Kai Schumacher M.A.

• Proseminar: Zwischen Aufbruch und Zukunftsangst - Die 1970er Jahre in Deutschland (WiSe 2023/24)
• Übung: Bildungspolitik in der Krise – Schulreformen in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren (SoSe 2023)
  

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North Rhine-Westphalia's schools underwent unprecedented reform in the ten years between 1968 and 1978: The social-liberal coalition in Düsseldorf changed the elementary school, teacher training, political education, the gymnasiale Oberstufe, and pursued the plan to replace the tripartite school system with an integrated comprehensive school. All of this did not meet with the exclusive approval of the population on the Rhine and Ruhr. The aim of my work is to present the arguments of the supporters and opponents of these reforms.

and opponents of these reforms and to place them in the context of the debates in society as a whole at the time. My thesis is that the introduction of comprehensive schools and the reorientation of civic education, for example, were so controversial because they were not only aimed at equal opportunities, but also sought to change very different areas, such as the relationship of authority between teachers and students. New forms of school management and teaching were to be practiced, and a new education for "maturity" or "emancipation" was to be introduced. This, I suspect, gave both reforms the odor of ideological projects and contributed to the partisan polarization and sharpness of the counter-reactions. Whether this impression can be confirmed by the sources will be the guiding question of my investigation.