The Bologna Process introduced a wave of teacher training reforms in Germany. The main aspects of the reform were a new degree structure, a credit point system, and modularisation (e.g. Oelkers 2009, 15). While the latter two reforms were introduced in the whole country, not all of the 16 federated states have adopted the Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees for teacher training—some have maintained the state examination. Based on this observation, the question of the paper is (based on Schmees, 2020): How are the Bologna reforms in German teacher training implemented or not implemented on the federated state level in the period between 1999 and 2013?

The implementation or non-implementation of the reforms takes place in what is described in this paper as a dual structured framework of expectations. On the one hand, the non-binding decisions by the European Higher Education Ministers and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of Germany (KMK) constitute a formal set of expectations. On the other hand, important German educational organisations formulate demands for the implementation of the reforms. The analysis shows that the federal ministers of higher education specified three core characteristics for the Bologna Process, namely the introduction of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, a credit point system, and modularisation. The decision of the KMK made in the city of Quedlinburg in 2005 further ensured that the new degree structure is also recognised nationwide for teachers (KMK, 2005). The communicative discourse was characterised by a large number of positive and only few negative statements concerning the implementation of the Bologna Process in German teacher education. Despite these factors, Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees were not introduced in all federated states.

To provide specific insights into the reform process, the focus of this study is on teacher training of secondary school teachers, comparing the teacher training regulations as of 1999 with all subsequent changes. The legal status in 1999 is then compared with the legal status of the year 2013 in order to obtain the deltas of teacher education for each federated state. This difference forms the benchmark for a cross-sectional comparison of all federated states. As a result, it can be stated that eight states introduced reformed degrees into secondary school teacher education and eight states held on to the state examination. Both groups are then compared as to whether a change of the degree is more likely to be accompanied by further reforms. The results suggest that while changes have occurred in all states, the percentage increase of courses in education and didactics, as well as the duration of studies, highly correlates with a change of the degree structure. The Bologna reforms, especially those concerning degree structure, were used to implement other structural and curricular reforms that were not related to the Bologna Process.

In the last step, parliamentary debates on the federated state level regarding the introduction of these Bologna reforms were analysed to examine justifications for introducing changes in the degree structure, as well as for maintaining the state examination. Justifications or strategies for maintaining the classic degree structure are particularly relevant because they contradict current assumptions of a worldwide convergence of education systems (Meyer & Ramirez, 2005). For this purpose, the analysis draws on the results of the previous analysis considering only the federated states that regulate teacher education in the form of laws as this requires parliamentary debates. Nine debates from eight federated states were analysed. The findings of this analysis are reported in the last section.

The mixed methods research design (for the whole paragraph, I refer to Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009) of this paper is divided into four independent research strands, which also analyse different data within the framework of the study: The analysis of (1) declarations and resolutions by the German federated states, (2) position papers of important federal educational organisations, (3) laws and regulations at the federated level, and (4) parliamentary debates at the federated level. The first strand of analysis can be summarised as “monomethod monostrand”. Only qualitative work is done here, from conceptualisation to interpretation. The second and third strands of the study, the analysis of the position papers and the laws and regulations, follow a “monostrand conversion design”. As a quasi-mixed design, qualitative data is collected, but then quantified in the research process. The conversion of the qualitative data into quantitative data is done to, on the one hand, sum up the viewpoints represented in the position papers, to characterise the political environment or the discursive space of expectation, and, on the other hand, to formulate the relationships of the reforms in a statistically verifiable way. Finally, the analysis of the parliamentary debates is divided into a “monomethod monostrand” for the analysis of the arguments and a “sequential mixed design” for the analysis of the references for these arguments. The sequential mixed design means that two methodologically different strands of investigation are carried out one after the other in the sense of a logical dependency. Specifically, the parliamentary debates were first examined, evaluated, and interpreted qualitatively. The interpretation was then the basis for a subsequent quantitative analysis in the sense of a “methodological triangulation” (Denzin 1978, quoted from Flick 2010, p. 310).

As a result, four strategies for the (non-)implementation of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees were found. First, in federated states, which completely implemented the Bologna reforms, the argument was made to “restart” teacher education by implementing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. This argument suggests that the introduction of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees opens up the possibility of implementing changes that are not related to the Bologna reforms. Second, these federated states also used references to other regions, both national and European, as an argument to implement the new degree structure. In federated states that did not integrate the dual degree structure into their teacher education, one group of states presented the avoidance of longer study periods as a central argument. The other group followed a different strategy and emphasised the actual innovations of a credit point system and/or modularisation. It is noticeable that no criticism of the Bachelor's and Master's degrees was expressed, even though these degrees had not been introduced. Rather, the benefits of a state examination were emphasised. Overall, in the federated states without full implementation, the strategy appears to be to circumvent criticism while presenting the benefits of the implemented hybrid model. In summary, it can be stated that the innovative strength of the partial reforms adopted in the hybrid model and the exclusion of fundamental criticism of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees are used as a strategy to reject the implementation of a new degree structure without also being interpreted as non-innovative—against the prediction of neo-institutionalist theory (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). Federated states that implemented the degree reform referenced decisions made in other places and possible negative consequences of not implementing the degrees to support their decision while also presenting it as a window of opportunity.

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