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The field of history of education-from development to stagnation, crisis and perhaps a "new" beginning: the Czech example

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2022

Abstract

The following study deals with the position and development of history of education in the Czech discussion in the twentieth century "as a field of study" and as a field of research. In the first part of this article, attention is paid to the current position of history of education both among the representatives of educational sciences and within history.

The second and third parts map the development, establishment and direction of history of education within educational sciences, but not in history. The second part analyses the development in the interwar period, when the Czech educational sciences were oriented on the spirit of positivism and progressivism. (In this article, attention is given only to the Czech discussion in interwar Czechoslovakia, and not to the German one.) The third part maps the period after the Second World War within the Marxist-oriented educational sciences and the formation of communist society.

In conclusion, the study asks why the history of education in educational sciences has been weakened since the beginning of the twenty-first century, while in history its position has been strengthened and further developed. The article does not deal with Czech Comenius studies, which were examined as a special issue within educational research and in many respects underwent a different development in contrast to the discipline of history of education.