Defeat as a Pedagogical Event: An Axiological Framework for Competitive Learning in Higher Education

• Artem P. Gulov

  Artem P. Gulov. Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Moscow. Russia

The relevance of the study is determined by the intensive spread of competitive formats in higher education – subject olympiads, case-championships, hackathons, professional contests – and by the simultaneous deficit of pedagogical reflection on a mass event that inevi-
tably accompanies any competition: the defeat of the majority of participants. International literature offers operational approaches to academic failure (productive failure, pedagogy of failure), yet they remain within a cognitive-procedural frame and do not address the axiological
dimension of the event. The Russian pedagogical and philosophical tradition, in contrast, possesses a developed categorial apparatus for an axiological interpretation of defeat, but this apparatus has not been integrated with contemporary concepts. The aim of the work is to propose
an axiological framework for conceptualising defeat in competitive learning through a systematic synthesis of Russian and international traditions. The method is conceptual-theoretical synthesis with thematic comparison of sources along three analytical axes: the nature of defeat, its pedagogical processing, and its axiological content. The results comprise a working definition of defeat as a pedagogically organised event, a three-dimensional axiological framework with the dimensions of dignity, responsibility and development, and a typological matrix of pedagogical responses to defeat based on the axes “level of processing × subject of processing”. The scientific novelty consists in the first systematic integration of the categorial apparatus of Russian axiological pedagogy with the international concepts of productive failure and pedagogy of failure as applied to the competitive context in higher education. The practical significance is connected with designing post-competition reflective sessions and with preparing university teachers to work with defeat in olympiad and contest formats.
Keywords: competitive learning, defeat as a pedagogical event, axiological framework, pedagogy of failure, productive failure, pedagogical support, zone of proximal development, dignity, responsible act, achievement motivation, conscious self-regulation, reflection