Gender, Intersections, and Institutions by Louise K. Davidson-Schmich

Author:Louise K. Davidson-Schmich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 2018-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 5

Gendering the Controversy over Education Policy Reform in Hamburg, Germany

Jeff Bale

“Goetsch in die Primatenschule!” (Send Goetsch to primate school!)”1 So read the sign held by a boy at a demonstration in Hamburg, Germany, on 19 April 2009. Some five thousand people had gathered to protest a series of proposed education reform measures (Krupa 2009), known collectively as the Education Offensive (Bildungsoffensive). Although these reforms were comprehensive, the sign in this boy’s hands reflected a central point of dissent. Christa Goetsch was a Green Party politician serving as Hamburg’s education minister and thus overseeing the reform effort; Primatenschule was a play on Primarschule, the name of a new primary school form introduced by these reforms. While Hamburg’s elementary schools (Grundschulen) ended with grade 4, the Primatenschulen would end with grade 6. Proponents argued that the restructuring would enable students to spend more time in an integrated learning environment before separating into various secondary school tracks. That is, learners from different linguistic and ethnic backgrounds as well as students considered high or low performing would attend common primary schools for an additional two years.

The sign and its wordplay were not the only curious aspects of this demonstration. An overwhelming majority of the protesters came from Hamburg’s wealthy and elite, leading the liberal Die Zeit to dub the rally the Gucci-Protest (Krupa 2009). Protesters hailed from areas where the dropout rate was especially low and the university attendance rate especially Page 146 →high and were particularly well-dressed. The main organizer of the rally, lawyer Walter Scheuerl, was described as wearing a blue sweater tossed over his shoulders as he chanted, “We’re here, we’re loud, because they’re stealing our education! [Wir sind hier, wir sind laut, weil man uns die Bildung klaut!]” (Krupa 2009). In addition, the demonstration took place in one of the city’s premier shopping districts: “The route that demonstrators chose reflects the city of Hamburg the way it would like to be seen: prosperous, clean, self-confident. Most of the demonstrators know this route because they’re often here on Saturdays—but to shop, not to demonstrate” (Krupa 2009). The demonstration ultimately helped block the new primary school. Indeed, the controversy over the education offensive led to Goetsch’s resignation as education minister and to the November 2010 collapse of the coalition governing Hamburg.

Box 5. Migrant Girls and Boys Intersection Studied Gender + Immigration Status (Migrant Girls and Boys)

Time Period Studied 2008–11

Policy Issue Studied School reform in Hamburg (Bildungsoffensive)

German Policymakers as Allies Green Party (especially prior to coalition with the CDU) Hamburg’s Education Ministry (Behörde für Schule und Berufsbildung [BSB])

This chapter examines the case of school reform in Hamburg through an intersectional lens, asking how it came to be that a policy, whose advocates suggested, at least symbolically, would provide better educational outcomes for migrant girls took center stage in Land-level politics in Germany. The intersection studied is that of migrant status and gender (see box 5).2 The Hamburg government’s school reform appears to have been designed on behalf of

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