Diversification of approaches to the concept of ‘human capital of subjects of education’ in the context of digitalization

Abstract

Introduction. Today there is no unified approach to the understanding of the concept of ‘human capital of subjects of education’. The article seeks to identify the main approaches to this concept with an emphasis on those studies that describe the impact of digitalization. Materials and Methods. Our study is a theoretical research that examines the main approaches available in Russian and foreign studies on the topic. According to the analyzed works, digital technologies, on the one hand, expand human capabilities and increase human capital, and, on the other hand, highlight the moral and ethical problems associated with accelerated technological progress in society. We analyzed over seventy works that provide a multidimensional analysis of human capital as a phenomenon of modernity. The works were selected based on a number of criteria: the relevance of the described approaches to the modern concept of human capital, the date of publication (publications over the past ten years), the presence of the DOI identifier, etc. The main research methods used in our study include generalization and systematization. Results. We identified the economic (proposed by T. Schultz, G. Becker), the psychological (M. V. Ermolaeva, D. V. Dubovsky; V. G. Pichugin), the sociological (P. A. Ambarova; G. E. Zborovsky,), the ‘health-saving’ (V. V. Prokhorova, O. V. Medvedeva; Ya. Liu, Sh. Huo) and the cognitive approaches (the researchers of the Kazan Branch of the Federal Scientific Center of Psychological and Interdisciplinary Research) to the concept in question. In our view, studies by O.G. Karataeva and L.A. Bitkova are the most promising in the field of digital economy — these scholars argue that, in today’s conditions of the development of economic and psychological sciences, education should focus not on the competence-based approach, but on an individual’s willingness to commit to lifelong learning in combination with compliance with the corporate culture of an education institution. Conclusions. The results allow us to conclude that in the era of digitalization the emphasis in the development of human capital is placed on the development of professionally significant qualities of subjects of education, and that adaptability, lifelong learning ability, creativity, etc. are among the priorities.