Dual System of Education in Germany: Historical Context

Abstract

The article deals with the genesis of the dual system of education in Germany in the historical context: from medieval craft guilds and the formation of Protestantism labour ethics to modern problems associated with the globalization of the educational space, the digitalization of the economy and production, migration crises. It is shown that the dual education in Germany is a unique system, (1) having the established technological parameters of the ratio of theory and practice, the contract interaction of the student and the employer, the economic support of the learning process; (2) based on the paradigm of labour education; (3) involving social partnership of vocational schools and industrial enterprises, supported by the Federal government and the Government of Germany States, Federal Institute of vocational education, public organizations. The stages in the history of the development of the dual education in Germany are described: a creation of the labour schools during the early and ascetic Protestantism, the emergence of the educational theory that combines the idea of work ethic and moral culture in the era of pragmatic Protestantism, Kerschensteiner’s reform of labour (national) school in the era of neo-Protestantism, disintegration of education in the era of world wars and ideological crises, the revival of the dual system of education and its problems in the era of globalism. The results of the analysis of historical and pedagogical research of Russian and foreign authors, official normative legal documents regulating the process of dual education in Germany, the materials of the Congress on professional education, held in Berlin in June 2018 are presented, which allowed to determine the patterns and prospects of development of the dual system of education in Germany.