Reducing school administration to a technicality? Philosophical reflections of senior German school administrators in the context of New Public Management‐based vocational school reform

Abstract

Vocational schools in Germany are currently undergoing administrative reform. The main idea behind this reform, taken from the administrative paradigm of New Public Management, has been to grant schools extended autonomy but to make them more accountable for their results. Critics emphasize that such reform tends to reduce school administration to a mere technicality. Specifically, it is held to diminish philosophical reflection that is an important part of the schools’ educational fabric. This article provides evidence of administrators’ ontological, ethical, and epistemological reasoning in the context of the current reform. Evidence shows that the administrators view administrative reform as an opportunity to put their philosophical reasoning in place. Given the specific background of German vocational schools, the article concludes that additional reporting procedures and external evaluation will not necessarily diminish the relevance of the administrators’ philosophical reflection for the administration of their schools. However, philosophical reasoning is an important component of the implementation of the reform and should be encouraged when training school administrators.

Acknowledgement

Grateful appreciation is expressed to the senior administrators who participated in the study and to Jürgen van Buer as well as to Eugenie Samier for their contributions to the ideas underpinning this article. The author also wishes to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.

Notes

1. According to Bernstein (1975), school’s message systems are structured to include curriculum (what counts as valid knowledge), pedagogy (what counts as valid procedures of transmission), and evaluation (what counts as the valid realization of knowledge). In contrast to Bernstein’s (1975) view, epistemological reasoning of administrators as examined in this article concerns valid knowledge in doing educational administration. From this point of view, both what counts as valid realizable knowledge by students and what counts as valid procedures of transmission are considered as an essential part of what counts as valid knowledge in educational administration.

2. Translation by the author.

3. There is no fully adequate translation of the German term ‘Regionales Berufsbildungzentrum’. The most common translation of the word ‘Berufsbildung’ is ‘vocational education and training’. The term ‘Regional Vocational Education Centre’ is used for reasons of readability.

4. Federal Commission on Educational Planning and Research Funding; the Commission’s conference on the topic in 2001 had crucial impact on the German policy discourse.

5. ‘Quality management’ means management activity aiming at defining, evaluating, and improving quality.

6. This has been demonstrated by participants of the BLK conferences on administrative vocational school reform, which include high‐profile politicians, vocational education researchers, and other relevant societal groups (e.g. BLK 2002).

7. Landesbildungsserver Schleswig‐Holstein (2002).

8. Niedersächsischer Landtag (2001).

9. The term is used here in a sense deviating from the common use in Maslow’s pyramid, but likewise indicating individual shortfalls with respect to positive living perspectives (cf. similarly Hodgkinson 1996)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eveline Wittmann

Eveline Wittmann is a post‐doctoral fellow at the Institute of Education at Humboldt‐University, Berlin. She is affiliated to the chair of Economics and Business Education.