Anti-authoritarian education

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Anti-authoritarian education is a collective term for a group of educational concepts that emerged in Germany in the late 1960s and 1970s. In contrast to permissive and neglecting upbringing , in which the parents also exercise little or no authority , it is not just a question of a style of upbringing , but a comprehensive and theoretically founded educational philosophy that is explicitly based on educational goals , norms and models .

Anti-authoritarian education owes its ideas to such diverse - and occasionally disparate - resources such as Freudo Marxism , reform pedagogy and Siegfried Bernfeld's anti-capitalist critique of reform pedagogy. Its characteristics include the ideal of the rights , freedom and developmental autonomy of the child. Upbringing should be freed as far as possible from the constraints and the superior power of the educators, so that it does not stand in the way of the development of the child's personality; As a result, anti-authoritarian upbringing not only endeavored to promote the psychological independence of the child, but also to liberalize education for cleanliness and order and to remove taboos and “liberate” child sexuality. The objectives of the anti-authoritarian education were less clear and there were - depending on the author - either liberal personality ideals of independence, self-responsibility and creativity (. Eg Heinz-Rolf Lückert ) or, in preparation for a "political resistance" (eg. Regine Dermitzel). Ulrich Klemm ( University of Augsburg ) therefore differentiates between anti-authoritarian education, socialist-Marxist , anti-authoritarian education, and liberal and anti-authoritarian education of a libertarian nature.

theory and practice

Political foundations

In the wake of the reception of Marxism by the left-wing parties and the educational reform concepts of the determined school reformers , approaches to a communist and socialist pedagogy arose in Germany in the 1920s. Among the pioneers were Otto Rühle , Anna Siemsen , Edwin Hoernle , Otto Felix Kanitz , Paul Oestreich , Fritz Karsen and Siegfried Bernfeld. Their educational concepts were not only aimed at eliminating obvious deficiencies in the educational system such as B. the disadvantage of working class children, but on fundamental social changes.

It was not until the student movement of the late 1960s and 1970s that these considerations were taken up again and further developed. The turn of the 68 generation towards education was motivated by the hope that by changing the upbringing of future generations, changes could be made that seemed impossible in the political situation shaped by a grand coalition .

The socio-critical elements that formed the basis of the philosophy of anti-authoritarian education that emerged here were provided by the Frankfurt School , whose representatives -  Max Horkheimer , Erich Fromm , Herbert Marcuse , Theodor W. Adorno , Jürgen Habermas  - were convinced that those in the bourgeoisie Family developed relationships of authority favor the emergence of authoritarian characters who provided the breeding ground for fascism and no longer meet the demands of the present.

Psychological and pedagogical basics

Large parts of the 68 generation were critical of the humanities education , which had been the leading theoretical orientation within education since around 1920, and tried to replace it. They found a rich source of ideas in the considerations of the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich , who in the 1930s had called for prophylaxis against the mass neuroses that are the result of a patriarchal and sexually suppressive upbringing. Part of the reception of Reich took place indirectly through the reception of the writings of the British pedagogue Alexander Sutherland Neill , who was a pupil of Reich. In his book Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing , published in 1960 , Neill had reported on the experiences he had had with his Summerhill private school, which specialized in children with behavioral problems, which he opened in the 1920s . Although Neill, who was completely remote from class struggle thinking, did not want to be associated with the expression "anti-authoritarian", Rowohlt Verlag brought the German paperback edition on the market in 1969 under the title Theory and Practice of Anti-Authoritarian Education . 600,000 copies of this edition were sold in the first year.

One of the aporias of anti-authoritarian education was that it was deeply rooted in the tradition of reform pedagogy, the basic ideas of which were radically exaggerated here, and at the same time opposed them. With Rousseau and reform pedagogues such as Berthold Otto , Maria Montessori and Gustav Wyneken , the apologists of anti-authoritarian education assumed that humans are fundamentally good and that children should be allowed to develop according to their nature without influencing them negatively. The image of “letting it grow” had influenced not only reform pedagogy, but also anti-pedagogy , which generally declared upbringing to be inadmissible manipulation . Although the adult should intervene in the child's world to regulate action and thus educate him in anti-authoritarian upbringing, Ekkehard von Braunmühl , the founder of anti-education, became the most important theoretician of anti-authoritarian upbringing. On the other hand, apologists of anti-authoritarian education such as Lutz von Werder and Reinhart Wolff elevated the Austrian psychoanalyst Siegfried Bernfeld , who in the 1920s, of all things, had criticized reform education to a classic.

practice

The anti-authoritarian upbringing was practiced, among others, in self-managed kindergartens - so-called children's shops - which arose from 1967 in many major German cities, especially Berlin . In addition, alternative schools emerged such as the Glocksee School in Hanover (1972) and the Free School in Frankfurt (1975), where anti-authoritarian education was also practiced. Since the 1970s they have been part of the Federal Association of Independent Alternative Schools e. V. (BFAS).

Research and criticism

Artistic examination of the style of upbringing

Most theorists and practitioners of anti-authoritarian education were not empirically-scientifically oriented, so that hardly any studies were carried out on the effects of anti-authoritarian education. The studies on the effects of permissive upbringing , which are available in large numbers, contribute little to the understanding of anti-authoritarian upbringing because they are not about anti-authoritarian upbringing, but about a style of upbringing that may not be based on any educational concept at all.

In parallel with the conception of anti-authoritarian education, critical educational science emerged , the theorists of which were rather skeptical of anti-authoritarian education despite numerous points of contact. Klaus Schaller , for example, has complained that the anti-authoritarian upbringing instead of a real abolition of the power relationships between educator and child merely reverses the power relationships and subordinates the educator to the will of the child.

In contrast, Alice Miller criticizes anti-authoritarian upbringing as “indoctrination of the child” in which “his own world is disregarded”. She defines anti-authoritarian upbringing as a style in which children are induced to adopt a certain behavior that the parents would have wished for themselves and which they therefore see as generally desirable, while ignoring the needs of the child. Miller describes a situation in which a sad child was tricked into breaking a glass while he "wanted to climb onto his mother's lap". A comparison with the criticism by Klaus Schaller shows that the term anti-authoritarian education is used very differently by supporters and critics.

The criticism made by authors like Bernhard Bueb in the late 20th century against anti-authoritarian upbringing - as the alleged originator of a “decline in upbringing” - is based, as Michaela Schmid has pointed out, on gross simplifications and confusing anti-authoritarian upbringing with permissive ones Parenting styles.

literature

  • Alexander Sutherland Neill: Theory and Practice of Anti-Authoritarian Education. The Summerhill example . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1969, ISBN 3-499-16707-7 .
  • Karl Erlinghagen: Authority and Anti-Authority . Education between attachment and emancipation. Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg 1971, ISBN 3-494-02028-0 .
  • Helmut Heiland: Emancipation and Authority . Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbronn 1971, ISBN 3-7815-0049-7 .
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Kron (ed.): Anti-authoritarian education . Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 1973, ISBN 3-7815-0194-9 .
  • Peter Ludwig: Summerhill: anti-authoritarian education today . Has the free upbringing failed? Beltz, Weinheim 1997, ISBN 3-407-25173-4 .
  • Regine Masthoff: Anti-authoritarian education . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1981, ISBN 3-534-07747-4 .
  • Thomas Schroedter: Anti-authoritarian pedagogy . On the history and reappropriation of an ostracized term. Butterfly Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-89657-598-8 .
  • Wilma Aden-Grossmann: Monika Seifert . Pedagogue of anti-authoritarian education. Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-95558-056-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christin Sager: The end of childlike innocence . Sex education of the 1968 movement. In: Meike Sophia Baader (ed.): "Be realistic, demand the impossible!". How education moved in 1968 . 4th edition. Beltz, Weinheim, Basel 2008, ISBN 3-407-85872-8 , pp. 56-68 . Reinhard Wolff: anti-authoritarian education . In: Dieter Kreft, Ingrid Mielenz (Hrsg.): Dictionary social work. Tasks, fields of practice, terms and methods of social work and social education . 6th edition. Juventa, Weinheim, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7799-2060-1 , p. 84 f . ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA ); Gerhard Bott: Education to disobedience . Children's shops report from practice. Frankfurt 1970, p. 100 . Johannes Claßen (Ed.): Anti-authoritarian education in scientific discussion . Heidelberg 1973, p. 101 .
  2. ↑ Heinz-Rolf Lückert: The basic talent and education promotion. New ways of pre-school education . Munich 1969, p. 155 .
  3. ↑ Regine Dermitzel: Theses on the anti-authoritarian education . In: Kursbuch . tape 17 , 1969, p. 179-187 .
  4. ↑ Ulrich Klemm: On the relevance and reception of anti-authoritarian educational models and anti-pedagogy for educational reform . In: A. Bernhard, A. Kremer, F. Rieß (eds.): Critical educational science and educational reform. Program - breaks - new approaches . tape 1 : Theoretical foundations and contradictions . Hohengehren 2003.
  5. ↑ a b H. Gudjons: Pedagogical Basic Knowledge , Klinkhardt / UTB, 10th edition, 1999, p. 43.
  6. ↑ Claudia Isabelle Köhne: Family structures and educational goals at the beginning of the 21st century. An internet-based survey of mothers. Dissertation . University of Duisburg-Essen, 2003, p. 291 ( uni-duisburg-essen.de [PDF]).
  7. ^ Hans-Dieter Schwind: Criminology. A practice-oriented introduction with examples . 20th edition. 2010, p. 45 . ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA )
  8. ^ Johannes Bilstein: Psychoanalysis and Pedagogy: Critical Theory of the Subject and Anti-Authoritarian Education. The reappropriation of psychoanalytic pedagogy in pedagogical discourses of the late 1960s and early 1970s . In: Meike Sophia Baader, Ulrich Herrmann (Ed.): 68 - Committed youth and critical pedagogy: impulses and consequences of a cultural upheaval in the history of the Federal Republic . Juventa, Weinheim / Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7799-1139-5 , pp. 217–231, here p. 224 ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA )
  9. ↑ Burkhard Kastenbutt: On the dialectic of the soul . An introduction to the work of Wilhelm Reich and its importance for critical social work / social pedagogy. Lit, Münster, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-89473-947-9 , pp. 90 .
  10. ↑ Claudia Isabelle Köhne: Family structures and educational goals at the beginning of the 21st century. An internet-based survey of mothers. Dissertation . University of Duisburg-Essen, 2003, p. 291 ( uni-duisburg-essen.de [PDF]).
  11. ^ Fritz Hartmut Paffrath: The end of anti-authoritarian education? A confrontation with school reality . Klinkhardt, 1972, p. 15
  12. ↑ Ralf Vass: Neill and the consequences . In: Gerd Kadelbach (Ed.): Educational questions of the present. Reviews, models, alternatives . Frankfurt / M. 1974, p. 101. Alexander Sutherland Neill: Theory and practice of anti-authoritarian education. The Summerhill example . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-499-60209-1 .
  13. ↑ Heidrun Becker: Pedagogical issues in occupational therapy , in: Heidrun Becker, Ute Steding-Albrecht (Ed.): Occupational therapy in the field of paediatrics , Stuttgart: Thieme, 206, ISBN 3-13-125591-9 , pp. 128-139 ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA ); Hartwig Schröder: Didactic dictionary . 3. Edition. Oldenbourg, Munich / Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-486-25787-0 , p. 18th f . ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA )
  14. ↑ Reinhart Wolff: Anti-Authoritarian Education , Bad Heilbrunn, 1973
  15. ↑ Hartwig Schröder: Didactic dictionary . 3. Edition. Oldenbourg, Munich / Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-486-25787-0 , p. 18th f . ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA )
  16. ↑ Kurt Beutler : What does "anti-authoritarian education" mean? In: Johannes Claßen (Ed.): Anti-authoritarian education in scientific discussion . Quelle and Meyer, Heidelberg 1973, pp. 7-19. Johannes Bilstein: Psychoanalysis and Pedagogy: Critical Theory of the Subject and Anti-Authoritarian Education. The reappropriation of psychoanalytic pedagogy in pedagogical discourses of the late 1960s and early 1970s . In: Meike Sophia Baader, Ulrich Herrmann (Ed.): 68 - Committed youth and critical pedagogy: impulses and consequences of a cultural upheaval in the history of the Federal Republic . Juventa, Weinheim / Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-7799-1139-5 , pp. 217–231, here p. 224 ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA )
  17. ↑ BFAS official website
  18. ^ Klaus Schaller: The pedagogy of communication - educational theory basics . In: Quarterly journal for scientific pedagogy . tape 74 , 1998, pp. 219-234 .
  19. ↑ Alice Miller: In the beginning there was education . 1st edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1983, ISBN 978-3-518-37451-1 .
  20. ^ Michaela Schmid: Educational guide and educational science . On the theory-practice problem of popular educational writings. Klinkhardt, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7815-1782-0 , pp. 344 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA ).