Beruflich-wissenschaftliche Bildung: Wissenschaftliche Kompetenzen als Notwendigkeit der postmodernen Arbeitswelt?

Abstract

Die Akademisierung der Berufswelt ist seit Jahrzehnten ein zentrales Thema der Bildungspolitik. Die Dissertation beleuchtet die wachsende Bedeutung wissenschaftlicher Kompetenzen für beruflich qualifizierte Fachkräfte in der postmodernen Arbeitswelt. Es wird untersucht, welche wissenschaftlichen Kenntnisse und Fähigkeiten für Fachkräfte heute erforderlich sind, welche Ursachen dem steigenden Bedarf zugrunde liegen und inwiefern die bestehenden Akademisierungsstrategien kritisch zu hinterfragen sind. Anhand eines ausgewählten Arbeitsfeldes wird praxisnah aufgezeigt, wie wissenschaftliches Wissen den Berufsalltag bereichern kann. Die Publikation richtet sich an Bildungsexpert:innen, Wissenschaftler:innen, Entscheidungsträger:innen sowie Fachkräfte, die sich mit der Zukunft beruflicher Bildung auseinandersetzen.

The thesis examines the extent to which professionally qualified specialists today are increasingly faced with requirements for which "scientific competences" are (also) helpful and important. The starting point is the observation that many skilled workers with professional qualifications take up university studies without primarily pursuing social advancement. Instead, they often return to their previous professional fields, equipped with enhanced skills for more demanding activities. The central research question is therefore: Why do professionally qualified specialists acquire academic skills if neither a classic desire for advancement nor a purely intrinsic interest in education are decisive? The work refers to the structural, requirement- related dimension of a change in the world of work that increasingly requires skills that are imparted through scientific education: for example, systematic thinking, rational argumentation or critical reflection. On this basis, the work develops nine basic scientific competences that are relevant across disciplines. The professional field of early childhood education is used as an example to show how these competencies expand professional action, e.g. in conflict management, parent work or concept development in the team. In a further step, it is shown that characteristics such as complexity, openness and unpredictability, which characterize the work of educators, increasingly apply to all specialist professions. From this, the thesis is derived and substantiated that scientific competences are generally important in the postmodern working world not as an academic privilege, but as a basis for self-organized and reflexive action. The paper therefore argues for a systematic interlinking of vocational and academic education, without equating the two spheres. Finally, it outlines the educational policy implications of such a "professional-scientific education" in the sense of an extended general education.