Kai S. Cortina/Achim Leschinsky/Thomas Koinzer
Introduction
Thomas Koinzer/Achim Leschinsky
Private Schools in Germany
Within the German school system, an expansion of private schools in the general educational and vocational field is to be witnessed. In this, different forms of private schools providing general education gain special public attention because they offer international degrees, bilingual instruction, or all-day schooling and are established in the larger German cities. But also traditional forms such as schools affiliated with a specific denomination, free schools, Waldorf or (private) Montessori schools are quite popular among parents and children with a specific social background. The authors describe the quantitative expansion of private schools and localize a pattern of conditions determined by different social, legal, and economic factors as the cause of this growth. Furthermore, consequences that may well be generalized and that affect the entire German school system are formulated and a requisite research program is outlined.
Elisabeth Flitner/Agnès van Zanten
From the denominational school to a protected social environment – Development and functions of the private sector in the French school system
In the course of the expansion of its state school system during the 19th and 20th century, the anti-clerical French Republic did at first not succeed in integrating the older Catholic school system. Up until today, 17% of the places for students are at private schools. However, by now almost all of the private schools receive state funds and are thus subject to the same administrative and pedagogical regulations as the state schools, from which they differ above all in the social background of their students. – This contribution describes the process of the alignment of the private school system in France to the state school system since the 1960s and inquires into the question of why the proportion of students attending private schools has not increased during the last few decades despite the fact that the majority of the French people consider private schools indispensable.
Kai S. Cortina/Kristina Frey
Private Schools in the United States – History and current controversies
The private school system in the United States developed at the instigation of the Catholic minority, parallel to the strictly nondenominational public school system. Since the middle of the 20th century, there has been an increase in the number of private schools founded by other, especially fundamental Christian, religious communities. Simultaneously, the number of students attending Catholic private schools is continuously decreasing, so that the total percentage of private school students has remained stable at about 10%. Access to private schools is socially selective due to the considerable school fees and thus, for wide sections of the population, they hardly constitute a realistic alternative to the public school system. Recent developments, however, suggest that, during the past two decades, the traditionally sharp division between public and private school sector has started to loosen up.
Geoffrey Walford
Private Schools in England
About seven per cent of children in England are educated in private schools, but the significance of the private sector in policy terms is far greater than this proportion would indicate. While schools such as Eton College and Winchester College are still the best-known, these schools form only as small part of the private sector, which is actually characterised by its diversity. The number of private Muslim schools has increased considerably since the 1970s due largely to immigration. Furthermore, individual profit-orientated schools have established themselves in recent years. Despite the diversity within the sector and the lack of evidence, there is a widely held belief that private sector schools are more educationally effective. Indeed, the belief influences government policy towards both private and state-maintained schooling.
Julian Dierkes
Private Schools and private tutoring schools in Japan: Stopgap and market niche
Japan’s fast economic growth during the post-war period has often been connected with the quality of its educational system. The author analyzes the role of private schools within the Japanese educational system and, in this, focuses on the additional schools organized as private industries (Juku), the success of which is, on the one hand, related to the selective mechanisms of the state school system, but which is also due to an increasing uncertainty among Japanese parents and students. The schools’ lack of pedagogical innovation stands in sharp contrast to their economic significance.
Kai S. Cortina/Thomas Koinzer/Achim Leschinsky
Closing remarks: Predicting private school development in Germany based on experience I other countries
Deutscher Bildungsserver
Tips on links relating to the topic of “Private Schools”
Colin Cramer/Klaus-Peter Horn/Friedrich Schweitzer
On the Importance of Training Components in University Courses for Prospective Teachers as seen by Students in their First Semester
On the basis of a survey of research on teacher training during the first phase (university courses) and of the desiderata resulting from this, the authors present and discuss the specific approach of the study „The Development of Students in Teacher Training within the Context of Institutional Framework Conditions“ (ELKiR) as well as first results regarding the evaluation of the significance of different training components through students in teacher training in their first semester. The main focus is on the result that even students in their first semester perceive their course of studies mainly from the perspective of „the practice“, i.e. from the perspective of practical work experiences in schools and of the second phase of their training. The specialist components, in particular, but also subject-related didactical and educational-scientific components of their training, on the other hand, are thought to be of lesser importance.
Dagmar Hänsel
“Legacy and Fate” – The reception of a book on special schools
The eugenical schoolbook “Legacy and Fate” plays a central role in the debate on the National Socialist era in special pedagogics. This book is used as an example by special pedagogics to discuss how special pedagogues and teachers at special schools, in particular, positioned themselves in view of the threats their students faced through compulsory sterilization and “euthanasia”. The author sketches the story of the reception of “Legacy and Fate” and opens up a new approach to this publication by considering it a propaganda book on the special school which has become part of the successful professional politics of teachers at special schools.
Matthias Proske
The Social Memory of Teaching –An answer to the issue of the effect of education?
The question of how teaching affects students still constitutes one of the central theoretical challenges to research on education. On the basis of a discussion of explanatory approaches focusing on the supply structure of instruction and the individual use made by the students of the educational offers, the present exploratory contribution analyzes, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the potential of the social- and culturalscientific concept of memory in dealing with the issue of the effects of teaching. The main achievement of the memory of teaching is considered to lie in the establishment of “fictions of knowledge” which, within a long-term timeframe, make educational expectations in instruction socially binding.
New Books