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Effective school leaders significantly influence the performance of their schools. Unfortunately, in many countries worldwide attracting qualified candidates to become school principals is becoming increasingly difficult. This paper reports on several comparative studies that were carried out within the framework of a long-term research cooperation between a German and an US-American University. The aim of these studies was to clarify the motivation of teachers in deciding for or against taking over a position as a principal. For a better understanding of the background, the article also includes a section on the similarities and differences between the school systems of Germany and the USA and the responsibilities of principals.
This article introduces and discusses a theoretically and empirically founded integrated framework model of the principal's leadership role for inclusive education. Leadership is widely discussed as a key factor for success in inclusive education. Additional systematic research efforts are required with respect to this topic, particularly in the context of the German school system. This study analyses principals' leadership roles in one German federal state. Interviews were conducted with fifteen school principals from schools that are assigned to implement inclusive education. Findings from the qualitative content analysis draw a complex picture that is summarised in an integrated framework model. This model addresses (1) the multilevel hierarchical character of the school system and (2) the role of social discourse in shaping principals' perspectives. This model integrates different theoretical approaches such as the four-frame model of leadership orientation, the theory of recontextualisation, and educational governance to describe principal leadership and its contribution for inclusive education.
The article raises the question of whether and how education systems produce social differences internally rather than reproducing pre‐existing “external” inequalities. Linking Niklas Luhmann’s theory of inclusion/exclusion with Charles Tilly’s theory of categorical inequalities, and based on empirical data from various qualitative studies, the article identifies an “observation regime” epistemically constituting the social classification of students and legitimising organisational closure mechanisms in the school system. As an alternative to the “reproduction paradigm,” a research approach guided by differentiation theory is proposed that takes into account that educational inequality operationally arises on the “inside” of the educational system and is caused by unequal inclusion processes.
This article presents an analysis of the formation of organized interest groups in the post-communist context and organizational populations over time. We test two theories that shed doubt on whether vital rates of interest groups are explained by individual incentives, namely, the political opportunity structure and population ecology theory. Based on an analysis of the energy policy and higher education policy organizations active at the national level in Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia, we find that while the period of democratic and economic transition indeed opened up the opportunity structure for organizational formations, it by no means presented a clean slate. Communist-era successor and splinter organizations survived the collapse of communism, and all three countries entered transition with relatively high density rates in both organizational populations. We also find partial support for the density dependence hypothesis. Surprisingly, the EU integration process, the intensity of legislative activity, and media attention do not seem to have meaningfully influenced founding rates in the two populations
The article analyses the strategies of Hungarian higher education interest organisations against the encroachments on academic freedom by Viktor Orbán's governments. We contrast the 2012–2013 and 2017–2019 protest waves and find that innovations in strategy came from new organisations in both periods, whereas established ones were rather passive or opted for the status quo. However, in the second period, new actors consciously declined to pursue wider systemic goals and aimed at building up formal organisations instead of loose, movement-like networks. The focus on keeping a unified front and interest representation on the workplace level did not change the overall outcome. Just like during the first period, the government was able to reach its goals without major concessions. Nevertheless, during the second protest wave the government was unable to divide and pacify its opponents, which stripped it of its legalistic strategy and revealed its authoritarianism.
The data on the formations and dissolutions of Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovenian national-level healthcare, higher education and energy policy interest groups show that there were relatively large organizational populations in these countries already at the outset of post-communist transition in 1990. In other words, there was no tabula rasa – the evolution of interest organizations did not start completely anew. There was, however, a substantial variation between policy fields and countries in the sizes of these pre-transition populations. What explains this variance? The chapter explores in detail the formation rates across the four countries and three policy fields through time. In their explanation, the authors focus on the nature of the communist regime, its overall repressiveness, the periods of political and economic liberalizations and the political mobilization and fragmentation in the period leading up to regime change. On the basis of the Hungarian sub-sample, where such data are reliably available, the chapter also compares the mortality rates of organizations founded before and after transition. The findings shed new light on the debates on civil society development and democratization in post-communist societies. The chapter also draws attention to the importance of the proper operationalization of fundamental political changes to the polity in population ecology theory in general, and in the energy–stability–area model of organizational density in particular.
What explains the formation rates of interest organizations in post-communist democracies over time? This chapter provides a bird’s eye view of the size and scope of the interest group populations in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia. To what extent did pre-communist organizations survive the transformation process and how radically was the interest group population transformed by the transition to a market economy, democracy and in some cases nation-building? The authors tackle these issues by exploring the formation and dissolution rates of organized interests in three non-related, yet critical policy areas for the viability of post-communist democracies – energy, healthcare and higher education. In doing so, they focus on a series of factors which might accelerate or decelerate the formation of organized interests. Besides the collapse of the communist regime and introduction of the market economy, the interest group landscape may also be profoundly affected by European Union accession, but also by key national legislation. Based on population ecology datasets which they compiled, the authors assess the volatility and continuity of each different interest group system from a cross-country and cross-policy perspective, while also comparatively exploring changes regarding the types of organizations (e.g. patients vs. medical profession, students vs. academic profession, energy producers vs. consumers, clean vs. dirty energy).
Englisch:
The article tests the energy–stability–area (ESA) model of interest group population density on a sample of different 2018 Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovenian energy, higher education and health care interest organisation populations. The unique context of recent simultaneous political, economic and in the cases of Czechia and Slovenia, national transitions present a hard test for population ecology theory. Besides the area (constituency size) and energy (resources, issue certainty) terms, the article brings the stability term back into the center of analysis. The stability term, that is, the effect of a profound change or shock to the polity is operationalised as Communist-era population densities. As all three policy domains are heavily state controlled and tightly regulated, the effect of neocorporatist interest intermediation is also tested. The article finds strong support for the energy and neocorporatism hypotheses and provides evidence for the effect of communist-era organisational population density on post-transition densities: The size of 2018 organisational populations is found to be dependent on pre-transition densities. The relationship is, however, not linear but curvilinear. Nevertheless, the analysis indicates that the effect of pre-transition population size is moderated by other environmental level factors.
Deutsch:
Der Artikel testet das Energie-Stabilitäts-Gebietsmodell (ESA) der Bevölkerungsdichte von Interessengruppen an einer Stichprobe verschiedener tschechischer, ungarischer, polnischer und slowenischer Bevölkerungen von Energie-, Hochschul- und Gesundheitsorganisationen aus dem Jahr 2018. Der einzigartige Kontext der jüngsten gleichzeitigen politischen, wirtschaftlichen und im Falle Tschechiens und Sloweniens nationaler Übergänge stellt die Theorie der Populationsökologie auf eine harte Probe. Neben den Begriffen Flächen (Wahlkreisgröße) und Energie (Ressourcen, Themensicherheit) rückt der Artikel den Stabilitätsbegriff wieder in den Mittelpunkt der Analyse. Der Stabilitätsbegriff, dh die Auswirkung einer tiefgreifenden Veränderung oder eines Schocks auf das Gemeinwesen, wird als Bevölkerungsdichte der kommunistischen Ära operationalisiert. Da alle drei Politikbereiche stark staatlich kontrolliert und streng reguliert sind, wird auch die Wirkung neokorporatistischer Interessenvermittlung getestet. Der Artikel findet starke Unterstützung für die Energie- und Neokorporatismus-Hypothesen und liefert Belege für den Effekt der organisationalen Bevölkerungsdichte der kommunistischen Ära auf die Dichte nach dem Übergang: Die Größe der Organisationsbevölkerung im Jahr 2018 hängt von der Dichte vor dem Übergang ab. Der Zusammenhang ist jedoch nicht linear, sondern krummlinig. Dennoch zeigt die Analyse, dass der Effekt der Bevölkerungsgröße vor dem Übergang durch andere Umweltfaktoren gemildert wird.
When “software takes command”, people take fright – a reaction which frequently accompanies change or novelty. Their fears are understandable, but they also cloud people’s view of the potentials that digital tools and digital media hold for society and especially educational contexts. Their fears also define societal debates and contribute to a general lack of ambition when it comes to seizing the opportunities for broad collaboration in the design of a “digital society”. This paper identifies a selection of conceptual digital potentials, presents the initial findings of an ongoing study and uses these as a basis to formulate recommendations for reclaiming society’s formative authority over the shape of the digital in its midst.
Technology criticism and data literacy: The case for an augmented understanding of media literacy
(2020)
Reviewing the history of media literacy education might help us to identify how creating media as an approach can contribute to fostering knowledge, understanding technical issues, and to establishing a critical attitude towards technology and data. In a society where digital devices and services are omnipresent and decisions are increasingly based on data, critical analysis must penetrate beyond the “outer shell” of machines – their interfaces – through the technology itself, and the data, and algorithms, which make these devices and services function. Because technology and data constitute the basis of all communication and collaboration, media literate individuals must in the future also have a sound understanding of technology and data literacy. This article examines the relevance of this broader definition of literacy and delivers a forward-looking defense of media literacy education in schools. It also posits the thesis that the digital transformation represents a challenge, which is confronting society, politics, and education alike.