Practices of Informal Education as a Resource for Self-Realization of Self-Referential Identities in a Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Period

Abstract

The article presents the authors' view of informal education, which, being free from mandatory regulations and standardizations, implemented on the principles of voluntariness and initiative, in this context, is the place most likely to respond to societal demands in a pandemic. On the basis of the scientific literature analysis the essential features of informal education (attribution to human life, natural and necessary character, self-organization, continuity) have been revealed. It is noted that in the practice of informal education, discursive self-referential identity acts as a system that distinguishes and describes itself in practice, and in this self-description reveals their meaning. The informal education is seen as a form of social practice that plays a key role in self-development of the individual, in preserving individuality and internal independence from one's culture; as an element of a coherent continuous education system with an intrinsically complex structure. The conclusion is made about the resourcefulness of information education as a practice that triggers educational motivation, the growth of human potential. In the context of a pandemic and post-pandemic, informal education practices act as a means of mobile satisfaction of educational needs, allowing for the modernization of the education system to self-referential identity. Keywords: information education; practice; self-reference; resource.