Wolfgang Brezinka

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Wolfgang Brezinka (2011)

Wolfgang Brezinka (born June 9, 1928 in Berlin ; † January 3, 2020 in Telfes im Stubai , Tyrol ) was a German-Austrian educationalist . He was a professor of education at the University of Education in Würzburg and at the Universities of Innsbruck and Konstanz . Brezinka has made significant contributions to general pedagogy and has particularly tried to define the basic axiomatic terms of the subject.

Life

Wolfgang Brezinka studied philosophy, psychology and pedagogy following social educational practice. He received his doctorate in 1951 from the University of Innsbruck and then worked at the Institute for Comparative Education in Salzburg. In 1954 he qualified as a professor in Innsbruck in pedagogy and was a research fellow in 1957/58 for social-psychological and sociological studies at Columbia University and Harvard University .

In 1958 he was offered a position at the Würzburg University of Education (associate professor 1958 and full professor 1959) and was also the rectorate. This was followed by professorships at the Universities of Innsbruck (1960–1967) and Konstanz (1967–1996). The Philosophical-Theological University of Bressanone gave him a visiting professorship in 1983 and 1990. In 1984 he was a visiting professor at the University of Friborg in Switzerland; In 1985 he was visiting professor at the University of South Africa in Pretoria .

He was one of the representatives of an empirical - analytical educational science or a scientific pedagogy.

Brezinka was married to Erika Brezinka (née Schleifer); The couple had three children, the doctor Christoph Brezinka, the psychotherapist Veronika Brezinka and the conductor and cultural manager Thomas Brezinka . After his retirement, Wolfgang Brezinka lived in Telfes in Stubai (Tyrol), where he died in January 2020 at the age of 91.

theory

In his metatheory of education, Brezinka distinguished three classes of educational theories: educational science, philosophy of education and practical pedagogy:

  • Educational science is a scientific discipline that is descriptive, causal-analytical, prognostic and technological. It serves a) the description of the upbringing phenomena and the upbringing-relevant facts, which are to be determined in the experience accessible reality (reality); b) the search for cause-and-effect relationships between the circumstances in reality; c) the prediction, in which, on the basis of the established cause-effect relationships from the existence of certain conditions (causes), conclusions are drawn about the occurrence of future circumstances (effects); d) the elaboration of a technology (or technique theory), in which the means and procedures for producing desired but not yet existing facts are specified, also on the basis of the determined cause-effect relationships. Educational science contains only information about facts and the connections between them, but no evaluations.
  • The philosophy of education is a philosophical discipline in which, among other topics, questions of valuation are primarily dealt with and valuation problems decided. It is analogous to science, but not a purely scientific discipline: There, as everywhere else in normative philosophy, the theories are of course formulated as far as possible according to scientific principles and with scientific methods. But they also contain non-scientific value judgments, because such judgments are essential for certain decisions (e.g. about the goals of education). The value judgments are not simply made, but justified as far as possible reasonably and after weighing counter-proposals.
  • Practical pedagogy is a class of action-oriented educational theories. They are (ideally) also worked out as far as possible taking into account educational and philosophical knowledge, but are written from a specific religious, ideological or moral-philosophical point of view. Christian practical pedagogy, for example, informs (Christian) practitioners about the options they have in raising children in a given historical-cultural situation and what they should do (strive for and refrain from). Other practical pedagogies from different points of view and with different recommendations for action are possible or already available (e.g. free-thinking, liberal, Marxist etc.).

His writings have appeared in numerous editions and languages ​​(Chinese, English, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Czech). For this reason, Brezinka can be regarded as the most widely received educational thinker in the German-speaking world abroad.

As a practical pedagogue, he judged from a conservative point of view; as an educationalist, he orientated himself towards Viktor Kraft , Karl R. Popper , Hans Albert and Wolfgang Stegmüller in questions of science theory . The definition of the concept of upbringing that he developed is trend-setting:

"Upbringing is understood to mean actions through which people try to improve the structure of the psychological dispositions of other people in any way over the long term or to preserve those components that are judged to be valuable or to prevent the development of dispositions that are judged to be bad."

Wolfgang Brezinka on his 90th birthday (2018) on the occasion of the ceremony of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna

Since his retirement, he has been working on the history of education in Austria with the support of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . On June 20, 2018, the Austrian Academy of Sciences honored him on the occasion of his 90th birthday with a ceremony with lectures by Brigitte Mazohl and Karl Acham . He was still able to publish the first volume of his memoirs ( From Education to Criticism of Pedagogy: Experiences from Germany and Austria ) himself, he finished the second volume in 2019, and he did not live to see the publication.

honors and awards

Fonts (selection)

  • Education as a way of life - an introduction to the educational situation. Ernst Klett Verlag , Stuttgart 1957 (8th edition 1971), ISBN 978-3129214107 .
  • From pedagogy to educational science. Beltz , Weinheim 1971 (3rd edition 1975), ISBN 3407182368 .
  • The Pedagogy of the New Left. Ernst Reinhardt Verlag , Munich, 1972 (6th edition 1981), ISBN 978-3497009664 .
  • Basic concepts of educational science. UTB for Science , Stuttgart 1974 (5th edition 1990), ISBN 978-3497009589 .
  • Metatheory of education. Ernst Reinhardt, Munich 1978, ISBN 978-3497008469 .
  • Upbringing in an insecure society . Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 1986 (3rd edition 1993), ISBN 978-3497011087 .
  • Educational goals, educational means, educational success . Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 1976 (3rd edition 1995), ISBN 978-3497009596 .
  • Proficiency. Analysis and evaluation of an educational goal. Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-497-01127-4 .
  • Education about educational theories. Contributions to the criticism of pedagogy. UTB, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 978-3497011698 .
  • Faith, Morals and Education. First Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 978-3497012527 .
  • Education and pedagogy in the face of cultural change. Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3497016280 .
  • Collected Works. 10 volumes on CD-ROM. Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-497-01885-7 .
  • Pedagogy in Austria. The history of the subject at the universities from the 18th to the 21st century. Volume 1: Vienna. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences , Vienna 2000, ISBN 978-3-7001-2908-0 .
  • Pedagogy in Austria. The history of the subject at the universities from the 18th to the end of the 20th century. Volume 2: Prague, Graz, Innsbruck. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2003, ISBN 978-3-7001-3218-9 .
  • Pedagogy in Austria: The history of the subject at the universities from the 18th to the 21st century. Volume 3: Education at the Universities of Czernowitz, Salzburg and Linz. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-7001-4004-7 .
  • Pedagogy in Austria. The history of the subject at the universities from the 18th to the 21st century. Volume 4: Education at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and the University of Klagenfurt . Final overview and balance sheet. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2014, ISBN 3-7001-7587-6 .
  • From education to criticism of pedagogy: experiences from Germany and Austria . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna 2019, ISBN 3-205-23169-4 .
  • Education as a contested subject. Memoirs from 1967 to 2020. With documentation on the early history of the University of Konstanz. Böhlau, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3205211709 .

literature

  • "Wolfgang Brezinka," in: Walter Habel ed., Who is who? The German who's who. 2008/2009. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2008, ISBN 3-7950-2046-8 , p. 156.
  • "Wolfgang Brezinka," in: Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2009. KG Saur, Munich
  • Richard Olechowski : Wolfgang Brezinka - founder of the philosophy of science in empirical educational science, retrospectives in matters of education , R. 2, No. 49, Klagenfurt 2004
  • Heinz-Elmar Tenorth : Wolfgang Brezinka: Scientific pedagogy in the mirror of its unsolved problems. Retrospectives in matters of education, R. 2, No. 46, Klagenfurt 2004. (Also in: Pädagogische Rundschau 58, 2004, no. 4, pp. 453–465, and in: Mitteilungsblatt des Förderkreis der BBF 15 [2004], p 22–37. (Full text) )
  • Siegfried Uhl (Ed.): Wolfgang Brezinka. Pedagogy experienced 50 years . Reinhardt, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-497-01447-8 .
  • C. D'Hondt: Wolfgang Brezinka over het wetenschapskarakter van de pedagogik. 1977
  • Susanne Barkowski: Wolfgang Brezinka is 80 years old. In: "Erziehungswissenschaft - Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft" ( DGfE ), Issue 37, 2008, pp. 120–122.

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Brezinka  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary notice Wolfgang Brezinka , FAZ from January 8, 2020
  2. ↑ Philosophical-Theological University in Brixen
  3. ↑ Ao. Christoph Brezinka ( Memento from October 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Veronika Brezinka
  5. ↑ Obituary notice. In: Tyrolean daily newspaper. January 7, 2020, accessed January 8, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Brezinka: Metatheorie of education. (4th, completely revised edition). Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 1978.
  7. ^ Wolfgang Brezinka: Basic concepts of educational science. (5th, improved edition, p. 95). Ernst Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 1990.
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Brezinka (honorary doctor 2001) on tu-braunschweig.de
  9. ↑ Youtube video
  10. ↑ University website (Italian)
personal data
SURNAME Brezinka, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian educationalist
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 2020
Place of death Telfes in the Stubai