WOMEN'S CAREERS IN SCIENCE AND RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

This introductory article by the Chairman of the Special Committee for Humanities of the Austrian Commission for UNESCO introduces the conference, the proceedings of which follow. The author gives a brief history of one of the co‐sponsors, the Institute for East and South‐East European Studies of Austria, following it with a few references to the admission of women to selected European universities in the mid‐nineteenth century. The question asked is whether or not a good university education suffices for a woman to be able to undertake a successful career in research and development (R&D).     

Emergence of a Unique German‐Israeli Academic Exchange Programme: Attributes and Dilemmas

This article describes a unique student exchange programme that has been operating for more than five years and which links students in the Department of Non-formal Education at Beit Berl College in Israel and students in the Department of Social Work at Fachhochschule Wiesbaden in Germany. The uniqueness of this programme lies not only in the co-operation between countries but mainly in the form of a professional study programme involving two educational institutions having different approaches and with different methods for the training of social workers that are embedded in different socio-cultural atmospheres and historical traditions. On top of these complexities, there was the need to cope with the question of how to rebuild relations between two societies loaded with the historical heritage of the Holocaust. The focus of this article is on the emergence and the development of the programme and on some of the dilemmas with which it was faced.     

Distance study in West Germany: the DIFF's conceptual contribution

The contribution of the Deutsches Institut fur Fernstudien (D.I.F.F.) at Tubingen to research in distance education and in the development of study units is analized in the light of national and international influences, especially those of Wedemeyer, Holmberg and Peters.     

About the Authors

Biography

About the Authors     

The integration of biodiversity education in the initial education of primary school teachers: four comparative case studies from Europe

In this article, we present results from an international research study on biodiversity education in pre‐service education of primary school teachers. The study was carried out between 2004–2006 in four teacher education institutions in Cyprus, England, Switzerland and Germany. We used document analyses and in‐depth interviews with 27 teacher educators and 22 student teachers to examine the integration of biodiversity into the pre‐service teacher education programmes, and the student teachers’ satisfaction with their respective education. In all teacher education institutions, aspects of biodiversity education were integrated mostly in the natural science modules which provided students at least with some information on the scientific aspects of biodiversity. Few modules included aspects of the controversial nature of biodiversity conservation in relation to economics, ethics, social and political concerns, and methodological approaches on how to deal with this. In the institutions in Cyprus, England and Germany the teaching focus was content‐oriented, whereas in Switzerland a situated method‐oriented approach was used. The student teachers in Switzerland felt more confident to teach about biodiversity in school. All interviewees thought it necessary to prepare primary school student teachers on how to address biodiversity in schools, and strategies on how best to achieve this are critically discussed.