oa Over de betekenis van het element ‘algemeen’ in het concept van de algemene vorming

The meaning of ‘general’ in the concept of general education

The author aims at a conceptual-analytical approach. Up to now conceptualization and, above all, the realization of general education remained based on fundamental inconsistencies. Its ‘generality’ was accomplished neither individually nor institutionally. Class- and genderspecific discriminations formed a constitutive part of most concepts and of the educational practice as such. The author then discusses some essential characteristics of a presently relevant concept of general education. He concentrates on the comprehensive, ‘synthesizing’ powers of general education and asks whether the socializing and ‘homogenizing’ (Bourdieu) effects of a truly ‘general’ education can also be regarded as a contribution to autonomizing individuation. The considerations are primarily based on Humboldt and the recent recommendations of the Collège de France (1985).