Abstract
The article analyzes the qualitative and temporal configuration of secular and confessional education with the allocation of positive aspects and critical points. According to the authors, a comparative analysis of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the educational models under consideration acts as a platform for understanding the pedagogical experience as a whole, and provides for the selection of a wide variety of options analyzed in close relationship with the genesis of culture, science, and social thought. Carrying out a study of the particular specifics of the functioning of models of secular and confessional education implemented in various world educational practices, the authors came to the conclusion that there is a kind of “coordinate system” that determines the nature of existing models. This coordinate system includes the historical specifics of the existing relationships between state institutions and religious associations; the peculiarities of national and cultural traditions of modern European countries and Kazakhstan; the role and place of religious values in the life of the people; the nature of legal regulation in the field of educational practices of secular and religious institutions. Keywords: education, secular model of education, confessional model of education, dialogue of cultures.