THEORY OF FAMILY EDUCATION IN THE GENERAL THEORETICAL CONTEXT OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

The article considers the challenges for the development of the theory of family education as one of the youngest and most promising branches of the contemporary science. Today’s relevance of this theory is directly related to the transformations of the Russian society in the last decades, which had a great impact on the family ideology in general and changed the goals, objectives, content and methods of family education in particular. The theorists of the family education intensified the search for a new self-determination and a new identity for the Russian family as an educational institution. Under such conditions, the theory of family education adopts the conceptual findings and relevant ideas of other social sciences to develop methodology and techniques of raising and educating children in the family context. The article considers the sources of such ideas in the particular theories in the field of pedagogy, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, economics and informatics. The author identifies and briefly characterizes three groups of different social theories that contribute to a deeper understanding of the goals of family education: pedagogical theories (of free education, self-determination, self-education, culturally appropriate education, ecological education, assimilation and accommodation, pedagogy of cooperation, programmed teaching, pedagogical empiricism, and pedagogical education focused on children), psychological theories (of step-by-step formation of mental actions, personality, adaptation, affiliation, interpersonal interactions, activity mediation of interpersonal relationships, isolation, and imitation), and sociological theories (of globalization, social capital, information, social inequality, social risks, power sharing, gender, rational choice, synergetics, small groups, and mass communications).