Equality and Excellence. Hegemonic Discourses in the German Educational System - National Cases and Transnational Context

Author(s):

Tobias Peter(presenting / submitting)Ulrich Bröckling

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

28. Sociologies of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

28 SES 04, Equality, Justice and Excellence

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

09:00-10:30

Room:

D-305

Chair:

Jean-Louis Derouet

Contribution

Looking at the conflictual constitution of educational systems by equality and excellence, this paper examines the discursive formation of two political rationalities in the contemporary German educational system that are directly opposed. While early childhood and primary education discourses are dominated by a terminology of equity (inclusive and aimed at a minimum of competences breadthwise), tertiary education institutions such as universities are described with a terminology of excellence that has become a reference point for political interventions and institutional reform processes (exclusive and aimed at top performance).

Taking up the theoretical position of hegemony-theory, governmentality studies and system theory, the paper analyzes the rules of justification these hegemonic discourses refer to by employing a discourse analysis of strategic, conceptional, and institutional texts of the German education policy discourse between 2003 and 2010. Based on empirical material of the HamburgerPrimarschulreform (primary school reform in Hamburg) and the ElitenetzwerkBayern (network of elite study programs in Bavaria) the paper puts forth the thesis that mobilizing and optimizing represent the common principles of equality and excellence as rationalities of the maximal mobilization of educational ressources. They enforce strategies of fitness, functionalize technologies of individual and intensive learning as specific practices of the educational system, and organize processes of inclusion and exclusion by subjectifying talent. Based on this national cases the paper will try a transnational contextualisation of equality and excellence in the education system.

Method

The project is a discourse analysis of the empirical material of the Hamburger Primarschulreform (primary school reform in Hamburg) and the Elitenetzwerk Bayern (network of elite study programs in Bavaria): for example parliamentary debates about school reform or promotion of a elite study program. Methodological references are the Criticial Discourse Analysis (Fairclough/Wodak) and the empirical operationalization of hegemony theory (Laclau/Mouffe) by Martin Nonhoff. The project uses qualitative and mixed methods Data Analysis (MaxQDA).

Expected Outcomes

The study reveals the mechanisms of constructing distinction and coherence, inclusion and exclusion in the education system, and how they are organized. The project wants to find out similarities and differences between the rationalities of equality and excellence. Both rationalities are connected by intended and unintended effects as well as mutual interferences.

References

- Peter, Tobias: Egalität als hegemoniales Projekt? Tagungsband zum DGS-Kongress 2012 - Krüger, H. H./W. Helsper/R. Sackmann/G. Breidenstein/U. Böckling/R. Kreckel/J. Mierendorff/M. Stock (2012): Mechanismen der Elitebildung im deutschen Bildungssystem. Ausgangslage, Theoriediskurse, Forschungsstand. In: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 15. Jahrgang, Heft 2/2012. Springer VS. S. 327-343 - Bröckling, Ulrich: Von den Exzellenzen zur Exzellenz. Genealogie eines Schlüsselbegriffs, in: Forschung & Lehre, 16. Jg. (2009), H. 6 (Jun), S. 422-424

Author Information

Tobias Peter (presenting / submitting)

University of Freiburg

Institute of Sociology

Freiburg i. Br.

Ulrich Bröckling

University of Freiburg, Germany

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