ABSTRACT
The representatives of Critical Theory simply accused the nineteenth and twentieth-century philosophical and educational scientific paradigms of having distorted the true meaning of Bildung. Critical Theory emphasized the political dimension of the concept of Bildung, in this way providing a new theoretical orientation as a corrective following the experience of the Second World War. It became an influential philosophical ground in the German educational sciences in the context of the protest movements of 1968. Theodor W. Adorno elaborated on his concept of Bildung in a treatise on what he termed half-education, which he published in 1959. The way Critical Theory understood the social dimension of Bildung, as already formulated at the end of the eighteenth century, remained yet to be realized. The main theme in critical education theory is the analysis of the power structures currently at play. Ideas concerning Bildung as formulated by critical theorists found their way into the discourse of educational science as critical and constructive didactics.
