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Categorial Conflict-Based Teaching Methodology As a Paradigm of Civic Education

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Categorial Conflict-Based Teaching Methodology As a Paradigm of Civic Education Journal of Social Science Education © JSSE 2010 Volume 9, Number 3, 2010, pp. 87–94 ISSN 1618-5293 Horst Leps (Hamburg) Commentary: Categorial conflict-based teaching methodology as a paradigm of civic education Content: 1. Author and context: In-service courses for teachers at Reinhardswaldschule (Germany) 2. The Spiegel-affair – a lesson report 3. The case study method 4. Categorial conflict-based teaching methodology and fundamental insights 5. The concept of the exemplary in teaching and lesson reports 6. Opportunity for today’s teaching 7. Questions on the concept of the exemplary in teaching in seminars 8. Literature Keywords: school and later became responsible for in-service Beutelsbacher Konsens, Categorial pedagogy, civic ed- courses for teacher4. ucation and its pedagogy, Wolfgang Klafki, Kurt Ger- The above-mentioned in-service course on civic hard Fischer, Reinhardswaldschule, Rudolf Engelhardt, education provided their participants with a detailed, civics, Spiegel-affair, didactics (Didaktik). new syllabus that contained units of lessons. Topics were, for instance on Mass Media and Advertisement, Rudolf Engelhard presents a lesson model in his article Our Community, No Freedom without Rights – No Rights How to Deal with Party Politics at School? that dates back without Freedom, Communism – Illusion and Reality, to the 1960s, when civic education was revived in the and The Status of Women in Modern Society. In a next Federal Republic of Germany (West-Germany). In order step, teachers worked in groups on these lesson units to improve civic education at school, the former Minis- to prepare their own lesson plans. The aim was to de- ters of Education of German states reached a joint deci- velop units in which students were not primarily con- sion on the new subject. This was as a reaction against fronted with materials for examinations. Moreover, the first massive scribbling of Nazi propaganda since they should be able to gain insight into the founda- the end of World War II. Therefore, a new subject in tion of a civilized society by contemplating deeply on secondary education was introduced to serve this pur- current topics. These lesson units were collected and pose. This subject was called Sozialkunde1 (civic educa- published (e.g. Engelhardt/Jahn 1964). tion) or Gemeinschaftskunde2 (social studies). 2. The Spiegel-affair – An 1. Author and context: In- exemplary lesson report service courses for teachers at As a result of these IN-SERVICE courses, Rudolf Engel- Reinhardswaldschule, Germany hardt published a lesson report on the Spiegel-Affäre In 1962, the Federal center of in-service training for (Spiegel-affair), which is dealt with in this commentary teachers at Reinhardswaldschule, located in Fulda, (Engel hardt 1964, 87-101). in the Federal state of Hesse (Germany), launched a To gain an initial idea on the Spiegel-affair, please teachers’ professional development programme in or- browse: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/ der to qualify them for teaching the then new subject wiki/Spiegel_scandal5. civic education. These courses took place for fourteen days and were lead by Rudolf Engelhardt himself. He 4 Rudolf Engelhardt published a variety books on teacher’s 3 was born in 1919. In 1937, he passed his Abitur in further education and observations of his students. He succee- Nazi-Germany. Not before 1945, he became a deter- ded in explaining general pedagogic considerations on the ba- mined democrat. As far as his profession is concerned, sis of specific classroom realities in an unsurpassed manner. His he started as a teacher at a primary and secondary prolific way of writing is definite, often amusing, but nonethe- less provides insight into complex theoretical considerations. In order to oppose to the current, predominant jargon of social sciences, teacher’s further education needs to be inspired by 1 Sozialkunde as citizenship education includes mostly civics, an easy to access book, for instance by Rudolf Engelhardt. economics, law, and questions concerning every day social life. 5 Further information on the Spiegel affair: http://www.bpb. 2 Gemeinschaftskunde is an integrated subject. It is taught from de/publikationen/01642006453512595568594735924988,2 11th till 13th grade and includes history, geography and citizen- ,0,Das_Ende_der_%C4ra_Adenauer.html, http://www.spie- ship education (including economics, law, civics, and sociology). gel.de/thema/spiegel_affaere/, http://www.youtube.com/ 3 Abitur = traditional expression for the final exam at German watch?v=jSvT2SFoY34, in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/ Gymnasium after 13 years (A-Level) wiki/Spiegel_scandal 87 Horst Leps Journal of Social Science Education Commentary: Categorial conflict-based teaching methodology as a paradigm of civic education Volume 9, Number 3, 2010, pp. 87–94 The Spiegel-affair of 1962 was one of the major po- students beyond current events?” Primarily, the aim litical scandals in Germany. In fact, the affair divided is to empower the students in general to understand the country: On the one hand, some accused the influ- and to judge current political issues independently. In ential political magazine of treason because it had re- order to be able to do that, they have to learn the po- vealed military top secret information of the German litical system’s structure and how political decision- army. The then Chancellor Konrad Adenauer called it making takes place. an “abyss of treason” as well. On the other hand, some Further, Engelhardt introduced a third variation to saw it as an attack on the liberty of press as well as on the reader. He reported on a number of lessons of this the young democracy of Germany. These controversial teacher. Afterwards he enhanced and probably added events were discussed in depth in mass media, at work- content to the report. This lesson report has resulted ing places, and at home. With regard to the teachers’ in a best practice example of civic education in Ger- in-service training, it is very likely that a course took many until today. In addition, lots of authors have place immediately after the Spiegel-affair; this caused a further refined this type of lesson since then. heated debate amongst the participating teachers on Engelhardt’s lesson unit could be still considered to how to deal with this topic in the classroom. be a model for teacher trainings, and moreover, should A number of teachers probably reported on their be part of the classical canon of subject matter didac- lessons, of which Engelhardt developed a draft that tics in the field of civic and citizenship education. helped to clarify fundamental problems in civic educa- In the beginning, the third teacher is purely con- tion. In the course of this essay, Rudolf Engelhardt will cerned with the particular aspect of the Spiegel-affair indicate three varieties of teaching which are linked to that provoked the public’s reaction: the illegal arrest three different kinds of teachers (variations 1-3): of the article’s author abroad (http://www.spiegel.de/ The first variation, for instance, he introduces a spiegel/print/d-25673830.html). In the first lesson, teacher who steps into his classroom in order to teach the students were asked to take notes of the facts the regular art lesson. The 15 year-old 8th graders are that they had heard of in the media, primarily news- awaiting him – but more or less half of them own the papers and the radio, rarely television. They wrote latest edition of the so-called weekly magazine Spie- their notes on the blackboard. Thus, the previous gel; nobody is prepared for an art lesson. Nothing knowledge established a shared basic understanding about it is supposed to be provocative – a discussion of the situation in order to review these together in about the Spiegel-affair is considered to be more vital the course of the following lessons. Further on, the than an art lesson at that moment. This has been a students presented their collected material either to result of their teacher’s way of “spoiling” his students prove or correct their previous knowledge. In fact, concerning discussions about political issues: As soon the students should challenge their own knowledge: as anything occurred which attracted public atten- “What do I know for sure, what do I assume, what is tion, he did not hesitate to answer their questions. just a view-point, and what is a judgment?” As a re- This posed a considerable problem to the teachers sult, the students are now able to justify their opinion. in their role as political educators: Should the stu- Nevertheless, assumptions need to be shared. dents be allowed to express their own view-points Unfortunately, it is a part of politics in which in- in class? And if so how? The students were possibly volved persons and the public know too little about exposed to a different lesson with opposing opinions the critical event than is necessary to react to it ad- depending on whatever political party the teacher equately. Furthermore, every point-of-view is lead by might belong to or favor; there is always a risk to be intentions and interests. Hence, it is crucial to politi- overwhelming or indoctrinating (Snook 1972/2010). cally involved persons to succeed and to be superior The arts teacher (variation 1) simply did not hesitate to someone else. This fact causes politics to be polem- to answer their questions on those things for which ical as well as it is often considered to be a (hopefully other adults considered the students either to be too only rhetorical) showdown. Both comprehension and young or too ignorant. Instead of advancing their ar- alignment are the aims of a civic education lesson. tistic skills, they decided to discuss the Spiegel-affair The political discussion was resolved by a debate as this is more important to the students, now.
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