Basic Human Values of the Russian and European teachers

Abstract

Basic Human Values of the Russian teachers are compared with those of their colleagues from the 27 European countries, using the Schwartz Value Survey data collected in the 1990s. It was found that the average Russian teacher is extremely high in Security and extremely low in Hedonism. In addition the Russian teachers often leave their colleagues behind in the scores on Self-Enhancement (Achievement and Power) and Conformity-Tradition but often hang back in the commitment to Self-Direction and Self-Transcendence (the latter combines the values of Benevolence and Universalism). The coincidence between relative value scores of the Russian teachers and the conclusions drawn from cross-country comparison of the national samples as well as value similarity betweenRussiaand some other countries of similar level of economic and political development are discussed. The paper illustrates the disparity between research results and common ideological stereotypes.