The GDR further education system that frames the Pedagogical Readings can be described as a multi-level system in which various actors and constellations of actors can be identified in line with the approach to educational governance. They show how supply and care bottlenecks were responded to with creativity and pedagogical dedication albeit consistently under the primacy of compensating the childrens deficits as far as possible in order to bring them as close as possible to the claim reflected in the image of a comprehensibly educated socialist personality despite obvious limitations. While the SED34 doctrine of the MfV, for example, left no doubt about the effective power of socialist education, there were more differentiated views within scientific education. Those readings that are available to us today as sources owe this to the fact that after their creation they successfully passed the aforementioned centrally organised review process by the central jury.22 Consider this: What opportunities to contribute with their own opinion, individual perception, (comparatively) independent perspective and pedagogical attitude did the authors actually have? The goal of full integration, understood as equal membership in socialist society, can be described as the central anchor point of the legitimacy of the GDR special needs school and all its educational efforts.53 The concept of integration has a double meaning here: the impaired person can, as an integral part,54 take advantage of all the positive achievements of society. The loan numbers of the prints available in the Central Library had increased from about 200 per year in the mid-1960s to 12,486 loans in 1988.6 The documented number of participants at the Central Days event, which were held at seven different venues from the mid-1980s onwards, adds up to 1000 per year at that time. In addition, the texts compiled in this collection outline the pedagogical self-image of their authors, which, even by todays standards, can attest to a certain modernity, a willingness to shape pedagogy and, in all ways, empathic commitment. Included in this subcorpus are not only school subjects but also pre-school, after-school and extracurricular educational areas. All in all, this would allow a diachronic stocktaking and the tracing of developments and advancements, if applicable. The corpus outlined here has, so far, hardly been appreciated, let alone researched. Despite this, the research on the topic that has been implemented by the Centre of Pedagogical Readings so far was able to show that some ideas from the reform pedagogy, possibly because they had become part of the educational common knowledge, had also been preserved in the GDR and provided answers to concrete educational problems, especially at the states special needs schools.51. An additional DDM 250,000 was spent on organising the Central Days of Pedagogical Readings at the various venues.5. 3 For information on the selection process: see footnote 2 above. Since the carrier materials have already significantly aged and a larger proportion is threatened by increasing deterioration, the Readings are currently being digitised. Pdagogische Lesungen zum Fach Staatsbrgerkunde in der Endphase der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, in Politikwissenschaft als Beruf, ed. On the basis of this insight, the corpus outlined here was first of all examined to ascertain what further insights could be gained regarding the treatment of cognitively impaired children in the GDR in the period from 1949 to 1989. Private lessons for piano, band instruments, and stringsare offered after school in the purpose-built music practice rooms in the Performing Arts area of FIS Oberursel or in the newly built ACE Center at FIS WIesbaden. Employee Resource Center
Did you know that with a free Taylor & Francis Online account you can gain access to the following benefits? in the title, refer to work with children with disabilities, impairments or developmental problems. Furthermore, there are teaching materials that can also be considered as binding but gave the teachers a little more flexibility in use. These classes may vary depending on the session dates. Another group of children and young people with a severe degree of imbecility (idiocy) have to be distinguished from this group. All students, at both the Oberursel and Wiesbaden campus,participate in a variety of stage productions throughout the year where they have the opportunity to show off their dramatic personalities. The partial corpus in focus here represents, analogous to the corpus as a whole, a unique base of experience reports on the pedagogical treatment of disabled or impaired children and young people in the GDR educational system. The Pedagogical Readings format was given enormous importance from the 1960s on, in terms of both subject matter and educational policy. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). 44 Katja Koch et al. German Democratic Republic (GDR) pedagogy is still a topic that is as fascinating as it is controversial in particular, when it comes to school and teaching. 27 Recommendations of the Dresden Central Institute for Further Education of July 1955, quoted from Stolz, Ursprnge und Anfnge pdagogischer Lesungen, 11. Rehearsals take place once a week after school. 1 Pedagogical District Cabinets, called Pdagogische Kreiskabinette (PKK), and County Cabinets for School Lessons and Further Education, called Bezirkskabinette fr Unterricht und Weiterbildung (BUW). This on the one hand can supplement the ideal-typical picture that emerges in official announcements and controlled publications of the GDR. Equally important is our ethical concern to set the course for children who are disadvantaged by general learning disabilities to find a suitable and adequate path in life. Tilman Grammes, Henning Schlu and Hans-Joachim Vogler, Staatsbrgerkunde in der DDR. On the other hand, the pronounced and almost exclusively critical picture of GDR teaching could be clearly informed by these findings. Previous research work on the GDR education system often does not give a positive report on GDR teaching. These again were equipped with different logics and self-interests, different power to act and control potential.33 Specific to the GDR system is the basic understanding that education is the most relevant tool to shape a persons personality, i.e. 37 Anordnung ber den organisatorischen Aufbau des Sonderschulwesens (1952); Verordnung ber die Beschulung und Erziehung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit wesentlichen physischen und psychischen Mngeln (1951).[AQ. This is all the more reason why future research on the corpus should focus on a more time-differentiated evaluation of the Pedagogical Readings written over more than 30years, both within the individual subjects and school types and with regard to certain educational policy and administrative influences. The Pedagogical Readings thus make it possible to relativise the hitherto dominant image of a decidedly deficient and sometimes inhuman treatment of disabled people in the GDR, which adequately acknowledge the personal commitment that was obviously present in many places, especially under often difficult working conditions. We use cookies to improve your website experience. Even after 30years, pedagogy in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) remains a topic that is as fascinating as it is controversial this applies, in particular, to the topics school and teaching. The Pedagogical Readings are a comprehensive historical source, which, published successively over the period 19551989, accompanies almost the entire period of the GDRs existence and deals with all relevant pedagogical fields of work in the GDRs educational system. 40 Legally sanctioned by the 5th Implementing Regulation of the law on the uniform socialist education system dated December 20, 1968. Beginning in Grade 1, students on both campuses, may learn the violin or cello. +49 (0) 6127-9940-0, An der Waldlust 15 It is noticeable that in the Pedagogical Readings, even basic school organisational specifications and procedures were subjected to critical reflection on several occasions. ", Enjoy an evening of 20th century classical music. They thus controlled themselves to the extent that prevented post-censorship, because they knew the criteria. The length of a Pedagogical Reading usually ranges from 30 to 50 pages; many also have extensive appendices with self-designed teaching materials (images, sometimes even slides or diapositives) as well as evaluations of self-recorded statistical data and even some sound recordings. Register to receive personalised research and resources by email. Music fills FISclassrooms from the very early ages. When the library was closed, the collection of about 9500 readings was moved to the holdings of the Library for Research in Educational Sciences (BBF) at the DIPF (Berlin).7 The preserved records (hereinafter referred to as Readings) cover all areas of the GDR education and training system (kindergardens, general education schools, special needs schools, vocational schools, extracurricular education). Caprice Schupp (Wiesbaden), Choir In addition to the main bands, smaller ensembles and solo performance opportunities are also offered at concerts. +49 (0) 6171-2024-0, Association for Music in International Schools. The research that has been implemented on the work with disabled children in the GDR45, 46 has worked with official documents, archive materials and retrospective witness reports, but was not able to specify the perspective of special needs educators of these times. Mark Fields(Oberursel) Using the part of the corpus that refers to the pedagogical work with cognitively impaired pupils, it shows, through examples, that a closer analysis of this highly original source material has the potential to give new impulses to social narratives concerning GDR pedagogy as well as to the related academic discussion. 14 The term Pedagogical Readings was already used in the GDR in the 1950s to describe an institutionalised form of the systematic exchange of experience between teachers, which was initiated by education policy and systematically developed into an important component of the GDRs further education system from the 1960s onwards. The Readings were expected to be a means of improving teaching and should therefore not be limited to the repetition of well known generalities.27 Furthermore, a relatively high degree of self-censorship28 on the authors part is to be anticipated, deriving from the initial context of the Readings, such as knowledge of personnel policy in the GDR public education system, even if this is due to the desire to meet the requirements. dyslexia or language promotion in German lessons). 15 Friedrich Winterhager, Lehrerweiterbildung in der DDR, in Pdagogische Berufe in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, ed S. Baske (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1990), 73. In the Readings it is repeatedly emphasised that learning must be joyful and must be linked to the individual interests of the learners in order to achieve the greatest possible effectiveness (in terms of achieving set learning goals). Unfortunately, the documents issued by and stored in the Pedagogical Cabinets have been preserved far less carefully than those of the APW and the ZIW, so that only a few negative evaluation reports have been handed down. of the ZIW) and authors of Pedagogical Readings point out that there have been numerous honest efforts at all levels (District and County Pedagogical Cabinets, Academy of Pedagogical Sciences [APW], Central Institute for Further Education [ZIW], Ministry of National Education [MfV]) to provide good quality teaching while taking into account the individuality of the pupils.30 In a certain sense, the Pedagogical Readings format thus seems to have formed a rather idiosyncratic sub-system in the GDR further education system, which was to a large extent demand-oriented. Students in Grades 25 who love to sing have the opportunity to performwith the Elementary School Choir.