Controversial Issues in the Political Classroom
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Journal of Social Science Education Volume 15, Number 2, Summer 2016 DOI 10.4119/UNIBI/jsse-v15-i1-1541 Jennifer Bruen, Tilman Grammes Editorial: Controversial Issues in the Political Classroom Keywords unofficial translations in, for example, Danish, Italian, Beutelsbach Consensus (Beutelsbacher Konsens), contro- Russian, Polish, Turkish, Korean and Chinese. As a result, versial issues, Dewey, indoctrination, political action the Beutelsbach Consensus remains probably Germany’s most prominent contribution to date to international 1 Introduction: The Beutelsbach Consensus and its core discourse on citizenship education. It can be argued that principles its existence allays to some extent the concerns of aca- demics in the German tradition that their contributions „Was in Wissenschaft und Politik kontrovers ist, muss may at times be perceived by an international audience auch im Unterricht kontrovers erscheinen.“ as being somewhat individualistic, perhaps even overly “Ce qui dans les sciences et en politique fait l'objet de “cerebral”. controverses doit l'être au même titre dans l'ensei- The principle of respect for controversy underpins all gnement.” other principles elucidated in the Beutelsbach Consensus. Indeed, it is widely cherished as one of the “Lo que resulta controvertido en el mundo de las cien- fundamental values of democratic education (see Council cias y la política, tiene que aparecer asimismo como of Europe “Training Pack”, 2015). This notion that an tema controvertido en clase.” education system should not attempt to present issues “Matters which are controversial in intellectual and po- as being either “harmonious” or resolved when they are litical affairs must also be taught as controversial in ed- viewed by the wider public as controversial can be traced ucational instruction.” back to the ideological debates which took place during the era of the Weimar Republic in Germany. In the af- Website of Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Baden- termath of the First World War, this principle was used Württemberg (Federal Agency of Political Education to differentiate between political education (politische Baden-Württemberg) Bildung) , on the one hand, and party political schooling www.lpb-bw.de/beutelsbacher-konsens.html (parteipolitische Schulung) on the other, or more broadly between education and the transfer of values between The above are official translations of one of the most successive generations (Erziehung) and indoctrination i. famous extracts from the Beutelsbach Consensus The relationship between (prohibited) indoctrination (Beutelsbacher Konsens) which this year celebrates its and teaching in schools remains ambiguous, however. 40th anniversary. Originating from an informal set of While explicit, dogmatic indoctrination can be clearly minutes, documenting a meeting held in a small town in identified, for example in the educational dictatorship the South of Germany in 1976, the Consensus encap- that was Nazi Germany, more subtle means of influen- sulates core principles intended to underpin political cing students using persuasive strategies of omission and education in Germany and has become a central pillar of avoidance, for example, may be less apparent. Thus, the the education landscape in the German-speaking world ban in the Beutelsbach Consensus on the indoctrination (for ongoing debate see Bundeszentrale für politische of students, primarily by overwhelming them with infor- Bildung, 2016; Frech & Richter, 2016). mation giving only one side of an argument, is widely While many of the concepts, with which the Consensus recognized as an essential component of teachers’ pro- grapples, are universal, others are deeply rooted in fessional ethics both in Germany and further afield. It is German educational culture rendering the document it- argued that a student should instead be regularly con- self notoriously difficult to translate. Official translations fronted with opposing, contradictory views, claims, de- exist, nonetheless, in English, Spanish and French, and mands and judgments and in order to truly experience Jennifer Bruen is Associate Dean for Teaching and contemporary debates taking place around them. Learning in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Given the continuing relevance of the Beutelsbach prin- Sciences at Dublin City University. Her research ciples to contemporary educational debate, we introduce interests include political education, language this issue with a contribution by Sibylle Reinhardt teaching and learning, and language policy. School of (Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany), Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, Dublin City entitled The Beutelsbach Consensus. Reinhardt’s contri- University, Dublin Ireland, Email: bution provides an English version of the full text of the [email protected] core principles of Beutelsbach Consensus (see summary Tilman Grammes is Chair of Educational Science/Social translations for French and Spanish below), giving their Studies Education at Hamburg University and Editor of historical context and explaining the relevance the JSSE. Research interest among others: comparative Consensus continues to have for German discourse on and intercultural education, qualitative research . democratic education. Ever since 1976, a period of in- University of Hamburg, Faculty of Education Science , tense ideological conflict, the Beutelsbach Consensus has FB 5, Von-Melle-Park 8, 20146 Hamburg, Germany played a pivotal role in debates in Germany concerning Email: tilman.grammes@uni -hamburg.de the teaching of political education and civics in schools. 2 Journal of Social Science Education Volume 15, Number 2, Summer 2016 ISSN 1618–5293 In an extract from her book, Teaching civics. A Manual obvious in the similarities between Reinhardt’s typology for Secondary Education Teachers , a seminal text in the (discussed previously) and Kelly (1996). German speaking world (Politikdidaktik, 2005, 4 th edition Reinhardt’s contribution grants the reader access to in 2012), Reinhardt uses her experience as a young tea- the various “embryonic societies” (Dewey, 1907, p. 32) cher in the early 1970s as a starting point. She draws on encapsulated within civics classrooms, many of which how she and her post-1968 generation of novice tea- mirror the social and political culture in which they are chers struggled with the problem of controversy and rooted. Central questions include the extent to which we ideology in the classroom. These struggles included con- are informed about “doing controversy”, the everyday flicts among teachers, with both students and parents, practices of controversial discourse and debate in the and with the wider public. They took place at a time classroom, and ways in these controversial processes of during which political education was a “hot topic” ideolo- negotiation of meaning and knowledge construction can gically to the extent that, in 1974, debate around guide- be described and analysed. lines for political education contributed significantly to the fall of a federal government in the German state of El consenso de Beutelsbach Hesse, an experience which paralyzed developments in this field for a long period. Reflecting on 25 years’ experi- 1. Prohibicón de abrumar al alumno con objeto de ence as a secondary school teacher, prior to accepting a lograr su adhesión a una opinión política determinada University Chair, Reinhardt identifies a typology of lear- ... ner groups and related professional strategies for civics teachers. She addresses in particular the crucial ques- 2. Lo que resulta controvertido en el mundo de las cien- tions of whether or not teachers should disclose their cias y la política, tiene que aparecer asimismo como personal political views in the classroom. tema controvertido en clase. Reinhardt’s seminal work is frequently used as a foun- dation text in teacher training and such translation of Esta exigencia está íntimamente ligada a la anterior, pues Reinhardt’s subject-specific didactic principles in tandem si se pasan por alto posiciones y posturas divergentes, se with examples of best practice in their implementation ignoran opciones y no se discuten alternativas, ya se está makes the “German tradition” accessible to the non- caminando por la senda del adoctrinamiento. Cabe German speaking scholar in an exemplary manner. Her preguntarse si el enseñante no debería incluso asumir work is also capable of being amended and adapted for una función correctora, es decir, si no debe elaborar y use in a variety of contexts. Partially to stimulate such presentar muy particularmente aquellos puntos de vista exchange, two reviewers, in this issue, approach y alternativas que a los alumnos (y a otras personas Reinhardt’s conceptualisation of political education from participantes en los programas de formación política), different perspectives. A focus in both reviews is on the por su origen político y social específico, les son ajenos. extent to which her principles and practices are capable Al constatar este segundo principio queda claramente de of becoming embedded in different national and regional manifiesto por qué la posición personal del enseñante, el contexts. John Lalor (Dublin City University, Dublin, fundamiento teórico de su actividad científica y su Ireland) presents a comprehensive and reflective review opinión política, carecen relativamente de su interés. from the perspective of an Irish educational context, Para volver sobre un ejemplo ya citado, su noción de while Anders Christensen