Dietmar Langer
Possibilities and Limits of an Education Promoting the Values of Free Will
On the concept of an education aiming at and relying on reason and freedom
If it is no longer to presupposes a subject that generates true opinions or correct insights and thus “a priori valid” findings with certainty, but if, rather, mere activities have to be assumed which reveal e.g. economically, religiously, or artistically active subjects, then an education aiming at the constitution of a free will is that communication which may occur in all educational areas (such as environmental education, religious education, or art education). As an education aiming at and relying on reason and freedom, it aims at mediating the ability to reason and decide rationally, with the person to be educated being able to – thus the thesis – acquire a free and reasonable will in every area of education. Limits to this mediation consists in that the actual appropriation in the sense of a socializing formation of a free will cannot be effected from outside but is, on the other hand, impeded by social constraints and aporia of reason.
Ulrich Binder/Lukas Boser
The Metrication of Pedagogics and the Pedagogization of the Meter
How pedagogics is being modernized
Traditionally, the historical processes of modernization, including the factor of “the public”, receive little attention in the discussion on what, in fact, constitutes “modern pedagogics”. In the present contribution, however, these processes are considered essential constitutional factors. This proposition is investigated on the basis of a reconstruction of the debate surrounding the so-called new sciences, on the one hand, and the discussions regarding the standardization of metrology, which had its beginnings in the 17th century, on the other. The focus is on the question of how these two discourses made pedagogy public and led to a pedagogization of the public, how they pedagogically promoted modernization and modernized pedagogics.
Henning Schluß
Irony –An Educational Goal?
Starting from the plea for making irony an educational goal of political education formulated by Roland Reichenbach in one of his writings, the author discusses the question of which concept of irony is aimed at in this context. Reichenbach himself does not elaborate on whether there should also be other educational objectives to be pursued by political education. However, since he does not mention any other goals, the present contribution mainly focuses on the thesis that irony – although it cannot be the only educational goal of political education, superseding other educational objectives such as emancipation or affirmation – could or should none the less – in combination with these other objectives – be part of an open network of educational goals. The description of the situation given by Reichenbach, which forms the basis of his thesis that the late modern situation requires irony to be a goal of political education, essentially holds true for all areas of education. This leads to the question, discussed in the third part of this contribution, whether this definition of educational goals could be extended to other areas of education.
Christian Niemeyer
Nietzsche – Only a Jester? The language of Zarathustra – and pedagogy
An interim assessment of 125 years of reception history
From the very beginning, Nietzsche’s philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra with its central theory of the Übermensch (superman) met with incomprehension and great skepticism due to both the language and the literary form chosen by Nietzsche for this work. This may well explain why, in the course of 125 years of reception history in the German-speaking realm, the emphasis has predominantly been on individual pedagogically relevant slogans and on criticism regarding suggestions such as “Nothing is true, everything is permissible!” In fact, the work’s promotion – pushed above all by Nietzsche’s sister – as a book of edification to be found in the pack of every (German) soldier in the First World War is to be regarded with skepticism. In contrast to these sometimes mistaken, sometimes selective readings, the author tries to open up a new approach to the work based on Nietzsche’s suggestion that in this book he had told an, in parts, rather personal story which could be translated into the language of a theory on the basis of sufficient knowledge of his biography and his other writings. The author aims at showing that, why and how Nietzsche undertakes a paradigm shift in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, – a shift away from a pedagogical and towards a psychological discussion of the issue.
Nele Kampa/Mareike Kunter/Kai Maaz/Jürgen Baumert
The Social Background of Maths Teachers In Germany
Its connection with professional occupation and job-related convictions among teachers at secondary schools
The present article analyzes the socio-economic background of maths teachers in Germany and its relation to career-related decisions and job-related convictions. These analyzes is based on data collected through questionnaires answered by 1126 maths teachers working at a sample of secondary schools representative of Germany. Following Bourdieu’s theory, the authors examine whether the economic and cultural conditions prevailing in the teachers’ families of origin are related to their decision to pursue this specific professional career or to their job-related convictions. Furthermore, it is analyzed in how far teachers, in their everyday work in the classroom, meet students from groups of origin foreign to the teachers themselves. The results show that the teachersu socio-economic background has no systematic relation to either their career-related decisions or their jobrelated convictions.
Silke Traub
Self-Controlled Learning in Projects?
Expectations regarding project-based instruction and its evaluation by teachers and learners
The demand to create learning arrangements in which self-controlled learning is possible becomes increasingly urgent. The established German-language literature on projects names characteristics of self-controlled learning as central components of project-based instruction. Learners, on the other hand, consider themselves less selfcontrolled in project-oriented instruction and their assessment is confirmed by that of the teachers. Thus, a discrepancy is revealed between the expectations connected with selfcontrolled learning in project-based instruction and its evaluation by both teachers and learners.
Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein/Karin Dollhausen
Cultures of Program Planning
Today, the institutions of public further education are faced with new challenges with regard to organization, economics, and pedagogics. So far, hardly any research has been carried out on how institutions adapt to these changed conditions and demands and what the consequences may be for the planning of educational programs and courses. The present contribution takes up this “lack”. In addition to the research approaches applied so far, the authors present a system-theoretically cultural-analytically oriented research design for the empirical analysis of program planning in organizations of further education and give an outline of the insights into different “cultures of program planning” gained through this approach.