The influence of Russian engineering culture on the development of engineering education in the United States

Nowadays in Russia the realization of the national system of higher education in general and the system of training of engineers in particular do not meet modern requirements. In order to eliminate the gap that has arisen from the leaders, certain steps have been taken to change the situation. This situation updates the attention to the experience of other countries. Hence the experience of the USA may be of particular interest. It can be explained by the fact that the USA is a country that throughout its history has repeatedly turned and borrowed the experience of Russia, the Russian engineering culture in the development of its own system of engineering education. During the research the approach by J. Goldstone, the American researcher was used in relation to the definition of the concept of “engineering culture”. According to J. Goldstone engineering culture is a qualitatively important level of knowledge and skills of engineers and entrepreneurs, fruitfully interacting with each other. The concept of engineering culture includes not only knowledge of certain technical terms or the number of intellectual products, but also the constant desire to optimize processes. The subject of this study is presented by the optimization of educational process of engineering training in the USA under the influence of Russian engineering culture, ideas and models. The paper reveals the main historical stages and forms of interaction between Russian and American engineering cultures and systems of engineering education. The study is based on the materials of American historiography, because in Russian historiography the topic of Russian-American interaction in the development of American engineering education is not properly covered. There exist few literature sources on the presented topic, mainly of American origin, for example memoirs written by S.P. Timoshenko. The results of the research show that the American system of engineering education has repeatedly experienced a situation of crisis, which actualized the need to search, study and adapt advanced foreign experience, including Russian. The experience of America in the introduction of foreign models, ideas, approaches, methods in their own system of engineering education presents a number of successful examples of eliminating the backlog and reaching a qualitatively new level of development. The key to this success was one of the features of the American engineering culture, consisting in critical analysis and adjustment of foreign experience in relation to the conditions and needs of the American society. At the heart of the appeal of American scientists and educators to foreign experience was a fairly deep knowledge and understanding of the state of their own education system, as well as the needs of society and the state. Therefore, advanced foreign experience was not borrowed in an unchanged form. It adjusted to American conditions and supported the reform projects in educational system.

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