Vienna school reform

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Memorial plaque for the first individual psychological experimental school in Vienna-Brigittenau

The Vienna school reform comprises the social democratic school reform in Austria from 1919 to 1920 and its further development in Red Vienna until 1934.

The Vienna school reform is one of the most important reform projects in the first half of the 20th century. With the help of school and upbringing, a new person should be created who would leave the constraints of the 19th century behind. The driving force was Otto Glöckel , as Austrian Minister of Education (1919–1920) and as head of the Vienna City School Council .

Social conditions

The social and educational policy in “Red Vienna” of the First Republic of Austria was in a spirit of optimism: In addition to the school reform, the public education system was expanded, kindergartens and after-school care centers were set up and educational counseling centers were set up for the first time. The question arose of a practical psychology and pedagogy and a reorientation of the psychology of the student personality. Up to now, the prospective teachers had been trained in the psychology of Johann Friedrich Herbarts , Wilhelm Wundts and Hermann Ebbinghaus , but they could not meet the demands of the new curriculum to take into account the individuality of the students. The knowledge of depth psychology was therefore increasingly incorporated into educational theory and practice.

Theoretical foundations

In addition to contributions from the Vienna School of Psychology under Karl and Charlotte Bühler and the psychoanalytically oriented pedagogues such as August Aichhorn , the Vienna school reform was mainly the work of Alfred Adler's individual psychology . The individual psychology with its central concept of community feeling corresponded to the need of the social democratic school reformers for practically applicable pedagogical and psychological knowledge in the education sector and supported their reform pedagogical concepts.

Educational goal

The most important goal of the Vienna school reform was to create a school system appropriate to the new democratic republic with a democratic style of upbringing , community spirit and equal educational opportunities for all children regardless of gender and origin.

School organization

In the course of the reform, school administrations were democratized, teaching modernized, curricula revised, teacher training renewed, and approaches to student self-government implemented. Primary school instruction comprised the three principles: work instruction ( work school ), comprehensive instruction and down-to-earthness. The internal school reform was based on psychological research on the child's soul. Religious instruction became optional. The publication of a number of new books established the reputation of the “Viennese schoolbook culture”. The school renewal program announced by Otto Glöckel (Guiding Principles, 1920) provided for a common school for all 10 to 14 year olds (general secondary school). The unified school is still one of the main points of contention in educational policy between the social democratic and the conservative camp ( comprehensive school ).

Individual psychology and school reform

Many of the senior educators, school administrators, teachers, social workers, and social scientists applied individual psychology in theory and practice. Carl Furtmüller , a friend of Adler's, worked in middle school and was also a close associate in Glöckel's reform department. The teachers Ferdinand Birnbaum , Oskar Spiel and Regine Seidler , trained in individual psychology , were involved in the secondary and elementary school . In pedagogy, individual psychology was particularly suitable for assessing the student's personality and for recognizing and correcting bad postures. Instead of prohibition and punishment, it promoted an understanding of the poor attitudes of the students and the guidelines for life hidden behind them , in order to enable adequate help from the teachers at all. At the newly created Pedagogical Institute of the City of Vienna , Adler held weekly lectures from 1923 to 1926 on the subject of "Difficult to Educate Children". At the “District School Teachers' Conferences” from 1921 to 1932, individual psychological topics such as “The school class is a working and living community” were regularly dealt with.

As part of the experimental school system to try out new teaching methods, the City of Vienna opened an individual psychological secondary school in 1931. The individual psychologists Ferdinand Birnbaum, Franz Scharmer and Oskar Spiel promoted work and community education there. One of their innovations was the introduction of "class meetings". The new school psychologist and educational counseling centers were run jointly by doctors and educators trained in individual psychology . In Schönbrunn Palace , under the direction of Otto Felix Kanitz, the Schönbrunn Educational School existed from 1919 to 1924 , a pedagogical training facility of the Austrian Kinderfreunde at the time .

distribution

The individual psychologists and school reformers Alfons Simon (1897–1975) and Kurt Seelmann (1900–1987) worked in Bavaria . In Switzerland , the teacher Hans Zulliger (1893–1965) tried to transfer psychoanalysis to everyday school life.

National Socialism and World War II brought the reform movement to a standstill. She never really recovered afterwards. Individual psychological approaches to revive the school reform movement existed in the post-war period in Austria through Oskar Spiel with an experimental school and in Switzerland through Friedrich Liebling (1893–1982) in teacher training. The Adler student Rudolf Dreikurs (1897–1972) worked in America . He published books on individual psychology-oriented pedagogy. While elements (teachers' conference, class meetings) of the external school reform reappeared in the reforms at the end of the 20th century, the demanding internal school reform (individual psychological assessment of the student's personality, recognition and correction of bad attitudes) does not seem to have been incorporated into teacher training so far.

literature

  • William Warren Bartley : The Austrian School Reform as the Cradle of Modern Philosophy . In: Club Voltaire IV, Gerhard Szczesny, Hamburg 1970, ISBN 3-499-65086-X
  • Oskar Achs and Eva Tesar (eds.): School then - School today. Otto Glöckel and the school reform. J&V Vienna 1985
  • Helmut Engelbrecht : The unified school concept in Austria in the 19th century. In: Austria in history and literature. 15, 1971, ISSN  0029-8743 , pp. 3-13.
  • Helmut Engelbrecht: The discussion about the unified school in Austria between 1897 and 1919. In: Austria in history and literature. 15, 1971, pp. 73-87.
  • Bernhard Handlbauer: The history of the development of the individual psychology of Alfred Adler. Geyer Edition, Vienna a. a. 1984 ( Publications of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the History of Social Sciences 12, ZDB -ID 1193393-8 ).
  • Wolfgang Keim: The Vienna school reform of the first republic - a forgotten chapter of European reform pedagogy. In: The German School. 76, 1984, ISSN  0012-0731 , pp. 267-282.
  • Alfons Simon: Partnership in the classroom. Children learn with and from each other. 3. Edition. Publishing house Oldenbourg, Munich 1965.
  • Lutz Wittenberg: History of the individual psychological experimental school in Vienna. A synthesis of reform pedagogy and individual psychology. WUV-Universitäts-Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85114-739-1 ( Dissertations of the University of Vienna 87), (At the same time: Wien, Univ., Diss., 2000).
  • Karl Popper : A few remarks about the Viennese school reform and its influence on me . In: Early Writings. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-16-147631-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Keim: The Viennese school reform of the first republic - a forgotten chapter of European reform pedagogy. In: The German School. 76, 1984, ISSN  0012-0731
  2. ^ [1] Austrian parliamentary correspondence: Equal educational opportunities for all - the school reformer Otto Glöckel
  3. ^ Oskar Achs and Eva Tesar (eds.): School then - School today. Otto Glöckel and the school reform. J&V Vienna 1985
  4. ^ Lutz Wittenberg: History of the individual psychological experimental school in Vienna. A synthesis of reform pedagogy and individual psychology. WUV-Universitäts-Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-85114-739-1
  5. ↑ Bernhard Handlbauer: The history of the development of the individual psychology of Alfred Adler. Geyer Edition, Vienna a. a. 1984 ( Publications of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the History of Social Sciences 12, ZDB -ID 1193393-8 )
  6. ^ Alfons Simon: Partnership in the classroom. Children learn with and from each other. 3. Edition. Publishing house Oldenbourg, Munich 1965