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Tertium Comparationis, Vol. 8 (2002), No. 1

Editor: Norbert Wenning

Contents

Heike Niedrig

Strategien des Umgangs mit sprachlicher Vielfalt - Analyse bildungspolitischer und konzeptioneller Ansätze

This contribution to "language in education" policy suggests two analytic dimensions for the discussion of different strategic approaches and perspectives in education policy. The first dimension is based on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the "language market", according to which the evaluation of language competencies reflects the social power relations while reproducing them at the same time. Educational concepts must therefore be scrutinized for their potential effects on the hierarchies in the language market. The second dimension deals with the often implicit concepts of multilingualism that inform certain approaches to "language in education". Three main perspectives are identified, which can roughly be characterized as follows: multilingualism as a problem - but an inevitable transition stage towards monolingual communication in the dominant language; multilingualism as qualification and objective of educational programmes; multilingualism as starting-point and resource for learning processes.

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Ausma Spona

Veränderter Umgang mit sprachlicher Vielfalt in Lettland

The following deals with changes in the linguistic situation in Latvia. The main focus is here at the reactions on this changes in school. The linguistic conditions in Latvia are described und the socio-linguistic situation will be examined. Particularly introduced are the changing role of foreign languages in the school and the shift of their status. Furthermore the pedagogical orientation of the teaching of foreign languages will be explained. Then the discussion deals with revisions of the curriculum in the field of foreign languages under consideration of that socio-linguistic and intercultural orientation, that shall support the learning of foreign languages in Latvia in a way which orientates toward the learners. Under this circumstances priority is given to the development of the personality and the integration into society. This leads to reformulated aims in the field of foreign languages: discovery and support of everybody's opportunities of individual development, the creation of possibilities and conditions for such a self development and the task to accustom everybody to the use of his own possibilities and his own experiences in the examination of the real surroundings and the linguistic diversity.

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Bernd Overwien

Berufliche Bildung für den informellen Sektor

More and more people in Third World Countries are only able to ensure their survival by work within the informal sector of the economy. They work in unprotected conditions of employment, without social security and frequently under precarious conditions. These people mostly have a very limited access to formal education, and yet they manage to acquire many of the competences necessary for their activities. The article focuses a German discussion about new forms of employment-oriented training for these people with concrete proposals for international cooperation in the field of vocational education.

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Asit Datta

Bildung für Alle - Bildung als Ware
Widersprüchliches in der Bildung in Entwicklungsländern:
Bekämpfung des Analphabetismus und "Big business" - Anmerkungen zur UN-Konferenz in Dakar

The processes which can be found in the development of the educational systems in (some) developing countries show an up to now not very much noticed Janus-face: On the one hand the discussions which take place at the UN-conferences about the development of education - last in 2000 in Dakar - are based on an insecure statistical foundation. A lot of the information cannot withstand a critical inquiry. So we may assume that the real position of the educational system is even worse than the official statistics show us. On the other hand we find in developing countries processes of a commercialisation of education, which are not yet recognized in the political discussions but could be interpreted as signs of a farreaching change in - at least parts of - the educational systems in many of these countries.

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Constantinos Papanastasiou

TIMS Study, National Findings and Consequences in Cyprus

The public educational system of Cyprus is highly centralized and the Ministry of Education formulates the intended curriculum for all subjects. In general expenditure on all levels of education are satisfactory, although there are demands for more. The University of Cyprus, as a research institution, has a leading role on local and international research projects. The results for students in mathematics and science of the 4th and 8th grade and in the literacy study (TIMSS) in the final year of secondary school are not encouraging for Cyprus. Cyprus was one of the last among the countries that participated in the TIMS study. But the results for students in mathematics who took advanced courses were very encouraging. Only one country had statistically higher achievements than the pupils from Cyprus. In the case of advanced courses in physics, it seems that the students from Cyprus did fairly well. Only four out of 16 countries had statistically higher achievements. The mean achievement of pupils who selected advanced courses is far higher than achievement of the 4th and 8th graders, and the mean achievement of pupils in the literacy courses is far lower than achievement of the 4th and 8th graders. It seems that the Ministry of Education is taking the necessary measures to lift the image of the educational system.

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Alfred K. Treml

Reformpädagogische Semantik und sozialer Wandel

Subject of the following contribution is the connection between reform-educational semantics and social change. Having analyzed the term "Reformpädagogik" the etymological und systematical meaning of the reform-educational program will be presented. "Reformpädagogik" is a field of education which does not - contrary to its first appearance - stand for the new but pleads for the old and the familiar as the better and wants to re-establish it through (political and educational) changes. Furthermore, the evolution-theoretical and the theory-technical functions of such semantics will be worked out.

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