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Mapping Out the Transnational Educational Space Between Germany and Turkey

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Bildung in transnationalen Räumen

Abstract

Paolo Freire, with his pedagogy of the oppressed, is a legend in the field of education and beyond. The renowned Brazil reformer favored education as a social practice of freedom and as a means of enabling younger generations to critically and creatively deal with reality in order to take an active part in the transformation of the world. Agency has remained, and needs to be cherished, as an important educational objective—especially in times of deep social divisions and growing tensions—a tendency clearly perceptible even in societies which consider themselves to be democratic and pluralistic. This volume deals with the potentials and challenges of educational institutions in a rapidly transforming world—not only international—but increasingly in densely interwoven webs of transnational relations. In the following essays, we will be exploring in depth the German-Turkish transnational space, which has expanded remarkably in the past couple of decades.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For the details of the education system in Turkey, please see http://www.meb.gov.tr/english/indexeng.htm; http://www.yok.gov.tr/en as well as http://oecd.org/edu/EDUCATION%20POLICY%20OUTLOOK%20TURKEY_EN.pdf.http:// Besides normal high schools (lise) that provide four years of secondary education after eight years of primary and middle school education, there are some public and private high schools with a special language profile. These high schools provide one year of intense foreign language study followed by three or four years of regular high school education with additional hours for foreign language instruction. The medium of instruction at these schools is mostly English but may also be French or German (see Ressmeyer as well as Tapan and Hatipoğlu in this volume). The language of instruction at state universities is mostly Turkish; however, some state universities are English-, German-, or French-medium. Most foundation universities are English-medium

  2. 2.

    The German school system is traditionally a selective system of three tiers after four years (in some federal states six) of primary education. Secondary schools are called Hauptschule (vocational school), Realschule (middle school) or Gymnasium (grammar school) complemented by Gesamtschulen (comprehensive schools). Higher education starts after 12 or 13 key stages. A basic outline of the German education system can be found at http://www.eduserver.de/zeigen_e.html?seite=4112; a more detailed account is provided by the KMK at http://www.kmk.org/information-in-english/the-education-system-in-the-federal-republic-of-germany.html. German is generally used as the language of instruction in all state schools, although foreign languages hold a high status within the curriculum. The portfolio of foreign languages taught traditionally comprises of English and the large national European languages. Bilingual approaches to teaching content subjects, also known as Content and Language integrated Learning (CLIL), have been employed since the 1960s mostly at grammar schools but have become very popular in the past two decades also in other school forms. French had initially been the language of instruction in CLIL schools, but nowadays English is far more common as a CLIL language, with very occasional regional variations along the borders, where languages like Danish or Polish can be found in schools. The medium of instruction in German universities is mostly German. However, degree courses in English have become increasingly popular since the Bologna process was approved in the 1990s. For more information, see http://www.hrk.de/activities/bologna-process/.

  3. 3.

    Cf. the numbers provided by the Goethe-Institute: http://www.goethe.de/ges/spa/prj/sog/mud/de4289336.htm.

  4. 4.

    “Languages are powerful tools for change and have ceased to be only national symbols” (Küppers and Yağmur 2014, p. 5) and as through technical advancements and increasing mobility languages are transcending borders and are easily accessible for anyone without the help of schools and teachers, defining languages by adhering labels to them has become increasingly difficult. Any language can be an immigrant language in any place in the world—if it is brought to a new country of residence through migration. Hence depending on the perspective, these languages are also often referred to as “minority languages” or “minority immigrant languages” or in the context of schooling also “heritage languages” or “mother tongue languages” and lately also even “foreign languages”. In the context of this volume we will stick to the term “immigrant languages” nonetheless as it points to the historical implications in the context of migration.

  5. 5.

    Compounds composing of ‘transnational’ plus other terms are not easily defined and often not clear-cut, as the term transnational is also used interchangeably in the sense of international or global (see part 1 of this article). However, and in line with Adick (2005, p. 247 ff.), there seems to be a common understanding that “transnational convergence” comprises of developments of harmonization and convergence between educational systems of nation states, in particular their state school systems.

  6. 6.

    ‘Transnational education’ is often used in the context of higher education and refers to university courses, programs, and services “in which the learners are located in a country different from the one where the awarding institution is based. Such programmes may belong to the educational system of a state different from the state in which it operates, or may operate independently of any national system” (Adam 2001 as quoted in Adick 2005, p. 250). For a detailed account see also http://www.eaie.org/blog/key-elements-transnational-education-tne/Adick, however, argues quite rightly that the usage of the term should not be limited to the field of higher education and points to developments in the field of schooling where, for instance, a provider like the Foundation Office of the International Baccalaureate (IB) in Geneva offers a trans-national qualification for international schools, cf. http://www.ibo.org/en/contact-the-ib/office-locations/ib-foundation-office-geneva/.

  7. 7.

    In accordance with Faist et al. (2011) we do not use the term transnationalism but the terms transnationality and transnationalization in order to underline the procedural nature of this phenomena.

  8. 8.

    We revised the table according to the terminology used in our contribution.

  9. 9.

    For these numbers see: T.C. Basbakanlık Hazine Müsteşarlığı (2010). Uluslararası Doğrudan Yatırımlar 2009 Yılı Raporu. Ankara, T.C. Basbakanlık Hazine Müsteşarlığı and http://betadergi.com/uploads/pdf/cilt-1-sayi-2-2013-c01-s02-m02.pdf.

  10. 10.

    http://www.td-ihk.de/home.

  11. 11.

    http://www.dtr-ihk.de/.

  12. 12.

    The IB can, in fact, also be taught in French and Spanish—but is predominantly taught in English, cf. http://www.ibo.org/.

  13. 13.

    For details see: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-825_en.htm accessed Jan. 13, 2015. Ideally EU citizens speak three languages, a mother tongue and two other (foreign) languages—communicated by the popular formula 1 + 2.

  14. 14.

    This is only one possibility of a few scenarios how families deal with multilingualism. Some other families—especially those of the 2nd or 3rd generation may also use Turkish and German at home and some may speak Kurdish and German.

  15. 15.

    It is important to note that the school has been undergoing important changes in the recent past and a number of promising initiatives are underway. The school management changed in the summer of 2014 and there have been personnel changes in the Board of Governors.

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Küppers, A., Pusch, B., Uyan-Semerci, P. (2016). Mapping Out the Transnational Educational Space Between Germany and Turkey. In: Küppers, A., Pusch, B., Uyan Semerci, P. (eds) Bildung in transnationalen Räumen. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-09642-7_1

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