Some Thoughts on Post-Reunification Pedagogical Adjustments

Abstract

This paper emerged from research I conducted in June 1997 in former East Berlin. During this time I was given the opportunity to visit the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education to conduct research in Berlin. My principal goal during this time was very simple: to learn as much as possible about the experiences of East German teachers before, during, and after German reunification. The other goal was to develop a foundation of understanding about former East German teachers and their transformation experience in an attempt to prepare for conducting full-scale dissertation1 research on this topic in the following year (presently I am researching in Berlin, again as a guest at the Max Planck Institute2 and also under the patronage of an Alexander von Humboldt Federal Chancellor [Bundeskanzler] Fellowship). Through discussion on a wide range of topics covering a broad spectrum of time and experience, I hoped to learn about some important issues that these teachers today feel still must be resolved. More narrowly, the objective of my research was to learn about teachers' attitudes toward the West German educational system introduced after the reunification [Wende] and how they evaluate the system in light of their prior experiences as teachers in the German Democratic Republic.