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Tertium Comparationis, Vol. 4 (1998), No. 1

Editors: Marianne Krüger-Potratz & Botho von Kopp

Contents

Shen-Keng Yang

Universalization or Localization?

Issues of Knowledge Legitimation in Comparative Education

The endeavor to unite the universal and the accidental in both, the physical and the social world into one theoretical framework - the idea of such a unity can be found already in the Chinese concept of Tao - dates back in the modern culture to the Enlightenment. Such a unified knowledge came to be understood as a potential tool of forecasting and controlling societal progress. All through the positivistic 19th century, comparativists followed Marc-Antoine Jullien de Paris, who thought educational comparison should become an exact science whose outcomes could be used anywhere and transplanted to any place. It was Michael Sadler who as the first comparative educationalist strictly refused the idea of cultural and institutional borrowing. Under his influence comparative education focused on the variations unique to the single countries and to the factors underlying these variations. Even the later emerging functionalist method remained in the tradition of a "one-dimensional logic", which, as Marcuse alleged, was inseparably connected with the rationale of domination of nature and society. It is only the postmodern sight, which - without giving up the humanistic ideas of modernity which originated in Western modernization - opens possibilities to enter a cross cultural dialogue and to accept multiple theoretical realities.

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Peter Mark

Ethnic Identity in West Africa

Historical Perspectives on America's Discourse about Ethnicity

Political Correctness and Affirmative Action are core issues of America's difficult search for cultural identity. However, a policy of differential treatment of categorized ethnicities is likely to cause complex and dynamic identities to become static and one-dimensional. This in turn is a factor of social destabi-lization. The basic assumption of ethnicity as a fixed social or racial category is not only an over-simplification, but a policy focussing on group rights changes the character of the groups themselves and even stimulates growing isolation between them. The paper's argumentation is based on observations on the historical process of group identity-forming in Western African societies. They provide the example of how ethnic identity is a matter of dynamic constellations, of change, of interaction, of conscious and unconscious negotiation and choice, both on the group level and on the individual level.

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Wim-Jan Renkema

Knowledge of the Traveller

Case Study Research and the Problem of Generalisability

One of the rationales behind international comparative research in education is the idea that a country may be able to learn from other educational systems, policies and practices. In order for that to happen, we need both general theories of educational development and insight in how particular systems function. Most of the work in comparative and international education has in fact been the study of one specific system or phenomenon. The methodological frameworks of comparative education have valued such case studies very diverse. In this paper two principal definitions of case study research are distinguished: an ethnographic definition and a non-ethnographic definition. It is shown that in particular the latter offers the possibility to generalise from individual cases. As comparative educationists we should travel between the general and the particular. Such a journey would result in the kind of 'general' and 'particular' knowledge much needed in comparative and international education.

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Sabine Hornberg

Konterkariert die europäische Dimension im Bildungswesen die Aufgaben und Ziele der interkulturellen Bildung?

Does the european dimension in education counteract the tasks and aims of intercultural education? The european dimension in education, launched by the EU and her member states, is sought to be an integral part of the curriculum. But neither what nor how it is to be tought and learned is by no means yet clear: Is a eurocentric or a multicultural approach (to be) adopted? This is a central question in view of the EU's growing influence in general education since Maastricht (1993) and considering the fact that the multiculturality of the students in the EU is not limited to those who have their ethnic origins within the member states, but also outside. During the past 30 years in order to "suit" this situation intercultural, multicultural or anti-racist education approaches are applied. Against this background the following article looks at initiatives launched under the two topics by the EU and her member states in general, paying special attention to the situation in Great Britain and Germany. Examples of secondary schools in London and Frankfurt on the Main show how in practice both approaches are dealt with.

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Jens Brockmann und Wilfried Bos

Was Studierende der Erziehungswissenschaft mit "Europa" assoziieren

The current dynamic of the Europeanizing process was used as an opportunity to take a look at the validity of the Eurobarometer polls. The intention was to investigate by means of an association survey whether the topic areas in the Eurobarometer questionnaire also occur in the associations of interviewees here, and whether there are other topic areas which are important for interviewees here but which are not covered in the Eurobarometer. To this end, students at various universities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland were interviewed. This showed clearly that for this sample some topics which are important in the eyes of those involved are not investigated and that some of the topics investigated by the Eurobarometer appear to be unimportant for the interviewees here.

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