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Abstract: The article is devoted to an important problem of developing value orientations of the younger generation. The problem is rather urgent for the Russian education. The urgency of application of the content analysis technique to educational research is caused by the fact that being the most easily managed analytical method, it is the most suitable method for systematic monitoring of large information flows and allows discovering deep features and peculiarities of value orientations and social attitudes and images, that are not always discovered by means of tests or questionnaire surveys. By using the content analysis of essays «What I can do for my Fatherland», written by senior schoolchildren, the author of the article analyzes value orientations, patriotic feelings, attitudes to the contemporary social, political and economic situation and the level of interest of schoolchildren in the destiny of their Fatherland. The hypotheses put forward in the course of the content analysis are later proved by the results of the research. Based on the analysis of these categories, it may be concluded that the main spheres where contemporary schoolchildren think they could do something for their Fatherland include career, education, provision of urban amenities in their hometowns and, most importantly, love for their Homeland that encourages people to contribute to the successful development and prosperity of the Fatherland. Schoolchildren have patriotic feelings for their Fatherland and most of the respondents demonstrate an active attitude to life and their civil position. Thus, the content analysis adapted to educational research allows examining all kinds of psychological and educational phenomena such as social attitudes, value orientations and social images of contemporary senior schoolchildren. Therefore, the content analysis technique can be successfully used in educational research for the purpose of analyzing different phenomena in essays, questionnaires, surveys, projective tests and non-directive interviews at different stages of empirical research as the basic or an auxiliary research method.