This article introduces the topic of the special issue, 'Public education at the crossroads', by pointing to some of the debates and controversies surrounding the topic of public education and by framing the theme, while explaining the context and some components of the educational systems of the countries under examination -- namely the USA and…

Every innovation should be questioned critically in the sense of humanization of education, in particular with regard to the context and overarching objectives for which an innovation is effective. That innovations are not always improvements will be shown on two international examples from the last six decades. In the 1960s, triggered by the…

The paper identifies three tools that support the administrative instrument of a state-based curriculum commission: compartmentalization, licensing, and segmentation. These tools channel the state's curriculum-making towards forms of symbolic rather than regulatory action. The state curriculum becomes a framework for the ideological governance of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of principals in light of public management reforms taking place in the German educational system and in reference to the empirical patterns uncovered by the papers contained in the Special Issue. Policy makers have created new expectations and new technologies that seem to suggest to…

Universities are facing the challenge of becoming more market-oriented and financially entrepreneurial in their activities as they face increasing competition at home and abroad. This requires new ways of managing, as can be seen from collaborative programs at universities in Russia and Germany. (Contains 1 note.) [This article was translated by…

In these difficult financial times, it is more important than ever to manage money carefully. Educators who don't do so are vulnerable, for despite a thirty-year history of increasing authority and status within and without the museum, education departments are still more expendable than curatorial or collections departments in some museums. This…

In the Kingdom of Bavaria, the capital city, Munich, created in 1873 positions as "Oberlehrer"--a head teacher in primary schools ("Volksschulen") responsible for one school for boys and one school for girls. The mere existence of these male "Oberlehrer" challenged for the first time the exclusive power of Catholic…

In Germany, tuition is low because state governments shoulder a much higher percentage of university budgets than in the United States. As a result, most German universities provide far fewer amenities and services, and require their professors to teach longer hours to larger numbers of students than their American counterparts. Because they are…

The past two years have not been easy for Axel Freimuth, rector of the University of Cologne. Students have doused him with water as he walked through the campus, taken his lunch in the cafeteria, and held a two-week sit-in at his wood-paneled office in the Hauptgebaude, or main building. Their anger at the rector arose from a controversial…

Highlights the manner in which different models for financing higher education can contribute to the management of higher education in Germany. Includes discussions of the management of student distribution within a given university and the development of systems for performance analysis. (SLD)

This article features Ellen Minette, principal of Heidelberg Middle School in Heidelberg, Germany. Minette attended 13 schools before she graduated from high school. Her father, an Air Force pilot who served in the Korean War and who was a part of the Berlin Airlift, was deployed much of the time as they moved from one posting to another. Growing…

No country in Europe, with the exception of France, provides specially designed professional preservice programs to prepare educational administrators. This is partly because administrators have little power, being controlled at one level by central politicians and administrators and at the institutional level by teachers and teacher unions.…

Outlines the differing educational philosophies, policies, and organizational structures of the two Germanies, from nursery to university level. Examines future prospects for integrating both institutions and personnel. Although unification was made possible by the former East Germans, they and their institutions must make the greater adaptation…

The author's work as a professor for special and inclusive education in the eastern part of Germany kindled a special interest for Canada for two reasons. First, the result of the international comparative study of students assessment showed Canada as one of the top countries and Germany as one of the countries far behind. Second, the author's…

Volume II of the Biennial Survey of Education, 1916-1918 includes the following chapters: (1) Education in Great Britain and Ireland (I. L. Kandel); (2) Education in parts of the British Empire: Educational Developments in the Dominion of Canada (Walter A. Montgomery), Public School System of Jamaica (Charles A. Asbury), Recent Progress of…