„TO SEE, UNDERSTAND AND MANAGE THE CONTEXT“: THE CHALLENGE FOR CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION?

Abstract

0ne of the phenomena of modernity is a processof functional differentiation, the division of society intorelatively autonomous societal sub-systems with their ownclosed communication. According to this approach, threekey sub-systems - science, politics and economy - aremutually separate spheres of communication which haveproblems effectively cooperating with each other.Furthermore, the problem of communication andcooperation not only concerns the relationship betweensocietal sub-systems, but can be found, for instance, in thesystem of science itself. Individual scientific disciplines oftenhave difficulties seeing things in a perspective which goesbeyond individual sub-specializations. German sociologistUlrich Beck argues that it is necessary to overcome thenarrow self-concepts of science, economy and politicsthrough a new orientation, which he describes as a"specialization in context". This paper examines the questionof how the educational process, in particular engineeringpedagogy, can contribute to the development of this neworientation.Index Terms  – Context, education, functional differentiation,social systems.