The social, economic and political condition, as well as the cultural movement (ideological, philosophical and scientific) in the inter-war period, marked by deep unrest, have strongly influenced the evolution of the Romanian school and pedagogical thinking.
The herein paper presents facts from the life and activity of Ștefan Bârsănescu, relevant for the outlining of his belonging to the philosophical pedagogy of his time, more specifically to the ”pedagogy of culture” direction derived from this approach. His educational pathway, his professional excellence can be placed under the ideas of this current. Spranger’s theory, whose disciple he was, stipulates that the human being cannot be understood outside the values of culture. The merit of this orientation in pedagogy is that of reconciling the opposition between individual and social, through their interdependence.
The goal of education, to form the “cultural personality”, is not only theorized in Bârsănescu’s work, but also present in his pedagogical pursuits: types of lessons, the teacher’s personality, the stages of the lesson, forms of education.
Ștefan Bârsănescu stands out for his effort of offering pedagogy the status of science in the first pedagogical epistemology work written in our literature (today also few) “Unitatea pedagogiei contemporane ca știință” (The Unity of Contemporary Pedagogy as a Science) (1936, 1976). His works in the field of the history of pedagogy are focused on the discovery of cultural values that marked the different historical periods and especially those in which there were not many written sources. The analysis of the politics of culture in Romania confirms the close connection between the cultural values promoted by society and education. In the first theoretical work of aesthetic education in the Romanian pedagogy “Educația estetică” (Aesthetic Education) (1961) he describes and exemplifies, starting from the aesthetic ideal: the purpose, dimensions, methods, means of achievement and principles of aesthetic education. Here we can find the most faithful reflection of his mindset as an advocate of the pedagogy of culture.
Involving the entire mental life – intellectual, volitional, affective - in the process of bringing cultural values closer to one another, it is considered that through the pedagogy of culture it will be possible to cultivate the aspiration of individuals towards the great “eternal” ideals of humanity.