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„Strong Teachers, Strong Students“

Pilot Project for Advancing Pedagogical Competency in the Confrontation with Anti-Democratic Positions

Prof. Dr. Rico Behrens

Project duration: 2015 – 2023

The pilot project „Strong Teachers, Strong Students” was launched at nine vocational training sites in the Free State of Saxony in 2015 with the aim to promote deliberate confrontation of right-wing extremist attitudes at vocational training schools. In addition to providing participating teachers with further education and training about the subject area, the project established communicative supervision and coaching processes to support the strengthening of teacher personalities as well as the development of the dialogical school environment in general. The project further aimed at reinforcing relations between the schools and non-school partners such as clubs, societies, initiatives, and youth welfare organizations.

Upon completion of the main project phase in 2018, the pilot project transitioned into a transfer phase which continues to this day. The project’s initial approach to promote a democratic, anti-racist school culture foremost through professional counseling, coaching, and networking of teachers is currently being applied by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Federal Agency for Political Education in further regions and federal states.

In the course of this, the Chair for Political Education at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt is conducting a comprehensive and foundational investigation at project sites in Lower Saxony and Brandenburg. The investigation is to outline the structural prerequisites through which to successfully act on the subject of group-focused enmity, the challenges of right-wing extremist and populist attitudes and positions at school, and the possibilities for (advanced) training of vocational teachers in political education.

The focus here is twofold: One, on transfer-oriented logics of communication, dialogue, and implementation on the levels of education administration and second, on the outlining of prerequisites necessary for a sustainable change of school cultures concerning this subject matter. The latter point includes the negotiation of social and political patterns of interpretation in both communication-based and experiential settings. The analysis of practice and communication processes further highlights the relations between central social actors such as heads of school, educational administration officials, heads of department, teachers, and students.

The subject of racism and group-focused enmity poses a comprehensive social challenge. Different prevention and response measures in the German educational landscape, however, make apparent specific characteristics and starting points for such measures, which can vary between states and regions of educational networks. Through policy analysis, the project takes these parameters into consideration as well.

For previous findings and empirical values from the pilot project “Strong Teachers, Strong Students” and its evaluation, see:

  • Transfer-oriented monograph on the pilot project in Saxony: Behrens, Rico; Besand, Anja; Breuer Stefan (2021): Politische Bildung in reaktionären Zeiten. Plädoyer für eine standhafte Schule. Frankfurt. Wochenschau Verlag.

https://wochenschau-verlag.de/Politische-Bildung-in-reaktionaeren-Zeiten/41135

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