From Polytechnic through Dual to STEAM Training or “On Novel Innovation” in Education

Iliana Petkova,

Iliyan Vassilev

Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”

https://doi.org/10.53656/str2025-5-3-fro

Abstract. The Bulgarian education system has been under intense public scrutiny and been “enjoying” special attention from society since the fall of socialism in 1989. Several reforms have been implemented and continue to be made. Bulgarian education is being modernized gradually and purposefully. This is evident not only from the conditions in which the modern teacher works, but also from the new curricula that aim to equip Bulgarian students competent and ready for tomorrow. However, are these “new and innovative” ideas, or are they merely recycled and rebranded versions of past concepts? Are they being refined and expanded upon, or simply repackaged under a modern “educational facades of pseudo-innovations”? This article examines the essence of polytechnic education and traces the development of this concept to modern models of project-based learning, dual training, and STEAM education. The hypothesis is made that Bulgarian vocational education has always built upon the idea of the connection between theory and practice, and if, during the socialist system, the idea of polytechnicism linked education with production, now dual training is what provides personnel for various spheres of the economy, and in STEAM education, we rediscover the core principles of this long-standing idea.

Keywords: polytechnicism, dual education, STEAM education

“If we don’t know history, we are doomed to repeat it.”

George Santayana

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