Civics Courses: Educational Objectives, Legitimations, and Practice. An Analysis of East and West German Video Classroom Observations 1978-1995

Author(s):

May Jehle(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 01 C, Values and Norms in School Subjects

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-02

13:15-14:45

Room:

B018 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Florence Ligozat

Contribution

Theoretical discourses regarding the legitimization of educational objectives and their attendant pedagogical-didactical concepts fail to address their implementation in practice. Because of this lack of interconnection between theory and practice, a contradiction between the pedagogical-didactical concepts and the original justification for the proposed learner outcomes arises. The educational objectives of civics courses and the educational justification for these intended outcomes cannot be understood without considering socio-political contexts. Based on the relatively new source of historical video classroom observations, this project examines this theory-practice contradiction in four case studies: The German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, the period of German reunification, and Germany as a whole after reunification. An analysis of the specific contexts and intentions of these classroom "documentaries" that were used for teacher education purposes as well as for contemporary school research enables the identification of the relevant discipline-specific discourses that formed lesson objectives and their pedagogical-didactical justifications.

In this paper I use classroom videos to discuss the relationship between actual classroom interactions and discipline-specific discourses. In this manner I analyze how teachers try to implement official educational objectives in teaching practice. Of course, considering how teachers and students work together to create a specific classroom environment also requires an examination of the correlation between so-called “academic task structure” and “social participation structure”. To the extent that teaching-learning processes can be reconstructed, it is possible to discuss them in terms of the formulated curricular intentions and their original stated educational purpose.

Method

The methodology of the project is based on qualitative practices of media studies, including hermeneutics, ethnography and the sociology of knowledge. This mixed-methods approach permits not only the study of action that occurs in front of the camera, but also the study of the dramaturgical aspects of the video observations – in other words, how the researcher’s point of view is influenced by the camera itself. I also use the method of ‘Ethnographic Microanalysis’ to analyze the construction of a specific classroom environment. In order to discuss the intentions of the observable teaching practices in relation to the responses elicited in classroom interaction, it will also be necessary to explore the context of each video. These context analyses also depend upon written sources (such as curricula, teaching aids and educational policy materials) to reconstruct discipline-specific discourses about objectives, justifications and didactical concepts.

Expected Outcomes

My analysis of classroom activity in light of stated learner outcome objectives in the different case studies will contribute to the discourse about educational goals of civics courses and educational policy in comparative socio-political contexts. The unique geo-political context in this project offered by an investigation of civics education in divided Germany also enables a discussion about ideology within the broader socio-historical European dimension. In reference to the possibilities and limits of classroom teaching practices, the findings of this study will elucidate the relationship between theoretical pedagogical-didactical concepts and their implementation in actual teaching practices. Moreover, these video recordings of classroom observations represent a new source for educational research and the history of education and didactics. My paper therefore offers a historiographical-educational methodology for analyzing these videos. Combined with the empirical aspect of my research, this study will enhance our understanding of pedagogical aims and practices in civics courses in both halves of Cold War Germany and reunified Germany as well as in reference to the actual educational policy discourse.

References

- Biskupek, Sigrid (2002): Transformationsprozesse in der politischen Bildung. Von der Staatsbürgerkunde in der DDR zum Politikunterricht in den neuen Ländern. Schwalbach/ Ts. - Blessing, Benita/ Grammes, Tilman/ Schluß, Henning (2012): Civics courses in the German Democratic Republic: A Case Study in the History of Curriculum end Educational Research. In: JSSE 11/2, 85-105. - Erickson, Frederick (1992): Ethnographic Microanalysis of Interaction. In: LeCompte, Margaret/ Millroy, Wendy L./ Preissle, Judith (Eds.): The Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education. San Diego, London, 202-225. - Erickson, Frederick (2006): Definition and Analysis of Data from Videotape: Some Research Procedures and Their Rationales. In: Green, Judith L./ Camilli, Gregory/ Elmore, Patricia B. (Eds.): Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research. Washington D.C., 177-191. - Erickson, Frederick (1982): Classroom Discourse as Improvisation: Relationship between Academic Task Structure and Social Participation Structure in Lessons. In: Wilkinson, Louise C. (Ed.): Communicating in the Classroom. New York, London, 153-181. - Grammes, Tilman/ Kuhn, Hans-Werner (1987): Politikunterricht in Berlin. Unterrichtsfach – Lehrerausbildung – Fachdidaktik. Bestandsaufnahme – Dokumentation – Kritik. Berlin (West). - Grammes, Tilman/ Kuhn, Hans-Werner (1992): OSI-Fachstudienführer Politische Bildung. Berlin. - Grammes, Tilman/ Schluß, Henning/ Vogler, Hans-Joachim (2006): Staatsbürgerkunde in der DDR. Ein Dokumentenband. Wiesbaden. - Jehle, May/ Blessing, Benita (2014): Using Classroom Recordings in Educational History Research. An East German Civics Lesson. In: JSSE 13/1 (in print). - Lobeda, Wolfgang/ Piontkowski, Siegfried (1974): Zur problemhaften und emotionalen Gestaltung des Staatsbürgerkundeunterrichts. Berlin (East). - Kuhn, Hans-Werner (2003): Urteilsbildung im Politikunterricht. Ein multimediales Projekt. Schwalbach/Ts. - Massing, Peter/ Weißeno, Georg (Eds.) (1995): Politik als Kern politischer Bildung. Wege zur Überwindung unpolitischen Politikunterrichts. - Mehan, Hugh (1979): Learning Lessons. Social Organization in the Classroom. Massachusetts, London. - Noll, Adolf H./ Reuter, Lutz R. (Eds.): Politische Bildung im vereinten Deutschland. Geschichte, Konzeptionen, Perspektiven. Opladen. - Reichertz, Jo/ Englert, Carina Jasmin (2011): Einführung in die qualitative Videoanalyse. Eine hermeneutisch-wissenssoziologische Fallanalyse. Wiesbaden. - Schluß, Henning (2003): Lehrplanentwicklung in den neuen Ländern. Nachholende Modernisierung oder reflexive Transformation? Schwalbach/ Ts. - Schluß, Henning/ Jehle, May (Eds.) (2013): Videodokumentation von Unterricht. Historische und vergleichende Zugänge zu einer Quellengattung der Unterrichtsforschung. Wiesbaden. - Schluß, Henning (2001): Intentionen und Legitimationsstrategien staatsbürgerlicher Erziehung und politischer Bildung. In: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 6, 47. Jg., 869-879.

Author Information

May Jehle (presenting / submitting)

Universitiy of Vienna, Austria

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