New forms of coordination of action on federal state level? Findings from a governance-study on implementing the Decade-ESD in Germany

Author(s):

Jutta Nikel(presenting / submitting)Kathleen Franz

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

08. Research on Health Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

08 SES 01, Governance and Governmentality in ESD and Health Education

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

13:15-14:45

Room:

D-504

Chair:

Monica Carlsson

Contribution

With the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (DESD)(2005-2014) approaching its final phase, this presentation introduces findings from a research project investigating how a selection of federal states in Germany have implemented the Decades call for measures to improve the status of ESD within member states education systems.

The UNESCO Implementation scheme for the DESD (2005) proposes a governance concept which focuses strongly on broad participation and negotiation over effective ways to strengthen ESD’s role and status in education (Elias, 2006; Heinrich, et.al., 2007; Wals. 2009). Further, managerial instruments and procedures like strategic action plans and monitoring tools are proposed to member states as effective measures. However, there is limited empirical work on the implementation of the Decade worldwide, except survey work ordered by the UN (Wals, 2009), and even less investigating it as innovation transfer process.

While broad participation is broadly considered a worthwhile matter, research assumes that this kind of cooperation requests much work from interdependent actors on their coordination of action. Most of the required negotiating and playing “cooperative games” is considered as holding a lot of conflict potential and challenges professional thinking.

Governance research is a research perspective that focuses on these constellations of actions in multilevel education systems (vgl. Altrichter, u.a. 2007:10; Altrichter, Brüsemeister & Heinrich, 2005: 7). In this view, the coordination and development of an education system is closely intertwined with the manner and functioning of the joint effects of contributions by a variety of actor (e.g Altrichter, Brüsemeister & Heinrich, 2005, transl.)

The study presented here is part of a larger project which started in December 2012 and is titled “Reconstructing Governance Regimes of the ESD transfer”. Based on four studies it aims at identifying governance regimes in the transfer of ESD in the German education system by collecting and analyzing date on federal state level and on communal level.

The question guiding the project at the University of Education Freiburg is: What (new) forms or patterns of coordination of action develop and change in actor constellations on federal state level in Germany in the context of the UN Decade ESD (and if, how are they institutionalized)? In the operationalization of this question we focus on aspects such as coordination bodies and their affiliation, instruments, institutional logics and professional thinking or references made to national level and communal level, to name a few.

Method

The study is based on data from document analysis and from 24 expert interviews. In an initial analysis phase six out of 16 states have been selected for further in-depth analysis. Sampling criteria were the existence of actions plans and the degree of civil organizations involvement in the coordination of the Decade. In each of the six states four semi-structured one-hour long expert interviews were conducted with representatives of federal ministries as well as civil society organizations involved in the coordination of the Decade on state level. The interviews have been transcribed and analyzed by using a qualitative data analysis strategy drawing an axial coding from grounded theory as well as drawing on qualitative content analysis (e.g. Gläser & Laudel, 2007). Firstly, in reconstruction the implementation process for each state, we have developed chronicles of the processes each one focusing on different aspects: coordination of action of actors belonging to hierarchy, community and market; financial resources, rights and opportunities to participate in decisions, etc. Secondly, we reconstruct in comparison governance regimes (as described above) of the ESD transfer on federal state level and exemplify this.

Expected Outcomes

In the presentation findings are presented from the document analysis (action plans in 16 federal states) which lead to the sampling strategy. Further and foremost, the reconstruction results of the processes of implementation of the Decade in six selected states are introduced. Key emerging themes are discussed and the strategy for identifying governance regimes of the ESD transfer in a multilevel education system is outlined. Further, questions are raised over the external validity of the findings in an international context. The project ends in January 2015. The final findings of this study (and the overall joint project) aim to contribute to a more in depth understanding of innovation and transfer processes as well as to the advancement of research methodology in governance research.

References

Altrichter, H. & Heinrich, M. (2007): Kategorien der Governance-Analyse und Transformationen der Systemsteuerung in Österreich. In: Altrichter, H., Brüsemeister, T. & Wissinger, J. (Hrsg.). Educational Governance. Handlungskoordination und Steuerung im Bildungssystem. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, S. 55-103. Brüsemeister, T. (2007): Steuerungsakteure und ihre Handlungslogiken im Mehrebenensystem der Schule. In: Kussau, J. & Brüsemeister, T. (2007). Governance, Schule und Politik. Zwischen Antagonismus und Kooperation. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, S. 63-95. Brüsemeister, T. (2007): Analysemittel der Governanceforschung. In: Kussau, J. & Brüsemeister, T. (2007). Governance, Schule und Politik. Zwischen Antagonismus und Kooperation. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, S. 97-120. Elias, Derek (2006): UNESCO's approach to implementing the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) in Asia and the Pacific. In: Australian Journal of Environmental Education 22, S. 83–86. Gläser, J. & Laudel, G. (2010): Experteninterviews und qualitative Inhaltsanalyse als Instrumente rekonstruierender Untersuchungen. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. Heinrich, M., u.a. (2007) Bildung und nachhaltige Entwicklung: eine lernende Strategie für Österreich. Monsenstein und Vannerdat: Münster. Kussau, J. & Brüsemeister, T. (2007): Educational Governance: Zur Analyse der Handlungskoordination im Mehrebenensystem der Schule. In: Altrichter, H., Brüsemeister, T. & Wissinger, J. (Hrsg.). Educational Governance. Handlungskoordination und Steuerung im Bildungssystem. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, S. 15-54. Wals, A. E. J. (2009): A Mid-DESD Review. Key findings and ways forward. In: Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 3 (2), S. 195–204.

Author Information

Jutta Nikel (presenting / submitting)

University of Education Freiburg

Educational Science

Freiburg

Kathleen Franz