BIOGRAPHICAL METHOD IN HISTORICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL RESEARCH: ESSENCE, PRINCIPLE, SPE

The article examines the role and importance of the biographical method as a key tool for studying the creative biography of a person in the history of pedagogy. It is recognised that, as a scientific method of perceiving identity, the biographical method has been gaining more and more popularity, by extending the investigative potential to the whole system of humanitarian knowledge – philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, history of pedagogy and other sciences.The article summarises the features of the biographical method in historical and pedagogical research, analyses the scientific principles of knowledge that ensure the effective implementation of the investigative potential of the biographical method (the principle of historicism, systematism, scientific objectivity, absence of dogmatism, reliance on historical sources).The author noted that despite the growing number of historical and pedagogical biographies, their quality and progressiveness for science is still important, which is possible under the conditions of: a) priority of studying the genesis and transformation of scientific phenomena, adequately searching for the sources of contemporary problems in the past; b) methodologically sound application of the biographical method with the totality of its ideas and principles, rules and techniques; c) clear maintenance of the organic integrity of the three projections – “retrospective assessment of the past, an objective appraisal of the present, and a clear and informed foresight of the future”; d) revealing the true essence of the historical and pedagogical process with all its strengths and weaknesses, with an analysis of individual accomplishments and failures; e) the researcher having a high scientific qualification, pedagogical outlook, broad observation and ethics, experience in critical analysis of the literature, knowledge of the historical and pedagogical process, etc.