International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education
Editors: A/Prof John Lidstone, Queensland University of Technology and Prof Joseph P. Stoltman, Western Michigan University
Book Review Editor: Dr Sarah Witham Bednarz, Texas A & M University
Editorial Assistant: Donna Bennett, Australia
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Volume: 11 Number: 3 Page: 262–270
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Secondary Level Geography: A Comparative Analysis of Study Programmes in Germany
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Josef Birkenhauer
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It seems to be an engaging idea to study curricular programmes with respect to whether certain ideas discussed and recommended by geographical educationists in Germany for the theory and practice of teaching
geography have had any effect on the study programmes at all, whether they have been realised in them and to what extent this might have occurred. Such a study is perhaps even more interesting because there
is no national centre for the development and insemination of programmes. Neither is there a national centre for sampling and documenting the programmes for all types of school and all school subjects.
Instead, each of the 16 German states (or Länder or in the singular, Land) is autonomous in all cultural, educational and similar matters – a consequence of German history. Thus, each state sets
up its own study programmes for all school subjects and for all types of school, producing, as it were, a jungle of programmes. The study may even be more interesting inasmuch as developments in the states
which were part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) are also included. The authority for setting up programmes lies with the ministries for education and cultural affairs in each Land. The ministries
are responsible to their respective regional parliaments which have the right to set priorities and to control them.
© Multilingual Matters 2002
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