Hermann Nohl: education and pedagogy

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. In this article a historical study of the cultural contributions of Hermann Nohl to the pedagogy of the first half of the twentieth century is conducted. METHOD. The procedure is to review the Literature of the author, analyze its content and compare it with the literature on the subject. RESULTS. Following the neo-Kantian rationalist tradition (Wilhelm Dilthey) that was typical of the early twentieth century, Nohl understands that education (formal, non-formal and informal) is a spiritual activity, corresponding to the subjective aspect of culture. Actually, pedagogy is a relatively autonomous cultural system that is independent from the subjects involved therein and governed by a guiding principle at work in all educational activity which can only be understood in its historical development; therefore it can never be given general validity. In short, education (individual, social and popular, communal or social pedagogy) is a historical cultural action and pedagogy always refers to values and ideals that influence any educational process. DISCUSSION. Nohl relates education to the field of spirituality, making it an important issue, turning it into the instrument for achieving the spiritually related objectives that the subjects and communities must achieve. Moreover, Nohl, even claiming the necessary autonomy of pedagogy, does not bring it onto the plane of objectivity (reality, science), but seals it at the level of subjectivity (ideality, art), reducing it to a pedagogical anthropology supported in hermeneutic philosophy, comprehensive psychology and the history of education, achieving, at best, a relatively functional autonomy of educational theory. It must be clarified, however, that Nohl, as a result of the temporary circumstances of social need which moved Germany at the time (1920- 1933), could not develop a systematic conception of social pedagogy that would provide it with scientific status. Nohl was devoted to the practical problems of social pedagogy, establishing the principles of social educational intervention in and from the reality of the subjects and the material conditions of the educational relationship, defining the methodology to be followed for such purposes. Although social pedagogy is a part of general pedagogy, unlike the latter, it is not far from social material reality, but applies, without forgetting the spiritual fundamentals, to the practical and real problems of social educational work. Nohl’s social pedagogy is a theory of action, standing in a practical line of pedagogical social activity with a clearly delimited and defined educational scope.