The Academic Institutionalisation of VET as a Science in the German-speaking Area – A Collective Biographical and Network Analytical Study of Discipline Formation in the 20th Century

The contribution focuses on the internal process of the academic formation and establishment of vocational and business education (VET) as a science or as partial disciplines of educational science in the 20th century. Starting with theories of science (e.g. Stichweh, 2013; Clark 1972) in consideration of the establishment thesis of Reinisch (2009; 2010) and the generation thesis of Zabeck (2006) the study would like to contribute to a deeper understanding of the formation and establishment of VET as a science in the German-speaking area. For this purpose the VET professors of the German-speaking area in the 20th Century, as well as their generational relations (in this contribution initially employment and qualification relations) are considered. The methodological access is achieved through a collective biographical quantitative approach based on a separate SQL database by means of network analysis and visualisations via Gephi.