Schooling as Institutional Heritage in Cultural Settings - SIHICS

Coordinating Institution: Université du Luxembourg
Contracting Partner(s): Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich (CH) , University of Bern (CH) , University of Münster (D)
From: 01/03/2010
To: 28/02/2013
Budget: 613,000.00€
Contact(s): Tröhler Daniel

Summary

The project Schooling as institutional heritage in cultural settings (SIHICS) tries to identify the idiosyncrasies of the Luxembourgish school system within an historical perspective. Today, educational questions in both research and policy are discussed on an international or even global level, and, indeed, the different national school systems are adjusting to each other on a formal level (“isomorphism”). The attraction of this global formal affinity has led to neglect of the cultural idiosyncrasies of the different school systems und thus to marginalization of the question of how the successful process of institutionalization of the modern school system came about in the different nation states. However, dominant theories about the process of globalization in education argue that the global affinities are on a formal level only, and that the inner activities of education are only partially affected by these global developments (“loose coupling”). Other theories have used this model of loose coupling to explain why encompassing reforms fail as soon as they change the inner logic of the school (“grammar of schooling”). The project will handle the developments within the Luxembourgish system as a concrete example to examine the logic of “loose coupling” and the “grammar of schooling”.

The project started in March 2010 with Prof. Dr. Daniel Tröhler as the project leader and the staff consisting of Dr. Thomas Lenz, Dr. Anne Rohstock and Dr. Peter Voss. In June 2010 Dr. Geert Thyssen (funded by the university) joined the team and in October the Doctoral Student Catherina Schreiber (granted by the AFR) began her work on the project. The scientific support staff member Ragnhild Barbu (funded by the university) joined the team in November. On September 2 to 4 2010 Dr. Thomas Lenz, Dr. Anne Rohstock, and Dr. Peter Voss presented first results of the project at the Stanford University, USA on occasion of a Doctoral and Postoctoral Schooling and on 24 September 2010 the three external experts of the project, Prof. Dr. Bernd Zymek, Prof. Dr. Fritz Osterwalder, and Dr. Norbert Grube discussed the progress and challenges of the project with the whole team on Campus in Luxembourg. Furthermore, the team was anxious to present and discuss the first results of the project with colleagues in Sheffield (University of Sheffield, Centre for Luxembourg Studies, July 14 2010) and Zurich (University of Zurich, Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft, October 27 2010) and with a broader public in Luxembourg (Public Forum, November 10 2010; Radio ARA, November 16 2010). The first results were published in various articles at the end of the year.