SCIENTIFIC AND TEACHING POSITION OF THE HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY

Abstract

Primary and secondary disciplinary issues, the evolution of the development of the history of pedagogy as a scientific discipline, and the methodology of historical pedagogical research represent aspects that have influenced the scientific and teaching position of the history of pedagogy. For theorists, primary and secondary aspects of disciplinary issues are dialectically connected, considering the fact that pedagogy, along with its narrower scientific disciplines, is grounded in the already existing area of professional activity of other sciences. The significance of studying the history of pedagogy is reflected in the discovery of cause-and-effect relationships that connect past and present pedagogical thought and seek scientifically valid explanations for the emergence of differences in opinions, organisation, and effects of certain pedagogical phenomena. Throughout its developmental evolution, the history of pedagogy has had a heuristic function, which has influenced its subject methodological field of agency (from moral-educational to methodological, theoretical, and prognostic). The scientific and teaching position of the history of pedagogy has contributed to its fundamental role in improving the fields of moral education and education, promoting possible ways to enhance teaching practice. The paper aims to highlight the evolution of the development of the history of pedagogy as a scientific discipline, the academic institutionalisation of the history of pedagogy, and the current issues in the field of the history of pedagogy. The results of theoretical study have indicated current problems in the area of the history of pedagogy related to the lack of primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, as well as different historical and cultural contexts that hinder the proper understanding of pedagogical knowledge in the past. The perspectives and strategies for the development of the history of pedagogy, based on the obtained results of theoretical study, do not depend on the expansion and enrichment of theoretically methodologically grounded knowledge, but rather on the tendency and scope of replacing historical-pedagogical descriptions with scientific analysis of a specific subject-methodological field of action. The motivation for this is the selection of lasting, positive pedagogical heritage, extending to developmental-applicative, theoretical, and empirical historical-pedagogical research significant for the further development of the history of pedagogy as a scientific discipline.