Educational Change and Social Transformation

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the East German educational system has undergone fundamental changes within the context of a vast restructuring of the economy, the political system, and the institutions of civil society. These changes affect the very core of what goes on in teaching and learning at schools and universities. First published in 1996, Educational Change and Social Transformation provides an account of the nature and extent of these changes from both a policy and a classroom perspective, showing how every facet of education—governance, curriculum, structure, and teaching—has been profoundly affected by the transformation of the social and political environment.

The authors are a team of American and German researchers, some of whom have also been participant actors in the process of change that this book analyses. Their analysis should appeal to educational practitioners, policy makers, and researchers alike, as well as to those interested in better understanding the nature of the transformation that swept through Central and Eastern Europe.

Hans N. Weiler is Professor Emeritus of Education and Political Science, and Academic Secretary, Emeritus, Stanford University. He was director of UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning in Paris (IIEP) in the 1970s and has served as a consultant to a number of international organizations (including the World Bank and the African Development Bank), foundations and national governments in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. His publications deal with the politics of educational change, the international politics of knowledge production, and the dynamics of reform and nonreform in higher education.

Heinrich Mintrop is Professor of Education at Berkeley School of Education, UC Berkeley. Before his academic career, he worked as a secondary school teacher in both Germany and the United States. Mintrop earned his Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University (1996). His research focuses on how educational policies shape institutional structures that influence teaching and learning in schools. He has received funding from various foundations and has conducted comparative studies on school accountability systems.

Elisabeth Fuhrmann spent many years on classroom teaching, and curriculum research and development. At the time of the first publication, she was the member of the board of directors of the Commission for Didactics in the German Association for Educational Research.