DFG-Project „Efficiency of educational policy reform strategies in public (vocational)-schools – Multilevel analysis based on the example of the extended autonomy of the individual school”

Time: 7/1/2006 – 12/31/2008

Financing: German Research Foundation (DFG)

Aim of the study is to further specify the reform initiative “Extended Autonomy of Individual Schools”, and to make it quantifiable and operable it in its diverse dimensions. Furthermore, the actors’ interpretation and reaction patterns on different controlling levels should be identified and depicted, in order to identify possible failures in the top-down driven reform process in and between the controlling levels. Additionally, important determining factors that influence the implementation of the reform in the individual schools are to be identified.

The project uses and combines qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical social studies which allows for the demand for increasing method triangulation.

Qualitative Study:

  • Interview of the three upper hierarchy levels in educational policy (school administration, school inspection, school leadership) of the state of Berlin
  • Topic-focused interview by means of guided questions
  • Recording of subjective definitions of-, associations with-, and dispositions toward- processes created by the reform initiative “Extended Autonomy of Individual Schools”

Quantitative Study:

  • Written survey for teachers and members of the school administration at 16 secondary schools in Berlin
  • The scales used are based on the constraining and supportive determining factors named in the qualitative study of the reform implementation

Results

  • Identification of diverse breaches in implementation between and within individual levels. Differing mental models, differing perception and disposition of and toward reform structures may be possible causes.
  • Typologies of individual groups of actors within a level, which are based upon differing dispositions. Especially by the administrative actors, who identified the perceived resistance to innovation from the teachers, due to group identification and the perceived foreign direction, to be significant factors of willingness for innovation and reform.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia; Dipl.-Hdl., Dipl.-Betrw. Manuel Förster

Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz

Chair of Business Education

Jakob-Welder-Weg 9

D-55009 Mainz

Phone: +49 (0)6131 39 22009

Fax: +49 (0)6131 39 22095