NATIONAL-PATRIOTIC EDUCATION AS A SOCIOCULTURAL PRACTICE OF PRESERVING AND FORMING IDENTITY UNDER CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES

The article explores national-patriotic education as a sociocultural practice of preserving and shaping identity under the conditions of informational modernity, cultural relativism, crisis of identificational structures. The objectives of the study are as follows: to highlight the philosophical and cultural context of national-patriotic education; to analyze changes in the perception of identity in the context of current informational and cultural challenges; to outline the role of media as a factor exerting influence on identity; to argue for the ontological significance of referring to national archetypes and collective memory as factors of inner personal structuring; and to conceptualize national-patriotic education as a sociocultural practice of meaning-making and existential responsibility. The article demonstrates that in the contemporary media environment, identity ceases to be a fixed entity and functions instead as a flexible construction undergoing constant reconfiguration. In this context, sociocultural practices with strong integrative potential become particularly relevant. One such practice is national-patriotic education, which is directed toward the preservation and formation of an individual’s internal orientation to historical continuity and the value of belonging. National- patriotic education is regarded not as an instrumental ideologeme, but as a matrix for shaping the inner ethical orientation of the individual – one capable of combining freedom of choice with responsibility for the preservation of the nation and the state. The reconstruction of national identity based on archetypes, collective memory, and national narratives – as phenomena of existential creativity – acquires the status of a key factor. It is established that national-patriotic education is capable of performing a stabilizing function under conditions of symbolic overload and informational excess, ensuring cultural integrity of the individual. Conclusion: Appealing to the national archetypes of the Ukrainian people and updating historical memory are effective strategies of national-patriotic education, which is aimed at rooting modern man in national-cultural existence.