The development of schoolchildren’s early career preparation and its research in education theory and practice: Historical educational analysis

Introduction. The article focuses on the genesis of schoolchildren’s early career preparation, its essence, prerequisites for entering the education scholarly terminology and practice-oriented vocabulary. The purpose of the study is to systematize data on the prerequisites of the phenomenon of early career preparation in the context of a comprehensive secondary school and institutions of supplementary education for children and its formation in education theory and practice. Materials and Methods. Theoretical research methods were used including analysis of theoretical, psychological, educational and methodological literature on the research problem, summarizing teaching practices, synthesis, classification, and comparison. A review and analysis of scholarly educational and empirical studies devoted to the phenomenon of early career preparation of school-age children, published in the period between 1996 and 2025, were conducted. The review was carried out in 2025 based on the use of the database of the scholarly electronic library eLibrary and the disserCat database. The analysis included full-text articles, dissertation abstracts in the fields 05.08.01 and 05.08.02 published in Russian, containing a mention of the concept of ‘early career preparation’ (a total of 248 sources). The constructive-genetic method of historical and educational analysis of the problem of studying the phenomenon of schoolchildren’s early career preparation was used. Results. It was revealed that the concept of ‘early career preparation’ does not have a clear definition and structure, most often used to denote the educational process associated with career guidance, professional self-determination and solving the problems of specialized training in the system of general and supplementary education of children. Three prerequisites for the appearance of the concept of ‘early career preparation’ in scholarly educational circulation were identified, namely, the socio-pedagogical, scientific-theoretical, scientific-methodical and technological levels. It is emphasized that the phenomenon of early career preparation appeared before its scientific reflection, study of its essence, structure and content began, which led to the allocation of the ‘pre-conceptual’ period of studying early career preparation of schoolchildren and the period of actual conceptualization. The definition of early career preparation is proposed. Conclusions. The results of the analysis indicate that in modern education science there is a free use of the concept of ‘early career preparation’; in scientific research, the processes and procedures of early career preparation are implemented in three different models: 1. Early career development is implemented at the stage of school education and includes specialized (grades 10-11), pre-professional (grades 8-9) and earlier periods of study. 2. Early career development is carried out in the periods preceding specialized education, before the student enters grades 10 and 11. 3. Early career preparation provides a set of educational efforts within the school, preceding the pre-professional training, before the student enters the 8th grade. Self-determination of students in the conditions of early career preparation is not stable because it is determined by various factors, which can be adjusted due to the growing trend and experience of creating specialized classes of early career preparation in the general education system.