Cooperation between school and extracurricular political education
Looking at the project landscape of extracurricular political youth education, it becomes clear that a large number of organizations cooperate with schools as a matter of course within the framework of projects. According to Schröder et al., 59% of participants in political youth education measures are pupils who were recruited together with the school. Schools account for 25 percent of all cooperations in political youth education (cf. Schröder et al. 2004). Some providers of extracurricular political youth education, such as the NDC, even specialize in cooperation with schools.
Nevertheless, this perspective of cooperation is hardly taken into account in the context of didactic, educational or sociological research. In its annual report entitled "Stronger together?", the Transferstelle politische Bildung writes: "It was not surprising that we found large gaps in research on the topic of cooperation between schools and partners in extracurricular political education. Most studies refer in general terms to cooperation between schools and child and youth welfare organizations, many of which focus on experiences in all-day education. Since 2005, there have only been 28 studies directly on civic education. Most of these are project evaluations, which generally do not provide any evidence for generalizations. There is also very little research from a school perspective and none at all on structural conditions or professional positions" (Transferstelle politische Bildung 2017: 5). This is extremely regrettable, because despite the diversity of cooperation experiences in the field, there are considerable challenges when it comes to cooperation between school and non-school stakeholders.
Recommended reading:
Transferstelle politische Bildung (2017): Gemeinsam stärker!? Kooperationen zischen außerschulischer politischer Bildung und Schule, Essen. online verfügbar
A wonderful starting point for researching this issue, which we have also used for our dossier, is the aforementioned annual report of the Transferstelle politische Bildung.
Schröder, Achim/ Balzter, Nadine/ Schroedter, Tommy (2004): Politische Jugendbildung auf dem Prüfstand, Weinheim/ München.
Schröder presented one of the most important but not specifically cooperative studies back in 2004. It is so important because it shows how important cooperation with schools is for extracurricular education providers.
Becker, Helle (2014): Partizipation von Schülerinnen und Schülern im GanzTag. In: Der GanzTag in NRW: Beiträge zur Qualitätsentwicklung. Im Auftrag des Ministeriums für Schule und Weiterbildung NRW, Münster. 10. Jg., H. 27. online verfügbar
Deinet, Ulrich /Gumz, Heike /Muscutt, Christina /Thomas, Sophie (2018): Offene Ganztags- schule – Schule als Lebensort aus Sicht der Kinder. Studie, Bausteine, Methodenkoffer, Opladen.
These two publications are particularly relevant to the topic of cooperation in all-day education.
Chehata, Yasmine/ Thimmel, Andreas (2011): Politische Jugendbildung und Schule. Voraussetzungen und Wege gelingender Kooperation, Köln.
In 2011, Chehata and Timmel presented a study on the question of when cooperation between schools and extracurricular civic education is successful, which shows that cooperation runs more smoothly when extracurricular partners and schools behave towards each other in a kind of service relationship, i.e. when the deficits of the school are taken into account.i.e. when the deficits of one (e.g. lack of methodological or technical expertise or lack of (educational) space) compensate for the deficits of the other (e.g. lack of reaching the target group), thus creating a win-win situation. In this sense, the extracurricular project partners - although they usually have the necessary resources for the educational offers themselves - must simultaneously come to terms with the school structures and give up wanting to change them.
Stehr, Ilona /Möcklinghoff, Daniel /Meyer, Dana (2014): Revierversion 2.1. Wir mischen mit! Ein lebensweltorientiertes Partizipationsprojekt, Gelsenkirchen.
Stehr/Möcklinghoff and Meyer come to similar conclusions as Chehata and Thimmel.
Wohnig, Alexander (2016): Kooperationen schaffen! Soziales Engagement und politische Bildung zwischen Schu- le und außerschulischer Bildungseinrichtung. In: Journal für politische Bildung. 6. Jg., H. 2, S. 58-64.
The experiences from the "RevierVersion 2.1" project studied by Stehr et al. showed that the schools were open and receptive to the project ideas as long as the financial and personnel resources were provided by the extracurricular partners. Wohnig describes this understanding of the school as "division of labor through outsourcing" (Wohnig 2016: 60). According to the available literature, the providers of extracurricular education justify their use of resources with the argument of reaching the target group.
Brombach, Stephanie (2015): Politische Bildung in der Berufsschule und die Kooperation mit einer außerschulischen politischen Bildungseinrichtung. In: Götz, Michael/ Widmaier, Benedikt/ Wohnig, Alexander (Hrsg.): Soziales Engagement politisch denken. Chancen für Politische Bildung, Schwalbach/Ts., S. 53-61.
The limits of cooperative relationships between school and non-school educational institutions are clearly visible in Brombach's study.
Gesemann, Frank (2012): Abschlussbericht zur Evaluation des Projekts Berufsbildende Träger und Schulen für Demokratie, Gleichwertigkeit und Pluralismus (RAA Berlin). online verfügbar
Gesemann also looks at cooperation experiences with vocational schools.
Erben, Friedrun/ Waldmann, Klaus (Hrsg.) (2008): Lernziel Verantwortung. Politische Jugendbildung und Schule, Schwalbach/Ts.
Götz, Michael/ Wohnig, Alexander (2015): Chance(n) für die Politische Bildung. Denkansätze und Forderungen. In: Götz, Michael/ Widmaier, Benedikt/ Wohnig, Alexander (Hrsg.): Soziales Engagement politisch denken. Chancen für Politische Bildung, Schwalbach/Ts., S. 85-97.
These two studies look more specifically at cooperative relationships in relation to the field of service learning.
Fuhrmann, Brigitte (2016): Konsequent dialogische politische Bildung. Professionalisierungsfragen im Rahmen der Projektbegleitung „Dialog macht Schule“. In: Goll, Thomas/ Oberle, Monika/ Rappenglück, Stefan (Hrsg.): Herausforderung Migration. Perspektiven der politischen Bildung, Schwalbach/Ts., S. 108-114.
The article by Fuhrmann is interesting because it looks more specifically at projects from the field of peer education approaches to the subject area.
Gemeinsame Intiative der Träger der Politischen Jugendbildung (GEMINI) (Hrsg.): TEAM UP! Außerschulische politische Jugendbildung in Kooperation mit Schule, Wuppertal. online verfügbar
A new brochure has been published by GEMINI. This is the name under which the nationally organized providers of political youth education have joined forces, including the Federal Working Group on Work and Life. It provides an insight into the current situation of cooperation between political youth education and schools and identifies future potential. In addition, concrete practical examples are presented and critical conditions for good cooperation are formulated. The brochure is therefore aimed at political educators as well as teachers, school administrators and political decision-makers.