The initiative for a harmonisation of the education systems in Europe (Bologna Process), took place first at ministerial domain. In 1999 the European Union (EU) as an institution exercised only supporting tasks of co-ordination, without legally binding influence. Three years later the European Commission was incorporated as a full member. The fact that this supranational organ of the EU develops a self-initiative and/or gets organisation power by the process was estimated low at that time. Today the EU feels responsible for education as well and is considered as a driving force (cf. Wolf & Martens 2006) The briefly outlined state of affairs here raises the question, how does action logic of national participants changes when organization guidelines meet with the social monitoring systems and/or characteristic structures of certain organisations? Therefore, change conditions of system and action rationalities on Macro-, Meso- and Micro level are analysed and described in this symposium.

Bettina-Maria Gördel unfolds the theoretical-conceptual framework on macro level in the context of a governance oriented organisation analysis. She focuses on the question: How is the New Public Management model promoted by international organisations, is implemented in a legalistic and bureaucratically coined school administration? The contribution decodes the new system rationality of school administrations in Germany, caused by the reforms, and it brings out more clearly the new structural bundles and operational principles, which constitute the internal order of the administration. Following a qualitative and explorative case study the action potentials are uncovered, action rationalities of the participants as well as their limits become concretely tangible and reasons for deviations and/or self-rationalities are designated. The meaningfulness of the results has an exemplary character and goes beyond by classifying on the national and international state of research.

Ulrike Stadler-Altmann describes the correlation with the example of the EduSpaces project on a meso level. In 2015 South Tyrol has received new competences in teacher training with the school reform "La Buona Scuola". Educational policy, educational administration and the Free University of Bolzano collaborate closely since the beginning of the project development. The aim of EduSpaces is to interconnect the student’s academic knowledge more intensively with practice experiences in school and in kindergarten. In order to develop student’s proficiency and to deepen their reflexivity are firstly values added, so they can master transition into everyday work easier. The value secondly added is the return of practical experiences at university, so new knowledge can be generated in science space. Simultaneously a regional educational space is being created by the interaction with external partners. Does university change into an independent agent in education policy in this case?

Susanne Schumacher and Masashi Urabe introduce system rationality as chronological uniformity and action rationality as destandardisation on a micro level. In doing so, they refer to basic considerations of Scherger (2016) who pointed out the connection of chronological structuralisation of curricula vitae by educational institutions and reproduction of inequality. The educational curricula vitae of german and japanese students are elementary units of reference of their research. There is an emphasis on when timing divergences of the chronological order occur as well as thereby originated destandardisation. These can be chronological arrears, which are caused by repetitions, or waiting periods as well as chronological acceleration, or compression as for example by the recognition of achievements or extraordinary admission to courses and exams. The results show that institutions or rather the gatekeepers operating there contribute to the destandardisation of educational curricula vitae.

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