Pre-Soviet Historiography of Vocational Education Development in Kherson Gubernia (19th – early 20th centuries).

Abstract

A general analysis of the pre-Soviet (imperial) historiography on the issue of vocational education development in Kherson gubernia through the prism of historical and pedagogical science is provided in the research paper. Special attention is paid to highly specialized works with serious information potential for studying the history of various educational institutions in the region under study. Summarizing the literature review, several main groups can be distinguished in the entire body of literature (the division is general and does not claim to be universal): works of local nature, where the author focuses on a specific educational institution or narrowly limited geography (for example, educational institutions of a particular city); works of all-Russian nature, where the primary attention of the author is focused either on the general state of vocational education or on a particular field of vocational education – maritime, agricultural, crafts, or railroad; works of pedagogical direction designed to improve the content characteristics of vocational education and training; studies in the sphere of pedagogy conducted to improve the substantive characteristics of the educational process. It should be noted that specific issues are reflected in pre-revolutionary historiography but no generalizing studies are conducted. Most works that uncover the history of local educational institutions are of a factual nature and represent more of a worthwhile source than a historiographic achievement. All-Russia studies are limited to the difficulties in training workers, mainly for the industrial central regions of the Russian Empire. Kherson gubernia is rarely mentioned in all these works (except a few regional studies), although the vocational educational institutions of the region had already accumulated a certain amount of experience by that time. That is why an objective and comprehensive scientific study of the issue is required, the basis of which should be made up of both the developments of pre-Soviet historiography and the latest scientific research results in modern historical and pedagogical sciences, archival materials, modern methodological developments in the field of vocational education and other materials.