Ethics class in Germany

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Ethics classes in Germany serve to convey values ​​and discuss them, impart knowledge about religions and world views, and discuss philosophical issues. Depending on the federal state, ethics lessons are designed either as a substitute subject for students who do not take part in religious education, as an elective or as a regular subject . In contrast to denominational religious instruction, ethics instruction should be kept religious and ideological neutral.

history

Prehistory in the old FRG

Up until the 1970s , only a few pupils were exempt from religious instruction in the countries of the old Federal Republic in which Protestant and Catholic religious instruction was a compulsory subject. The number of exemptions increased over the years, however, because more and more students belonged to another religion or the advancing secularization severely loosened the ties to the churches that had been effective until then.

As a replacement for these students, ethics lessons have been set up as a compulsory alternative subject in several federal states. There were also organizational reasons for this, because pupils who have withdrawn from religious instruction and are not yet of legal age are subject to school supervision. The schools therefore tried to introduce alternative lessons. ( See also: Participation in religious education )

The churches, too, were interested in introducing such alternative lessons, because they hoped that this would increase participation in religious instruction.

First decisions and their implementation in the old FRG

The Catholic Church (resolution of the Joint Synod of the Dioceses of November 22, 1974) and, one year later, the Evangelical Church (resolution of the Education Committee of the Synod of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau of August 22/23, 1975) the decision to demand “substitute lessons” for non-participants in religious education.

This corresponds to the following fundamental decisions by the federal states only a few years later, which put this demand of the churches on a legal and political basis:

  • Baden-Württemberg 1976 (introduction of ethics classes in 1983)
  • Hamburg 1977
  • Hesse, Lower Saxony and Saarland 1978

Subsequently, curriculum commissions were set up and in most federal states curricula were put into effect as early as the first half of the 1980s, so that gradually ethics lessons could soon become part of the timetable. (The only exceptions to this were Berlin and Bremen, which did not show curricula for this until 1993.) In fact, as the churches had hoped, the number of cancellations from religious instruction declined again.

Situation after 1990

Due to the German reunification in 1990, Article 7 of the Basic Law applies to all of Germany. Due to the Bremen clause , which is also anchored in the Basic Law , Article 7, Paragraph 3, Clause 1 of the Basic Law does not apply in a state in which on January 1, 1949, another state law regulation existed.

Name and status

Establishing ethics classes in Germany is the responsibility of the federal states. Ethics (also: practical philosophy) is usually taught in secondary level I (grades 7-10; in Bavaria from grade 5, in Saxony from 1st grade, in Rhineland-Palatinate from grade 4) and upper secondary level (grades 11-13 ) depending on the law of a federal state as a substitute subject, compulsory elective subject or as a regular subject. The content and focal points of ethics instruction, which differ from one another in the federal states, are also reflected in the different names of this subject.

Designation in the federal states

Replacement compartment

Ethics classes currently have the status of a substitute subject in Baden-Württemberg , Bavaria , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Lower Saxony , Hesse , Rhineland-Palatinate , Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein . For the replacement subject, see above: Prehistory and First Resolutions and their Implementation

The substitute teaching in ethics is compulsory for all students who do not take part in religious education, which was confirmed by the Federal Administrative Court in 1998 after it declared ethics teaching as permissible as a substitute compulsory subject.

Elective subject

In the federal states of Hamburg , North Rhine-Westphalia , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia , ethics instruction has the status of a compulsory elective subject , ie the pupils of the respective grades have the de facto option of choosing between religion and ethics as equal alternatives . As a result, the subject of ethics has no substitute function, but is in competition with the subject of religion. The constitutionally prescribed status of religious education as a regular subject, however, makes it necessary for the students who want to take ethics to formally declare their cancellation of religious education.

In North Rhine-Westphalia there are also plans to expand practical philosophy lessons, similar to ethics lessons in Berlin and LER in Brandenburg, into a compulsory subject for all students.

Ordinary subject (compulsory subject)

In Berlin , ethics has been a regular subject for the 7th to 10th grades since March 23, 2006 , while religious education and humanistic life studies are also offered as voluntary, non-relocation-relevant electives. The referendum , which wanted to make ethics and religious education compulsory optional subjects, was rejected by a majority in April 2009.

particularities

  • In Brandenburg , after a model experiment (1992–1995) , lifestyle-ethics-religious studies or LER became a compulsory subject from 1996 and has been given nationwide for grades 7-10 since the 2004/05 school year. In April 1996 the Brandenburg State Parliament passed a school law that provided for the introduction of LER as a general school subject. It also gave students the opportunity to de-register from LER classes. Since then you have three options:
  1. to attend only the LER lessons,
  2. in addition to LER lessons, also to take advantage of the offer of religious instruction or humanistic life studies ,
  3. to attend only religious instruction or life studies.
  • In Bremen there is no religious education in church responsibility, but the non-denominational subject Biblical History / Religious Studies . Philosophy / ethics from secondary level I or philosophy from upper secondary level have the function of a substitute subject or an elective subject.

Teaching situation in Germany

The subjects philosophy, ethics and related subjects are politically wanted in all federal states as elective subjects or even compulsory subjects and have been introduced in some cases for decades. In more than half of all cases, however, they are not taught due to a lack of jobs. If they are being taught, they are often being taught in a different way. Many of the teaching subject teachers also did not acquire the faculties in a regular course of study, but in further training.

Using the example of North Rhine-Westphalia, the following list shows the percentage of schools in which the compulsory optional subject Practical Philosophy, which is provided for in all school types and levels, was taught in grades 9 and 10 in 2006:

  • Secondary schools: 27.0%
  • Realschulen: 46.7%
  • Grammar schools: 48.6%
  • Comprehensive schools: 51.6%
  • Special schools: 8.8%
  • Further education college: 14.5%

This situation in the 2000s and 2010s was foreseeable for a long time. On the one hand, politics in Germany seemed to want to introduce ethics and similar subjects. On the other hand, no funds are made available for trained teachers. A study by the University of Koblenz came to the conclusion in 1997:

“An overview of ethics teaching in the federal states points to an educational scandal in terms of teaching. In summary it can be said: In 15 out of 16 federal states a school subject has been introduced without the state having made sufficient efforts to ensure that this instruction is given in a qualified manner.

  1. In 5 federal states (Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland), the subject can be taught by all teachers "if they are only interested in it" (!) As it is called in Baden-Württemberg, the allocation of lessons is "a question of the allocation of non-subject lessons". In Saarland and in Rhineland-Palatinate a third of ethics instruction is given by religious teachers. (It is not known which teachers in the other countries are interested in the subject.)
  2. In Hamburg and Lower Saxony, teachers of the subject should either have a license to teach philosophy or social sciences; Religious scholars are also admitted in Lower Saxony.
  3. In 4 countries (Berlin, Bremen, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein), the philosophy teachers are essentially responsible for providing the relevant lessons. "

The first group generally issues ethics in a non-subject matter. The second and third groups only give ethics from subject teachers at first glance, since subject teachers are used almost exclusively in the upper school; No information on this is available from Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.

Situation in 2013

Even in 2013, almost twenty years after the increasingly widespread introduction of ethics teaching in secondary education and the Koblenz study, the situation is no different.

“Otherwise, in most federal states, at best, you will get committed ethics lessons. But even that is sometimes taken over by laypeople, as if it were a matter of supervising a school class on a hiking day. For this you need a lot of educational experience and strong nerves, but hardly any professional training. This is how ethics seem to have been imagined so far, at least in Bavaria. There it can only be taken as a third subject by the prospective teachers, most of them even lack this qualification. "

All federal states except Saarland, i.e. Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria (since 2002), Berlin, Brandenburg (since 2003), Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate (since 2007) , Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia, for ethics / philosophy / values ​​and norms - teachers offer their own courses ("undergraduate studies"). There are now numerous graduates of these courses in many federal states. All federal states except Saarland also qualify ethics / philosophy / values ​​and standards teachers through further training measures.

In Berlin, for example, in 2006, in addition to their other teaching duties, teachers received further training for ethics classes in secondary level I, one day per week, in three semesters. However, since there are not yet enough graduates of this degree program, it is not uncommon for teachers (mostly class teachers) without this qualification to teach this subject at the moment (as of 2010) . However, a three-digit number of graduates of the Philosophy / Ethics course did not receive further training in their legal clerkship.

Cooperations

In particular, before the introduction and increased frequency of teaching offers such as ethics classes in this country, the two "main providers" of Christian religious education under Protestant or Roman Catholic sponsorship often also dealt extensively with content and questions on general religious studies and ethics - since their introduction they have always been developing more frequent cooperation between teachers who give religious instruction and a non-religious value subject. This corresponds u. a. also in Berlin a requirement of his state school law (see § 12, 6), according to which in ethics lessons "individual subject areas should be designed by schools in cooperation with providers of religion and ideology lessons".

literature

  • Peter Köck: Handbook of ethics teaching. Technical basics, didactics and methodology, examples and materials. Auer 2002, ISBN 3-403-03663-4 .
  • Volker Pfeifer: Didactics of ethics teaching. How can morals be taught and learned? Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-17-016306-5 .
  • Alfred Seiferlein: Ethics Lessons. Religious education studies for an extraordinary school subject. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2000, ISBN 3-525-61468-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Alfred K. Treml : Ethics as a subject in the various federal states An interim balance. Frankfurt / M. 1994. In: Ethik & Studium, 5 (1994) Sonderheft 1, pp. 18-29. See synopsis on page 7.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g On the situation of ethics teaching in the Federal Republic of Germany - Report of the Conference of Ministers of Education , February 22, 2008 (PDF; 584 kB).
  3. ↑ Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport: Lifestyle-Ethics-Religious Studies (LER-) ( Memento from November 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ On the situation of ethics teaching in the Federal Republic of Germany - report of the Conference of Ministers of Education , February 22, 2008 (PDF; 598 kB), p. 50 f.
  5. ↑ a b Martin F. Meyer: Ethics lesson in Germany - the federal states in comparison , presented on February 1, 1997, (PDF with 78 pages), p. 72.
  6. ↑ Maximilian Krämer: Philosophy lessons - very questionable. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . online, April 21, 2013 ( faz.net ).
  7. ↑ Martina Scherf: Inadequate teacher training ethics - the Bavarian disaster subject. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . online, December 7, 2012 ( sueddeutsche.de ).
  8. ↑ In Bavaria, a teaching permit can only be obtained in philosophy and ethics in a supplementary training course. There is no trainee training in these subjects.
  9. ↑ studienwahl.de - teaching posts
  10. ↑ Sabine Beikler: 1000 teachers for ethics In: Der Tagesspiegel . August 30, 2006 ( tagesspiegel.de ).
  11. ^ Daniela Martens: What ethics teachers learn In: Tagesspiegel. May 5, 2009 ( tagesspiegel.de ).
  12. ↑ Claudia Keller: Quality criteria for the “Laberstunde” - One year after the Pro Reli referendum , the final form of ethics instruction is still unclear ( tagesspiegel.de ); Four years after the subject was introduced (2010), the Pro Ethics Alliance launched a “quality initiative” to upgrade it overall. The teachers should therefore be “better trained” and the “framework plan more compact” - “with more concrete goals and more space for world religions and world views”. For this purpose, the alliance calls for a four-semester in-service training . According to Pro Ethik , 4400 classes receive ethics instruction in Berlin, which are only taught by 950 trained teachers. (Status: 2010)
  13. ↑ akd-ekbo.de ( Memento from November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Offer of the Berlin-based “Office for Church Services” for a training course on the topic of cooperation between ethics and religious instruction
  14. ↑ religionsunterricht-online.de ( Memento from January 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) For example: Thematic plan for the departments of ethics and religion at Herder Gymnasium in Berlin. The "subjects ethics and religion teach individual topics in cooperation and discuss them." (PDF with 1/1 pages).