Additives to the history of the institutional processes of german folk school teacher education and the elements of folk teacher identity in the education book of Lorenz Kellner (1868)

Abstract

In Central Europe professions connected to training have become institutionalized based on German examples. The most important feature of this process is the expansion of education, of an increasing proportion of the population, which necessitated the training of qualified teachers.

In the age of dualism practical pedagogy and children's knowledge, as well as educational methodology, were at the centre of the knowledge of folk-school teachers. It became the folk-school pedagogy of the second half of the 19th century, the literature of which included the pedagogical books used for pragmatic purposes in teacher education. A peculiarity of their genre is that their authors have described a complex set of requirements in their normative ideal pedagogy regarding teachers' professional knowledge and public behaviour.

In Hungary until the 19th century there were only a handful of books on education, which were mainly translations of books from German speaking areas. The literature of Hungarian and German folk school pedagogy flourished in the second half of the 19th century. From among the textbooks used in the German teacher training the work of Lorenz Kellner titled Volksschulkunde (Folk School Skills) published in 1855 was an outstanding one with several editions. Its importance is demonstrated by the fact that it was used as a source for several Hungarian and German authors. 

On the one hand the present study analyses the characteristics of professionalization processes of German folk teacher profession and on the other hand it reconstructs the image of folk school teachers based on the pedagogy described in Lorenz Kellner’s textbook titled Volksschulkunde. Aspects of analysis based on text constructions: 1. the anthropological peculiarities of man, the purpose of education, and the connections among teacher's duties; 2. requirements for folk school teachers.

The research may contribute to a systematic exploration of a more limited area of the reception process from German teacher training, its major institutional history features, and some characteristics of the knowledge and identity of folk school teachers.