Bildung

Introduction

The concept of Bildung is a major influence on discussions about, and reflections on, educational goals in the German-speaking countries and other Northern European countries with a similar cultural and linguistic background. Bildung in this regional and linguistic context is the central notion describing the process of personal development and the outcome of this development process. Bildung is more than education, and there is no English term that denotes the concept of Bildung accurately. Nonetheless, it may serve as a bridge between two educational traditions when an American educational researcher proposes the following explanation of the meaning of Bildung:

Bildung is a noun meaning something like ‘being educated, educatedness.’ It also carries the connotations of the word bilden, ‘to form, to shape’. Bildungis thus best translated as ‘formation’, implying both the forming of the personality into a unity as well as the product of this formation and the particular...