The Training of Civil Engineers and Architects in the Five New German LänderBefore and After Reunification

The fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 led to the collapse of the communistic regimes in the Soviet‐dominated Eastern and Central European countries. The so‐called ‘East’ Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which in West German terminology means ‘Central’ or ‘Middle’ Germany, became part of the German Federal Republic on 3 October 1990. In the treaty on the establishment of German unity, the German Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat,) was given the task by the Federal Government and by those of the States (Länder) to undertake a survey of publicly financed facilities for science and research in the former GDR and make proposals for necessary renewal. The author was a member of two of the working groups of the German Science Council, in charge of producing an expert opinion on the future structure of engineering education in the five new Länder and Berlin (East). Having known the situation in the GDR long before the Wall came down, the author describes briefly the training of civil engineers and architects before and after German unification. Not every step in the legal procedure in the new five Länder can be documented here, and it is also not intended to discuss scientific research in the GDR in great detail. All the data produced in the following tables are taken from the reports of the German Science Council [1, 2]. For a better understanding of German school and university training, see [3]. When statements by ‘insiders’ are cited, colleagues in the GDR, well known to the author before 1990, are meant.     

The Challenge of Unification and the Reform of Higher Education in Germany

Because the reunification of Germany came suddenly in the form of the accession of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the unification of the systems of higher education of the two parts of Germany came about in similar manner. As a result, the higher education institutions of the former GDR system assimilated many of the problems of the FRG system. It proved impossible to merge the systems slowly while both of them underwent reform. More than ten years after the reunification of Germany, it is time to bring about a reform of the higher education system of the whole country. Many reform proposals are on the table.     

Was East German Education a Victim of West German 'Colonisation' after Unification?

German unification took place very rapidly, and it is sometimes argued that East German education was colonised in a process according to which ideas and structures (some of which were not very successful in the West) were foisted on the East in the cause of unity and homogeneity. This paper argues that the 'victim/colonisation' hypothesis is exaggerated. There was a suppressed reform tendency in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that resulted in several distinctive educational institutions in the New Bundesländer. Although it is true that a controversial divided secondary school structure replaced the GDR unified school, it was the East Germans themselves who clamoured for the grammar school without paying sufficient attention to the implications for those pupils who failed to obtain entry into it. Their suspicions that their most able children were under-achieving were not validated by empirical studies. To a certain degree, reverse transformation can be observed (influence from East to West). In the field of pre-school education and childcare, for example, the spectacle of a well-developed sector in the East made the Westerners realise that they themselves had no adequate policy or strategy so they began to develop one. The Wisssenschaftsrat (Higher Education Council) too drew attention to the efficiency of the GDR higher education system, and in certain respects is striving to emulate it in the Old Bundesländer. The conviction of having been 'colonised' feeds resentment that could result in a backlash against democratic values. The paper ends with a brief discussion of the implications of the colonisation hypothesis for citizenship.     

Technical expertise and teacher growth: results of a teacher evaluation policy impact study

This research examines educational stratification cross‐nationally through the context of German division and unity. Drawing upon representative German Social Survey (ALLBUS) data from 1991 to 1998 on cohorts schooled in the 1980s and 1990s, the analysis explores educational inequality at the secondary school level with respect to social origins and gender in four settings: the late state socialist German Democratic Republic, the immediate pre‐unification Federal Republic of Germany, and the two halves of a now‐united Germany. The pre‐unification settings differ structurally—in the extent and timing of educational differentiation—and ideologically. Post‐unification eastern Germany is a case of sudden, top‐down structural reform, with a high degree both of cultural continuity and continuity of teaching personnel. The study finds that women’ s disadvantage in educational attainment has disappeared at the secondary level; indeed, men now face a disadvantage at this level. However, no major changes have occurred with respect to social origins. The children of workers and less educated parents were extremely disadvantaged in both East and West Germany prior to unification, surprisingly, perhaps, even more so in East Germany. Despite dramatic reform and expansion of the university‐preparatory curriculum in eastern states since unification, inequality in educational attainment remains stable. Interestingly, the children of small‐scale proprietors were particularly advantaged under German state socialism, and in eastern states in the 1990s they maintain a substantial but more moderate advantage over working‐class peers. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible underlying reasons for the lack of variation in the parameters of educational inequality in the face of such varied and changing institutions and ideologies.     

The Evolution of Educational Inequalities in the Czech Republic after 1989

This article deals with the evolution of inequalities in access to tertiary education in the Czech Republic since 1989. Following the 'velvet revolution' in 1989, the demand for both secondary school education (with a secondary school diploma) and post-secondary education has grown considerably. The opening hypothesis of this article is that there has been an increase in educational inequalities in the Czech Republic since 1989 resulting from the unequal development of the secondary and tertiary sectors of the educational system. The author starts with the findings of Gerber and Hout (1995) and Gerber (2000), that the pressure caused by an excess of applicants between these two levels of education disadvantages the lower social strata. Using logistic regression, the author models the influence of social origin on the likelihood of a successful transition from secondary school to post-secondary school in the period 1948-99. The hypothesis of the growing influence of social origin on success in the transition between secondary and post-secondary schools in the 1990s was not, however, confirmed. On the contrary, the trend after 1989 testifies rather to a decrease in inequalities in access to post-secondary education|spagf|ro|epagf|.     

Common legacy,different paths: the transformation of educational systems in the Czech Republic,Slovakia, Hungary and Poland

The goal of this work is to better understand the institutional changes in the educational systems of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. We demonstrate that the educational reforms implemented during the transformation introduced very different institutional arrangements in the four countries, despite the fact that their systems shared many common characteristics at the beginning of the 1990s. Differences between the national approaches to educational reforms are particularly reflected in the modes of education decentralisation, the level of school autonomy, accountability and funding mechanisms. We believe that different institutional arrangements may have contributed to the divergent achievements of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland in the PISA programme.     

Hochschulerneuerung nach der Vereinigung der beiden deutschen Staaten?

The unification of the two German states in October 1990 had a significant impact on educational politics. The combination of two educational and university systems that were based on clearly divergent political and social foundations lay ahead. The thesis is discussed here that the unification of FRG and GDR could not lead to the renewal of universities in Germany but only to an adaptation of eastern society to western society. But with the foundation of a Faculty of Educational Sciences at the Technical University of Dresden (Land Saxony) successful attempts to renewals at an intermediate level are also presented. The author describes the production and realization of a project he helped to develop and at the same time addresses the emerging problems the new faculty triggered.     

Politics and Education

This paper examines the question of whether the period since German unification has been one of reform in the education system of Germany. It outlines the developments in secondary education in Germany since 1990, and argues that the changes in the eastern federal states do not represent reform, but rather a restoration of the less than ideal educational structures that have been in place for so long in the western federal states.     

德国成人教育的特色及其启示

德国的成人教育与高等教育、普通教育和职业教育具有平等的地位,被列入教育体系之中。德国社会对成人教育高度重视,个人不论背景、民族、收入状况、教育经历等都可以接受成人教育。德国的成人教育在法律政策、国家管理模式、办学体制、专业设置、教育经费筹集等方面独具特色,这不仅符合德国的发展实际和需求,同时也为我国成人教育的发展提供一定的启示。     

Problems of schooling today: Accessibility and the curriculum factor

Many of the current problems regarding quality in education are traced back, both in political and education circles, to post-war development of the comprehensive school as an alternative for the traditional categorial system of secondary education. In this article this statement is investigated further using comparative analysis of the educational developments in the Federal Republic of Germany, Denmark, England and the Netherlands. The results seem to indicate that the current discussion about quality should be traced back primarily to curriculum changes, both in terms of restricting conditions and in terms of educational contents. These changes have been brought about during the last 25 years by socio-cultural and educational impulses. The results of these developments are often seen as directly connected to the current social problems of effectiveness in education, in terms of dysfunctionality and loss of quality. Such a way of thinking obscures the objective acquirements of the cultural change, which brought about a more democratic structure of education. The increasing accessibility and retentiveness this resulted in, are insufficiently included as independent factors in the current assessment of educational effectiveness. In criticisms of comprehensive schools and the loss of quality attributed to them, we see only ideological feints. But behind these appearances lurks a question, which demands thorough reflection on the tasks of education in our present information age.     

民国时期学校“性教育”的基本特征及现实启示

民国时期性教育的实施是家庭、学校、社会共同努力的结果,但因当时的父母囿于旧道德观念的束缚,缺乏性教育所需知识,而社会又处于百废待兴的状态,性教育的重担自然落到了学校的肩膀上。整体而言,民国时期的学校“性教育”存在以下特征：在教育目的上,经历了从“教性”到“教养”的转变;在教育主体上,主张以“教师为主,医师为辅,父母配合”;在教育内容上,主张建立渗透式的泛课程体系,将性教育渗透进具体的课程中进行教授;在教育方式上,按照“分阶段、分性别、个别与团体相结合”的方式实行。分析民国时期学校“性教育”的特征,对现今我国学校“性教育”的发展具有启示意义。     

中师学历背景教师成长状况调查研究——以浙江省教师为例

20世纪八、九十年代的中师毕业生作为从事基础教育的特殊群体,占中小学教师队伍中较大的比重,在经历中国社会转型与教育体制变革过程中,他们的选择行为、成长状况及其对基础教育的影响,具有重要研究价值.考察浙江省金华地区中师学历背景教师的成长状况,总结这一群体成长的特点与影响因素,提出促进他们进一步发展的若干建议.     

承继与过渡：清末徽州族学转型探析

在近代新式教育洪流的裹挟下,构成明清徽州教育资源主要内容的族学,接受新式教育思想,推广新式教育体制,教学内容与教学程式发生深刻变化,开启了近代转型的步伐。清末徽州族学的转型建立在对传统族学资源充分利用的基础之上,先前维系族学发展的各种款项被悉数移作学堂经费,从中不难看出徽州宗族兴学重教传统的一贯延续。时代局限性与乡村社会的实际运行特点,决定了清未徽州族学的转型只是一个开端,进入民国以后,新式族学依然担纲基层社会初等教育重任并继续保持发展的态势。     

公办学校转制过程中的问题反思

公办学校转制是20世纪90年代以来我国教育体制改革进程中出现的一种重要的探索模式,其产生的原因主要有国家教育总投入不足、公办学校固有的体制性障碍和世界范围内公共部门管理的趋势等。公办学校转制在实施中也产生了一系列问题,笔者主要从产权、责权关系、政与校关系和管理规范等角度探讨问题解决的对策。     

Shaping landscape identity in Jewish state education during the 1950s to 1960s

This paper discusses the attempts of Israeli education, in a similar fashion to other national educational systems, to shape a territorial identity for the pupils of the new State. The Israeli school used a variety of educational means to shape a person who would be modelled on his new birthplace’s landscape, including the use of textbooks, illustrations, and maps, to aid in the process of creating a desired image of the homeland’s landscape. The hidden curriculum used textbooks employing mathematics questions to learn details about the geographical expanse. Alongside the use of a written curriculum, Israeli education made use of the extra curriculum by becoming physically familiar with a place and creating a local time based on the seasons of the year. Local nature was studied during moledet (homeland) lessons, similar to the Weimar Republic of Germany’s Heimatkunde studies, as well as during other subjects, such as nature studies and Bible. These studies integrated national goals and progressive humanistic educational schools of thought which viewed a child’s encounter with nature as a vital part of his or her education. The readers, which were built on a timeline of the seasons and the school celebrating nature festivals, created a natural time frame for the pupils in which they acted and studied. The discussion about the ways territorial identity was structured by the Israeli education system is another chapter in the wider debate about national education and illustrates the schools’ function as one of the State’s national social agents, particularly in its early years.     

郭秉文与民国教育界

郭秉文活跃于民国早期教育界的年代（1914—1925）,正值近代中国社会转型的关键时期,教育界亦在民国初期形成具有现代性和国际性的“场域”。郭秉文凭借学缘、地缘、业缘等关系网络,借助现代报刊传媒,广泛传播新教育理念,组织新式教育社团,大力推行新教育实践,郭秉文一跃成为民国新教育运动活跃的中心人物之一,他的影响力远非以一校一地所能涵盖得了。同时,他亦是中外教育交流的积极推动者、实践者,成为中国教育在国际舞台上活跃的代言人。他领导塑造的南高东大,成长为二十年代中国高等教育的重镇,与北大一道构成了民国早期中国高等教育“双峰对峙”新景象。1925年郭秉文因东南大学的风潮离开国内教育界,标志着民国自由主义新教育时代的终结,然而他培育的南高学风却及于整个现代中国,影响极为深远。     

Primary School Teacher Training in the European Community: an overview of recent developments

The colleges of education for primary school teachers in The Netherlands have gone through several mergers in the space of just a few years. Many colleges of education became part of a polytechnic. The authors studied how the specific characteristics of the education of primary school teachers can show to full advantage in a large institute of higher vocational education. In the Dutch situation as well as that of the other countries of the European Community (England and the Federal Republic of Germany in particular) the phenomena ‘integration’ and ‘differentiation’ have been studied. The authors concluded that mergers of primary school teacher training colleges can be a serious threat to the educational identity of teacher training as a whole. Holding to as well as giving up the educational identity does not guarantee that the specific characteristics will be kept.     

Why context matters: a comparative perspective on education reform and policy implementation

This article explores the significance of context within the process of contemporary education reform and policy-making. It draws upon evidence from a comparative study of educational change and transformation in seven education systems: Australia, England, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Russia, and Singapore. The article focuses on school leadership preparation, training, and development, which has become a policy priority and central improvement strategy in many education systems. The article explores how seven education systems are using this strategy to promote school and system improvement. The article reflects upon the centrality of context in the process of policy implementation and in the broader pursuit of system transformation. The article concludes that more contextually appropriate approaches to educational policy selection are needed and that borrowing approaches from other countries many bring unintended consequences and unfortunate side effects. Further, the article concludes that the process of policy implementation, in context, requires far more attention, if the intended outcomes are to be achieved.     

从认知学徒制看两次教育革命

人们普遍认为教育发展至今经历了两次革命。文章主要从传统学徒制、认知学徒制的角度出发论述这两次教育革命,阐释认知学徒制对改革现行学校教育的巨大作用。