Conference 2000Germany
Parents as Partners with
Professionals and Politicians:
The German Case
1.1 Background
Information
Germany
lies in Central Europe and - after unification in
1990 - shares land borders with nine countries. Six
are EU members and three are potential ones: in the
north (Denmark), in the west (The Netherlands,
Belgium, Luxembourg and France), in the east (The
Czech Republic and Poland) and in the south Austria
and Switzerland. Although populated with just over 80
million inhabitants (a population density of 227
persons/km2 ), there are only three cities
(Berlin, Hamburg, Munich) with more than one million
inhabitants. Two-thirds of the population lives in
communities of fewer than 100,000 inhabitants. Eight
percent of the total population is made up of
non-German ethnic groups: almost 2 million Turks,
916,000 from the former Yugoslavia, and 558,000
Italians. The population is growing at a rate of less
than one percent. The rate of growth for the German
population is negative, but positive with regard to
immigrants.
Quite a
number of people expected systematic reform from
unification in the political as well as the
educational fields. After eight years it can be
stated that - at least in the educational field -
attainment tends to zero: the newly created states of
former East Germany follow in each case a model of
one of the western states according to political
preference (only exception: staying 12 years up to
Abitur (university entrance) instead of 13 years in
the western states of Germany).
After
unification, the Federal Republic of Germany
comprises sixteen Laender (states). Areas of
government jurisdiction are divided between the
federal government and the states. Education for
compulsory schooling falls into the exclusive
jurisdiction of the states. Authoritative control
includes regulation of the curriculum, time
schedules, professional requirements, teachers,
school buildings, equipment and recruitment of
teachers. Only about four to five percent of the
children attend private schools, which are
financially supported and supervised by state
authorities too.
On the
other hand, the federal constitution guarantees equal
opportunities to everyone. Therefore, although
independent in the educational sphere, the Laender
have to co-ordinate their domain; and they have a
long tradition in doing so as Germany has always been
federal. There is a high degree of accepted
benchmarks, e.g. concerning which subjects are to be
included in the core curriculum and to what extent
they are to be taught. The Laender co-ordinate their
educational policy through the institution of the
Standing Conference of Laender Ministers of Education
(KMK). Decisions have to be taken unanimously,
becoming legally binding through promulgation in the
form of state laws, decrees or regulations by Laender
authorities.
The
rights of parents (regarding education) are stated in
the German Constitution (Grundgesetz), Article 6(2):
"Care and education of children are the natural
rights of parents and are their foremost duty. They
are monitored by the state authorities."; and
Article 7(1+2): "(The education system) (1) The
entire school system is supervised by the state. (2)
Those invested with parental authority have the right
to determine the child’s participation in
religious instruction."
This
constitutes the necessity of co-operation between the
state compulsory school system and the parents
authorising education.
2.1 A
View of the Educational System
To make
things more complicated Germany is a federal state.
Generally speaking, compulsory schooling commences at
the age of six and finishes at eighteen. Nine (or
ten) of these years have to be spent in full-time
schooling; the following years either in full-time
schooling or part-time vocational schools, e.g. in
connection with an apprenticeship.
The
structure of the school system is given in the
following figure.
2.1.1
Pre-school
The
Kindergarten for three to six year-olds is not
directly linked to the education system and
attendance is voluntary.
2.1.2
Primary
The
Primary School (Grundschule) is the lowest level of
the educational system attended by all pupils. It
comprises grades 1 to 4 (6 to 10 years-old pupils).
2.1.3
Lower Secondary Level
10 to 16
year-old pupils) offers differentiated teaching in
accordance with young people's ability, talent and
inclination and includes:
the
Hauptschule (grades 5 - 9/10)
The
Realschule (grades 5 or 7 - 10)
the
Gymnasium (grades 5 - 10)
and as a
school experiment in all Laender and as a normal form
of school in some Laender
According
to the special task of the types of school one finds
many differences in the time-schedule and even in the
subjects.
In 1997,
the distribution of the 14/15 year old pupils (grade
8) is as follows :
Hauptschule
|
27.8%
|
Realschule
|
28.8%
|
Gymnasium
|
30.2%
|
Comprehensive Schools
(including Waldorf schools)
|
9.2%
|
Special Schools
|
4.0%
|
2.1.4 Upper Secondary Level
(16 to
19 year-old pupils) offers a three year course, which
leads to university entrance qualification (Abitur).
Since the mid 1970's the course is no longer
organised in terms of types of Gymnasium (classical,
modern languages, mathematics and science), but is
replaced by a system of basic and specialised courses
as well as compulsory and optional ones.
Upper
Secondary Level also encompasses full-time or
part-time vocational education. The West German
"dual system" of vocational education
involves co-operative apprenticeships at two learning
sites: the school and the workplace. Enterprise-based
vocational training then has two sponsors: the
Laender governments establishing and financing
vocational schools, together with enterprises
themselves financing and providing apprenticeships.
Correspondingly, responsibility in enterprise-based
vocational education is also split. The authority
shared between the Laender Ministers of Education,
the Federal Minister of Education and Science, the
Federal Institute for Vocational Training and
representatives of industry, commerce, the skilled
trades and trade unions.
2.1.5
Handicapped children
Attend
various forms of Special Schools.
2.2 The
schools are financed in three ways:
The
personnel costs (= teachers) are paid by the
states. The teachers (who are usually state
civil servants) are assigned to the schools
according to the number of pupils enrolled.
The
non-personnel costs (such as building
maintenance, equipment, laboratories,
libraries, etc.) are paid by the county,
whereby the state contributes to new
construction and larger investments.
In
some states parents have to pay for textbooks
and learning materials. In others states the
costs are mainly covered by the county (b).
Some
form of parental participation in the field of
education is known in all states. Details are laid
down in the education laws of each of the Laender
(states). It would require too much space to mention
all of the differences in parental representation. In
the case of major differences, only the most
contradictory positions are named.
In
general, five levels of participation can be
distinguished:
the
individual class
the
school
the
county
the
Land (state)
the
federal level
At the
first two levels, the parents’ partners are the
professionals (teachers, headmasters), at levels 3 to
5 their partners are politicians and administrators.
3.1
Parents as partners with professionals
3.1.2
Level 1: The individual class
The
individual class is the basis for all co-operation
and formal representation. Regular parent-teacher
meetings aim to inform the parents about the goals of
instruction, the intended curriculum and other
questions of general interest. A discussion about
education and instruction should be taking place.
The
parents of a class elect a committee, usually
comprising of a chairperson and two deputies. The
teachers of the class have to inform this elected
body about all general topics and issues regarding
the class, and to supply all required information.
The
chairperson of a class is also a member of the class
conference made up of all the teachers teaching a
particular class. Among other things, this kind of
conference discusses and decides on grading and the
evaluation of learning behaviour and social behaviour
in the classroom, on passing on to the next grade or
repeating the school year, on graduating from school,
on exams in accordance with the examination
regulations. The class conference also meets to
decide on disciplinary action, whether this entails a
written admonition, transfer to another class,
suspension for a limited period of time or expulsion
from school. It also decides on honours to be
conferred, co-ordinates homework and testing dates,
plans class excursions and other out-of-school
activities.
The
institutionalised participation of a representative
of the parents in all decisions concerning the
individual class or a student in that class at this
level ought , on the one hand, to make the
school’s decisions transparent and, on the other
hand, be a building block in the partnership based on
confidence between parents and school.
3.1.3
Level 2: The school
The
second level of formal representation is the school.
The chairpersons of the individual classes usually
form the parents’ school board. This body has
the job of general co-ordination, both in supporting
the work of the individual class representatives as
well as in co-ordinating the parents’
co-operation with the school.
The
parents’ school board elects a chairperson and
usually two deputies from among its members. The
headmaster is required to inform the parents’
school board about fundamental decisions and to
supply the necessary information.
In about
half of the states there are a number of topics where
the agreement of this body is compulsory when
introducing certain school regulations. In the others
this body can only express their viewpoint. The
topics involved include: decisions concerning the
length of the school day and whether the school week
is five or six days long; the introduction of all day
instruction; the execution of pilot projects.
A few
states have a school conference as the overall
decision making body. This means that in such a
system decisions are not made by the headmaster but
by an elected body made up of teachers, parents and
students. The seats are usually equally divided with
the teachers on the one side and the parents and
student on the other (one state even has this
strictly divided in thirds: one third teachers, one
third parents and one third students). The school
conference advises and decides in accordance with
state laws and regulations, among other things in the
question of the fundamentals of education and
teaching at the school; the application of guidelines
and curricula as well as teaching methods;
introducing textbooks and selecting teaching
materials; fundamentals concerning the use of
standardised grading for evaluating achievement;
general rules concerning homework and tests.
In quite
a number of states, a representative of the parents
is a member of the school’s subject or
department conferences. These conferences deal with
questions of didactic and methodology; the
application of guidelines and curricula;
teachers’ in-service training and continuing
education; the use of budgeted money; the
introduction and purchase of new teaching materials,
especially new textbooks; the compilation of
collections and the equipping of subject classrooms
and workshops.
The
participation of a parental representative in these
conferences, whereby the parents are in the minority,
serves to make school decisions more transparent and
to include external, non-school competency in a
subject-oriented area of school.
4.1
Parents as partners with politicians
The
differences among the states mentioned in the
previous section concerning the relationship between
parents and professionals/school administration are
marginal; yet at the levels 3 and 4 mentioned earlier
(see Section 2), there are great differences.
Depending on the (political) direction and according
to the way schools are organised there are two basic
patterns: there are states with a directoral school
model policy and those with a participational school
conference model policy. Both models look upon
parents as partners. The difference lies in their
(legal) rights: in the first group of states, the
parents’ point of view has to be recognised and
considered; in the second group of states, they only
participate in the regulation process.
4.1.1
Level 3: The county
At level
3 - putting it bluntly - it is mainly a question of
money according to the law in all states the county
is obliged to provide the financial frame (with the
exception of the personnel costs) for the schools,
e.g. buildings, maintenance, equipment, textbooks. At
this level, parents are organised at county level
(usually according to the type of school), but
working together to elect a county school board.
Efficiency - that means increasing the budget for the
educational sector - is usually only to be achieved
if the parents’ representatives work closely
with the local political representatives: perhaps to
get a new building approved, additional funding, new
equipment.
A
specialty in a minority of states is the procedure
for electing new headteachers: in these states these
elections are conducted by county boards, whereby
half of the electoral body is made up of county
political representatives, 25% teacher
representatives from the school in question and 25%
parents’ representatives from the school.
4.1.2
Level 4: The state
All
states have some kind of parents’ representation
at level 4, but their influence - in legal terms -
varies. In those states who favour the directoral
model of schooling this influence is a mere
‘state their opinion’ influence. States
with legislation favour the school conference model
(which plays a key role in, for example, inducting a
new headmaster) give the parents a distinct role in
decision making in education. Their representatives
are legally installed (and financially supported) at
the Laender (state) level, having - according to the
type of school - an elected body, with clearly
defined rights. For example, they advise the Minister
of education on important questions concerning the
school system and education that affect the parents,
especially changes in curricula and regulations about
teaching materials. The Minister of education must
inform them about all fundamental questions affecting
the schools and give them the necessary information.
Further,
in the advisory board for school affairs in the local
Ministry of education - a body of some 30 people
representing relevant societal groups - the parents
are represented with five seats: although such a
board is advisory, not decision making, in practice
no new syllabus or other regulation regarding school
has ever been set in motion against this type of
board. On the other hand, parent and teacher
representatives must come up with good arguments in
these board meetings to convince the other relevant
societal groups (e.g. churches, unions,
entrepreneurs, etc.) about their concerns.
4.1.3
Level 5: The federal level
The
federal representation is rather weak. Due to the
fact that according to the German constitution
compulsory education falls into the exclusive
jurisdiction of the Laender (states), there is no
evident necessity of any legislation to have parental
representation on the federal level. The Laender are
very strict about this because it is one of their
stronghold positions against federal supremacy.
Nevertheless,
the parents’ representatives from the various
types of schools at the Laender level saw the
necessity of forming a board at the national level;
this is organised as an association of Laender
representatives, even with a secretariat - and who
knows where the money for that is coming from.
This
body is the contact for other national parents’
associations as well as a partner of the federal
Ministry of Education and Science and of the Standing
Conference of Laender Ministries of Education (KMK,
see Section 1).
5.1 Some
concluding remarks
From
what has been said so far the differences in
parents’ participation in school and their legal
rights vary considerably among the 16 Laender. The
main reason for these differences lie in how a school
system in a specific Land (state) should be
administered: who has the administrative power - the
headmaster or a democratic elected body of the
participants in such a system?
For the
distribution of competence within a school (among the
headmaster, teachers and parents) two basic models
can be distinguished according to political
preferences in the states: the directoral model and
the school conference model.
An
example for the first model is Bavaria, where control
and school administration are almost entirely
directed by the school head, though specific tasks
may be delegated and the parents must be informed and
have a right to be heard.
In the
second model, to be found, for example, in
Schleswig-Holstein and some of the new states in
former East Germany, parents are regarded as
important stakeholders whose support is vital for
successful schooling (cf. Dodd 1998). Parents are
mediators among the state school system, the
out-of-school learning environment (cf. Toyama-Bialke
1998) and the impact on future careers (cf. Riquarts
1987). Although different in legal terms, the
institutionalised participation of parents at all
levels of decision making is understood as the only
way to build up a partnership based on confidence -
between the educational system and parents.
Kurt
Riquarts
Legal
Foundations
Federal
level:
Grundgesetz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
(Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany) vom
23.5.1949, zuletzt geändert durch Gesetz zum
Einigungsvertrag vom 23.9.1990.
State
level:
Schulgesetz für Baden-Würtemberg in der
Neufassung vom 1.8.1983, zuletzt geändert am
15.12.1997.
Bayrisches
Gesetz über das Erziehungs- und Unterrichtswesen in
der Fassung vom 7.7.1994, zuletzt geändert durch
Gesetz vom 24.7.1998.
Schulgesetz
für Berlin in der Fassung vom 29.8.1980, zuletzt
geändert durch Gesetz vom 13.3.1997.
Brandenburgisches
Schulgesetz vom 12.4.1996, zuletzt geändert durch
Gesetz vom 10.3.1998.
Bremisches
Schulgesetz vom 20.12.1994.
Schulgestz
der Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg vom 17.10.1977,
zuletzt geändert am 26.6.1989.
Hessisches
Schulgesetz vom 17.61992, zuletzt geändert durch
Gesetz vom 15.5.1997.
Schulgesetz
für das Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in der Fassung
vom 15.5.1996.
Niedersächsisches
Schulgesetz in der Fassung vom 3.3.1998.
Erstes
Gesetz zur Ordnung des Schulwesens im Landes
Nordrhein-Westfalen vom 8.4.1952, zuletzt geändert
durch Gesetz vom 17.5.1994.
Landesgesetz
über die Schulen in Rheinland-Pfalz vom 6.11.1974,
zuletzt geändert durch Gesetz vom 12.2.1997.
Schulordnungsgesetz
- zur Ordnung des Schulwesens im Saarland vom
5.5.1965, zuletzt geändert durch Gesetz vom
27.11.1996.
Schulgesetz
vür den Freistaat Sachsen vom 3.7.1991, zuletzt
geändert durch Gesetz vom 29.6.1998.
Schulgesetz
des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt in der Fassung vom
27.8.1996.
Schleswig-Holsteinisches
Schulgesetz in der Fassung vom 2.8.1990, zuletzt
geändert durch Gesetz vom 18.9.1998.
References
BMBW
(Bundesministerium für Bildung und Wissenschaft)
(Ausgabe 1997-98 and earlier editions). Grund- und
Strukturdaten. (Basis and Structural Data). Bonn.
Dodd,
A.W. (1998). What can educators learn from parents
who oppose curricular and classroom practices? Journal
of Curriculum Studies, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp.
461-477.
OECD
(Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development) (1998). Education at a Glance.
OECD Indicators. Paris.
Riquarts,
K. (ed.) (1987). Science and Technology Education
and the Quality of Life. Vol. 1. Kiel: IPN.
Riquarts,
K. & Wadewitz, C. (1997). Framework for
Science Education in Germany. Kiel: IPN.
Statistisches
Bundesamt (1998 and earlier editions). Bildung im
Zahlenspiegel. (Education in Numbers). Wiesbaden.
Toyama-Bialke,
C. (1998). Adolescents’ Daily Lives and Parental
Attitudes Toward the School: A German-Japanese
Comparative Study. Studies in Educational
Evaluation, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 347-367.
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