PhD, Associate Professor L.E. Savinykh¹
PhD, Associate Professor S.N. Murtazin^1
1Surgut State University, Surgut     

Corresponding author: sle57@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to test benefits of an interethnic tolerance building model for adolescent sports communities in the national physical education and sports sector.

Methods and structure of the study. Prior to the model piloting experiment, we run a Tolerance Indexing Questionnaire Survey at Sports School in Pyt-Yakh city in Yugra [2] complementary to the regular training process. We sampled for the survey the sporting adolescents (n=40) including 12 Russians, 2 Tatars; 4 Lezgins; 2 Chechens; 2 Ukrainians; 12 Kumyks; 2 Bashkirs; 2 Chuvash; and 2 Moldovans. Prior to the interethnic tolerance model piloting experiment, we analyzed the school service records and interviewed the school teachers, managers and sporting students. Based on the prior data, we split up the sample into ethnically equal Experimental and Reference Groups (EG, RG) of 20 people each including martial artists and futsal players. Both groups were trained in September 2019 to March 2020 as planned by the school management. The group training was complemented by our interethnic tolerance building model on a group-specific basis. The group interethnic tolerance models were the same in the prime mission although somewhat different in the goals and interethnic tolerance tools applied. Thus the discussion “We are children of same mother country” was designed to broaden the knowledgebase of the key issues of ethnic cultures and traditions to develop healthy moral and cultural values, mitigate aggression and scale down the potential ethnic conflicts and frictions.

Results and conclusion. The new interethnic tolerance building model piloted in the adolescent sports community at Pyt-Yakh Sports School in Yugra was tested beneficial as verified by the pre-versus post-experimental questionnaire surveys that found progress in the interethnic tolerance in the RG and the EG. The new set of interethnic tolerance building tools including target conversations, discussions, flash mob, quest games and interethnic tolerance trainings were of high interest for the adolescent sports community. The study found statistically significant difference of the pre- versus post-survey interethnic tolerance test data in the EG (х2 = 9.336, p <0.01) indicative of the interethnic tolerance building model being beneficial for adolescent sports communities.

Keywords: tolerance, adolescent athletes, educational process, tolerance building measures.

Background. Since the modern Russian Federation is a multinational home for about 200 ethnic groups, the federal and regional governments, including the KhMAO-Yugra regional government, have always given a special priority to interethnic respect and tolerance as a basis for the national progress and success. The growing migration statistics in the country on the whole and Yugra in particular urge the local ethnic and cultural communities to improve their social interactions, cooperation and friendship, with a high attention to the mutual tolerance.

An analysis of the tolerance building issues and experiences shows that this notion may have somewhat different meanings and interpretations in different contexts. Thus R.G. Apresyan argues that "tolerance may be defined as the social value critical for interpersonal relationship", and further details that "tolerance manifests itself in the ability to consciously suppress potential negative attitudes to other people with realizing the own stereotypes and acknowledging the other people’s right for their own ones, as well as deeply respect their identity" [1].

We agree with the above with some reservations, since tolerance, as we believe, is primarily a moral quality that largely determines the individual attitudes to the other people’s agendas, interests, beliefs, traditions and behavior. On a more specific basis, we share the Y.V. Filippov’s (2015) concern about the still limited efforts to build interethnic tolerance in adolescent sports [3]. The available study reports give a few basic recommendations on specific interethnic tolerance building methods and tools for adolescent sports, and we believe that these issues deserve more systemic and specific research.

Objective of the study was to test benefits of an interethnic tolerance building model for adolescent sports communities in the national physical education and sports sector.

Methods and structure of the study. Prior to the model piloting experiment, we run a Tolerance Indexing Questionnaire Survey at Sports School in Pyt-Yakh city in Yugra [2] complementary to the regular training process. We sampled for the survey the sporting adolescents (n=40) including 12 Russians, 2 Tatars; 4 Lezgins; 2 Chechens; 2 Ukrainians; 12 Kumyks; 2 Bashkirs; 2 Chuvash; and 2 Moldovans. Prior to the interethnic tolerance model piloting experiment, we analyzed the school service records and interviewed the school teachers, managers and sporting students. Based on the prior data, we split up the sample into ethnically equal Experimental and Reference Groups (EG, RG) of 20 people each including martial artists and futsal players. Both groups were trained in September 2019 to March 2020 as planned by the school management. The group training was complemented by our interethnic tolerance building model on a group-specific basis: see Table 1 hereunder. The group interethnic tolerance models were the same in the prime mission although somewhat different in the goals and interethnic tolerance tools applied. Thus the discussion “We are children of same mother country” was designed to broaden the knowledgebase of the key issues of ethnic cultures and traditions to develop healthy moral and cultural values, mitigate aggression and scale down the potential ethnic conflicts and frictions.

Table 1. Detailed interethnic tolerance building tools piloted at the Pyt-Yakh Sports School

The ‘Yugra power in ethnic unity’ training was intended to unite the sports community and foster the team spirits and teamwork by building mutual respect and understanding. The ‘Yugra sports celebrities of different ethnic origins’ conversation was designed to expand the knowledge about the Yugra sports history and illustrate it by the success stories of the local sports celebrities. And the ‘Unity Roads’ quest game was intended to facilitate universal human values formation in the adolescent sports community, with mutual understanding and solidarity in the individual creative resource mobilizing contexts.

Results and discussion. The post-experimental survey tested only 2 and 1 individuals in the RG and EG (respectively) with the still intolerant attitudes to the other people; 14 and 6 individuals with moderate tolerance – that often means tolerance in some social situations and intolerance in the others; and 4 and 13 individuals in the RG and EG (respectively) were tested with a high tolerance in every situation.

Conclusion. The new interethnic tolerance building model piloted in the adolescent sports community at Pyt-Yakh Sports School in Yugra was tested beneficial as verified by the pre-versus post-experimental questionnaire surveys that found progresses in the interethnic tolerance in the RG and the EG. The new set of interethnic tolerance building tools including target conversations, discussions, flash mob, quest games and interethnic tolerance trainings were of high interest for the adolescent sports community. The study found statistically significant difference of the pre- versus post-survey interethnic tolerance test data in the EG (х2 = 9.336, p <0.01) indicative of the interethnic tolerance building model being beneficial for adolescent sports communities.

References

1. Apresyan R.G. Tolerance: clarification of concepts. Available at: http://www.nrc.nnov.ru//docs/doc10.doc./ (date of access: 28.03.2020).
2. Soldatova G.U., Shaigerova L.A. et al. [ed.] Case study on psychodiagnostics and study of tolerance. Moscow: Lomonosov MSU publ., 2003. 112 p.
3. Filippov Y.V. Through tolerance in sports to tolerance in society: methodological development. St. Petersburg: INFRA-M publ., 2015. 210 p.