Re-reading Kerschensteiner today: Doing VET in German vocational schools — A search for traces

Abstract

Georg Kerschensteiner is often called the ‘father of the vocational school’ in Germany. Working in the context of the German Empire in the 19th century, his historical achievement was to design a concept of vocational education that dissolved the opposition between general education and vocational education that had existed since Humboldt. He combined this with the idea that work processes have a positive educational effect. He is, therefore, part of the ‘work-school’ movement as well. The educational-theoretical and didactic positions elaborated by Kerschensteiner were, in different eras, received approvingly and disapprovingly in German vocational education and training research. A history of the discourse of German vocational education has emerged in which the considerations raised by Kerschensteiner are recurrently addressed and sustained. This article attempts to trace Kerschensteiner's influence on educational practice through various historical contexts including the vocational schools in Germany today.