Luhmann (1997) defines culture as the social memory of a society. This memory is not seen as a container in which the social norms are kept. Luhmann rather dissolves culture into different communicative schemes. Their function is to “verify” the statements of the speakers with the societal expectations that are regarded as valid. This verification can be watched particularly well when the contributions of a speaker are rejected as incompatible with certain expectations (cf. Schneider 2010). At the basis of this concept the discussions between French and German teacher students in a binational university course were examined. The paper analysis the course’s interpretation of a photo showing a French school. A dialogue between a French and a German student displays that they controversially reconstruct the school’s culture. Moreover, they judge the interpretation of the other side as incompatible with their own educational ideas. They apparently seem to interpret the photo against the background of two differing concepts of school culture formed by the respective national traditions. Besides the sequential transcript-analysis of this argument, there will be also discussed which competences should be and which competences can be promoted in binational teacher training courses (cf. Hollstein/Schelle/Meister 2012).