We previously reported that ISU ranked among the top 10 Russian universities by the number of winners in the Vladimir Potanin Foundation’s competition for professors of Master’s degree programmes. Four ISU representatives became winners.

Today, we will highlight one of the winning projects. This is the work of Olga Istomina, Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Socio-Economic Disciplines at the Pedagogical Institute: “Redesigning the Educational Product «Theory and Practice of Intercultural Communication» for students of master’s degree programmes in 44.04.01 Education and Pedagogical Sciences”.

The Theory and Practice of Intercultural Communication is a fundamental subject in the mentioned Master’s degree programme. 80.6% of students majoring in Education and Pedagogical Sciences at the Pedagogical Institute confirm a high level of interest in the discipline and recognize its significant practical value. 64.5% of the students expressed a desire to continue exploring the topics after the course through additional online sessions with the lecturer.

The project objectives are geared towards young people: everyone wants to succeed in communication, that is why it is necessary to develop intercultural dialogue skills.

The project programme incorporates workshops on resolving specific situational, sometimes conflictual, problems in multicultural environments, which will enable the future teachers to effectively minimize current complications in the multi-ethnic educational space of our region.

Olga Istomina:

I associate the expected effects with fostering feedback from students on webinar platforms, developing practical skills in solving situational problems, and, of course, engaging students in professional methodological discussions.

We associate the expected primary effect with an increased interest in independent study of the course topics and a positive dynamic in the intercultural dialogue skills of students in Pedagogy. And we see the long-term effect in organizing consultative work with young teachers to avoid professional migration.

The author’s plans include:

• Creating video lectures for the thematic unit, taking into account the students’ training level;
• Updating the course glossary;
• A series of workshops and webinars with students;
• Workshops on solving situational problems.

Thanks to the online format, the course will be accessible in any region where it is in demand.