Movements for Change

Abstract

The Party Plenum of February 1988 which for the first time gave official blessing to the individual teacher innovators also encouraged the emergence of a variety of innovative groups. The years 1988 to 1990 and part of 1991 were the era of experimentation and innovation in the Soviet Union. It was the period of glasnost and perestroika, the ending of the Cold War in Europe, the fall of the Berlin wall, the beginning of some personal freedom for the populations of the former Soviet Union and the other eastern European countries, and the introduction of private enterprise and the market economy.

The basis of democratic individuality in education is freedom and responsibility, not just the pupil’s responsibility for himself but responsibility for the whole of his environment.

Oleg Gazman¹