Georg Michael Kershensteiner (born July 29, 1854, Munich, Bavaria [Germany] - died January 15, 1932, Munich, Germany) is a German education theorist and reformer who was a leader in the development of vocational education in Germany.
Like Comenius, Pestalozzi and Grundtvig, he was a popular teacher. The unifying factor for all his various activities as a teacher, director of a public school, politician and university professor was the constant concern that theoretical beliefs were consistent with practice. Its achievement is based on several basic and interdependent problems: the creation of professional education and the development of civic responsibility as the basis of general education.
Biography
Georg Kershensteiner taught mathematics in Nuremberg and Schweinfurt before being appointed manager of public schools in Munich in 1895. In this post, which he held until 1919, and as a professor at the University of Munich since 1920, he advocated a pragmatic approach to primary and secondary education, combining classical studies with physical labor. He also developed a system of vocational schools in Munich. Georg Kershensteiner wrote a lot both about the need for comprehensive education, which includes physical activity, and about the value of a purely professional education, and he summarized many of his theories in his last major work, Theorie der Bildungsorganisation (1933).
At school, he presented workshops, kitchens, laboratories and school gardens for senior elementary schools, and also developed a kind of project method aimed at increasing the educational motivation of students, solving problems of abilities, self-esteem and morality.
International recognition
His work has been accepted by educators around the world. He received invitations to lectures in Europe, Russia and America; his books have even been translated into Turkish, Chinese and Japanese. Kershensteiner, an admirer of John Dewey and his distinguished translator in Germany, toured the United States in 1910 on behalf of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education.
In England, Switzerland, and Japan, his concept of compulsory continuing education has influenced school reform and law.
Scientific work
From 1912 to 1918, Georg Kershensteiner, as a liberal, was a member of the German parliament (Reichstag) in Berlin. After retiring from 1918 to 1930, he worked as a professor of education at the University of Munich, publishing numerous books and articles, including Die Seele des Erziehers und das Problem der Lehrerbildung (1921, “The Enlightener Soul and the Problem of Teacher Education), Theorie der Bildung (1926, "Theory of Culture") and Theorie der Bildungsorganisation (1933, "Theory of the educational system").
The origins
Kerschensteiner’s philosophy of education was influenced by modern neo-idealists who opposed the classical ideal of culture, represented by Wilhelm von Humboldt. Whereas Humboldt (and Dewey for that matter) argued that general education should precede a particular education, Kershensteiner argued that vocational, not general education should be a center of learning and a "golden gateway to culture and humanity." He argued that only a person who finds himself through his work can, in the course of his development, become a truly cultured person.
Proceedings
The works and pedagogical ideas of Georg Kershensteiner are considered as a new approach in educational thinking. This relates to his reformist views in connection with the principle of public education regarding his ideas on vocational training, labor skills and the role of education in the education of civic consciousness.
In his first publication, Betrachtunger zur Theorie des Lehrplans ("Thoughts on Curriculum Theory", 1899), he criticized Herbart's education system, calling it "formalism." He is convinced that schools should be productive elements of society. He substantiated this point in his work Die staatsbürgerliche Erziehung der deutschen Jugend ("Civil Youth Education in Germany", 1901). This key concept in his subsequent understanding of the role of education was expanded in his treatise on the concept of civic education (1907). In the same year, his work Grundfragen der Schulorganisation ("Basic Issues of School Organization") was published. Five years later, in 1912, in his study of Der Begriff der Arbeitsschule ("The concept of the school of labor"), Georg Kershensteiner examined the problems associated with the internal organization of schools and methodological and didactic reforms.
The goals and methods of teaching scientific disciplines, a question of particular importance to him, were analyzed in Weten und Wert des naturwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts ("The Nature and Importance of Teaching in Sciences", 1914). Fundamental questions of internal and external school organization and adolescent education were examined in his book Die Seele des Erziehers und das Problem der Lehrerbildung ("The Soul of a Teacher and the Problem of Teacher Training", 1921).
Kerschensteiner's later works, which contribute to the philosophy of education, include Das Grundaxiom des Bildungsprozesses (“The Basic Axiom of the Educational Process”, 1917) and Theorie der Bildung (“Theory of Education”, 1926).
Education Update
Only after Kershensteiner revised the primary school system in Munich and created a vocational school did his first theoretical works appear: Thoughts on Curriculum Theory (1899, 1931) and Civic Education of German Youth (1901).
In his first theoretical works, the main problems are listed, which are considered in more detail already in a later period.
The second stage in the activities of Kershensteiner began from the moment he received the post of professor in Munich in 1919. Inspired by Spranger and the writings of Rickert and Windelband, he set about searching for the philosophical foundation of his pedagogical theories. This led to the writing of "Theory of Education" (1926).
Labor skills training methods
According to Georg Kershensteiner, correctly performed manual labor forms the ability for logical thought, which is applicable to any other type of activity. In addition, it can be deepened at a later stage of training. This concept formed the basis of his labor school.
Georg Kershensteiner argued that there is such a thing as manual intelligence, which should be brought up in the learning process, since this is an integral part of the character of each individual child. However, manual labor without intellectual efforts will be mechanical in order for it to become work in the pedagogical sense of the word, it must be associated with intellectual efforts that were invested in advance and are used throughout the course of its implementation.
Manual labor in the pedagogical sense is its planning and independent execution in accordance with the nature of the task and the possibility of self-examination. Thus, the idea of a school of labor is manifested as a methodological principle. She, as fundamental, developed in his later works.
Basic concepts
Considering briefly the pedagogical ideas of Georg Kershensteiner, it should be noted that his central achievement is the founding of a vocational school and the accompanying reorganization of public education (primary and junior high schools), civic education and practical skills training.
Taking into account the development of the psychology of youth in the 1890s, he is trying to give a more accurate psychological interpretation of the concepts of “individual”, “situation” and “spontaneity” with regard to children. His conclusions are: instinctively, children are prone to motor skills, they tend to interact with specific things.
In his pedagogical works, Georg Kershensteiner criticized the traditional public school and gymnasium. At the same time, he relied on the ideology of imperialism, which needed such a system of education and upbringing, thanks to which children and adolescents could become well-meaning citizens, conscientious and initiative workers, real professionals.
In fact, the theory of civic education of Georg Kershensteiner is that the school, using specially organized methods of education, should level class contradictions between workers and the bourgeoisie, must teach children to obey the state system. At the same time, the educational goals of the public school were limited primarily to the development of professional abilities, the development of a love of work and related qualities, such as conscientiousness, diligence, a sense of responsibility, self-control and devotion to an active life.