Alfred Petzelt

Alfred Petzelt (born January 17, 1886 in Rzadkowo , Province of Posen ( Poland ), † May 29, 1967 in Münster ) was a German educator and university professor.

Life

Alfred Petzelt is to be seen as an important representative of the "transcendental-critical pedagogy" (cf. Krawitz 80). His scientific endeavors to obtain "a priori" knowledge is presumably strongly biographically influenced by the experience of National Socialism and the associated "teaching and educational catastrophe into which our youth and with them our entire people were brought" (Petzelt 64 , 12). According to Petzelt, the respective conditions of a historical-social situation and its zeitgeist should never again affect the "business of pedagogy", i. H. Teaching and education, standardize. Petzelt's extremely strong commitment to the question of valid pedagogical terms that precede practice as invariants are characteristic of him.

Alfred Petzelt was twice the victim of scientific attempts at standardization: He had spent the time of National Socialism as a teacher for the blind after he had been expelled from his chair at the Pedagogical Academy in Beuthen / OS in 1934 and had lost his private lectureship at the University of Breslau in 1939 . When he was able to publish his main work “Basics of Systematic Pedagogy” in 1947, he had just received a teaching position at the University of Leipzig . But in Leipzig, too, he found that his critical attitude and his endeavors to achieve politically “independent” knowledge were incompatible with the guidelines and norms of the political leadership of the GDR . He was again restricted in his lecture and publication opportunities. In October 1949 he fled to the Federal Republic and accepted a teaching position at the University of Münster . Here he was appointed full professor in 1952 and was able to teach for about a year after his retirement until 1955 and to train a group of students. Petzelt's pedagogy is represented by his students in various modifications and further developments (cf. Kauder 1990).

plant

“When you talk about pedagogy, you mean two things: teaching and education”. With this sentence Alfred Petzelt begins his main features of systematic pedagogy. To a certain extent, this already contains the entire systematic content of his theory (p. 17). With reference to Johann Friedrich Herbart's introduction to general pedagogy , Petzelt describes in his own words the connection between teaching and upbringing : There is “no 'mere' teaching, i.e. teaching that does not require any educational component, just as there is no such thing as upbringing. which could occur without instruction, that is, with the zero point of instruction ”(ibid.). The unity of teaching and education applies “in principle”.

Alfred Petzelt belongs to a tradition of thought within pedagogy, which tries to elucidate the conditions of pedagogical practice in principle with reference to the philosophical statements of Immanuel Kant . His book Basics of Systematic Pedagogy therefore wants to express the fundamental ideas of the pedagogical problems. Petzelt is not concerned with the recording, description and explanation of the real conditions or conditionalities of the educational reality, but with the prerequisites necessary for thought and action. He denies legitimation for an empirically oriented approach to the justification of educational practice.

Petzelt's striving for a priori knowledge was stimulated by his academic teacher Richard Hönigswald , who can be assigned to Neo-Kantianism (cf. Herwig Blankertz 1959; Benner 1973, p. 232 ff .; Lassahn 2000, p. 95 ff .; Menze 1976, p. 78 ff .; Blankertz 1982, p. 283 ff .; Oelkers, Schulz, Tenorth 1989; Kauder 1990 and Pöppel 1998). What is specific about Alfred Petzelt's variant of transcendental-critical pedagogy is likely to lie in the synthesis with the philosophy of Nicolaus Cusanus .

If one looks at Petzelt's work, one can come to the conclusion that his pedagogy, despite all the strict systematic, makes a primarily moral claim (cf. Rekus 1993). It does not describe a pedagogical practice that can be constructed according to purposeful considerations, but seeks to constitute a practice that morally binds the actions of all people as a pedagogical task: “Such a task concerns every adult as well as every young person. By their very nature, teaching and upbringing are not matters of the family, nor of the school alone, of the state alone, nor of the pastoral church alone - they want to be understood in the deeper sense that belongs to them. In such an understanding they want to be taken without reservation as what they have to be: They demand that the ego, thanks to its own resident activity within the community to which it belongs, makes itself clear according to principles and continuously maintains it! " (P. 12).

In contrast to Herbart, who had declared morality to be the express goal of educational action, which is only achieved over time, for Petzelt morality is always given as a condition for all human, i.e. also educational, action. Morality therefore does not appear in his pedagogy as an independent goal, but as a principle of the pedagogical. It is linked to the claim that it should be brought to bear in educational activities. In this respect, Petzelt's pedagogy has a political meaning in a negative sense, as it defends the pedagogical task against all desperate interventions and encroachments and, if necessary, opposes such assaults with its own legal practice (cf. Kauder 1997).

The main features of systematic pedagogy therefore contain an immanent practical-political reference - despite all efforts to apply them over time. However, Petzelt did not explicitly pursue this (educational) political task himself and rather left it to his students. He preferred, not least because of his own experience, to keep his pedagogy as far away as possible from political, ie practical, aspects. From a systematic point of view, this seems to be consistent: "If the definition of what education was and could be should be beyond the reach of those interested in politics, society and ideology with their respective pre-educational tendencies towards standardization, then a supra-historical standard had to be available" (Blankertz 1982, P. 288). As a Neo-Kantian, Petzelt understood such standards as a “regulative idea”, as a “given up”, not as a given in terms of content. He understood any concretization as necessarily historical (cf. Blankertz 1982, p. 288). As a consequence, this means that Petzelt, as a “strict” systematist, never seriously sought an “educational policy” implementation of his systematic pedagogy.

Fonts

• On the question of concentration in the blind. Wroclaw 1923
• What does scientific pedagogy mean? Frankfurt 1929
• From the problem of blindness. Erfurt 1931
• The concept of intuition. An investigation into the theory of educational behavior. Leipzig 1933
• The material to be taught and the learning process in the school of the people. Erfurt 1933
• Basics of systematic pedagogy. Stuttgart 1947; second revised edition: Stuttgart 1955; Third unchanged edition with a new register: Freiburg 1964
• Basic questions of academic studies. Munster 1951
• Childhood - adolescence - maturity. Outline of the phases of psychological development. Freiburg 1951; second revised edition 1955; third revised edition 1958; fourth revised edition 1962; fifth unchanged edition 1965
• Foundation of education. Freiburg 1954
• Knowledge and attitude. An investigation into the concept of education. Freiburg 1955; second revised edition 1963
• From the question. A study on the concept of education. Freiburg 1957; second revised edition 1962
• Me and you. The forgotten dialogue. ed. by Th. Mikhail. Frankfurt am Main 2008

literature

• D. Benner: Main currents of educational science. Munich 1973.
• H. Blankertz: The concept of pedagogy in neo-Kantianism. Weinheim 1959.
• P. Kauder: Alfred Petzelt 1886-1967. A résumé. In: Quarterly Journal for Scientific Pedagogy, Issue 3, 1990, pp. 360-380.
• P. Kauder: Bibliography Alfred Petzelt. In: Quarterly Journal for Scientific Pedagogy, Vol. 62, 1986, pp. 411–435
• P. Kauder: Principles-based systematics and “political impetus”. An investigation into the pedagogy of Alfred Petzelt. Frankfurt am Main 1997.
• R. Krawitz: Pedagogy as action orientation. The importance of the transcendental-critical aspect of pedagogy. Munich 1980
• R. Lassahn: Normative Pedagogy. In: R. Lassahn: Introduction to Pedagogy. Wiebelsheim 2000, 9th supplemented edition, pp. 95-113
• C. Menze: The science of education in Germany. In: J. Speck (Ed.): Problem history of modern pedagogy. Volume 1: Science School Society. Stuttgart-Berlin-Cologne-Mainz 1976, pp. 9-107.
• J. Oelkers / WK Schulz / H.-E. Tenorth (ed.): Neo-Kantianism. Cultural theory, education and philosophy. Weinheim 1989.
• KG Pöppel: Introduction. In: A. Petzelt: Subject and Subjectivity. Weinheim and Munich 1998, pp. 9-14.
• J. Rekus: Unity of instruction and education (Petzelt). In: J. Rekus: Education and Morals. For the unity of rationality and morality in school and teaching. Weinheim and Munich 1993, pp. 81-134
• J. Rekus (A. Gruhlke / R. Winkelmann-Jahn): On the scientific legacy of Alfred Petzelt (1886-1967). In: Quarterly Journal for Scientific Pedagogy, Issue 1, 2001, pp. 92–107
• J. Ruhloff: Alfred Petzelt - life, basic pedagogical idea, "fact and principle". In: A. Petzelt: fact and principle. Philosophy and psychology. Edited by J. Ruhloff, Frankfurt / Main-Bern 1982, pp. 11-24.

Web links

• Alfred Petzelt Foundation
• Alfred Petzelt
• Research and projects - Alfred Petzelt Archive
• Literature by and about Alfred Petzelt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Alfred Petzelt in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig