Curriculum Development in Political Education: A Report on the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract

The author starts with an analysis of the current discussion of curricula in political education in the Federal Republic of Germany. He shows that the most important positions of political education exist since the 1970s and that they have been developed and completed since then. Still, there is no stagnation in the development of curricula during the past ten years. The discussion of the Hessian General Guidelines for Social Education and of the Guidelines for Political Education of North Rhine-Westphalia all over the country have led to innovations since the mid-1970s. One of the crucial problems has been the discussion about independence, cooperation or integration of the subjects' political and historical education. With a selection of examples of historical-political education, the author illustrates the achievement of progress in theory and instructional material. New guideline efforts by the states Hessen and North Rhine-Westphalia, starting in 1980, raise hope that theoretically well-founded instr...