Tolerance of Ambiguity of Cadets in the Military School

摘要

Tolerance of ambiguity of the military members very often determines their professional culture, which helps them fulfil professional duties. Tackling situations that are complicated, working well in unpredictable circumstances, dealing with uncertainty in a positive and constructive manner, feeling comfortable in unfamiliar situations -- all of these are components of the competence of tolerance of ambiguity, one of the twenty competences for democratic culture, suggested by the Council of Europe. Working under circumstances of uncertainty may be implemented in different situations of the professional activity such as training paratroopers for jumping with a parachute, organizing the work of the military school under different circumstances, finding a solution in extreme situations, even in speaking a foreign language, etc. The authors support the ideas of T.V. Kornilova that tolerance of ambiguity is usually analyzed in two directions: acceptance of ambiguous conditions and avoiding ambiguity, trying to achieve clearness; the second aspect is focused on the variable intolerance of ambiguity. Most of the cadets believe that they are ready for fulfilling their professional duty in unfamiliar situations. A special questionnaire was offered for self-assessment to two groups of respondents, being cadets of the 4th and 5th year of study in Ryazan Guard Higher Airborne Command School named after General of the Army V. F. Margelov. The descriptors of tolerance of ambiguity were taken from Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture. The results of the study show that the scores of self-assessment of tolerance of ambiguity of the 4th year cadets are a bit higher than the same scores of the 5th year cadets. Observation and interviews of the cadets show that the cadets of the 5th year of study are thinking about their future perspectives in professional activity and family life. The situation of uncertainty about the future influences their general scores of tolerance of ambiguity.