environment for eliminating errors in pedagogical communication, thus increasing the quality of the educational process.