Kategorie: Studium

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science has devoted its entire issue No. 633 form November 2011 to the topic of youth participation.

Some of the articles I found very interesting and I wish to summarize them here a little bit:

Daniel Hart and Robert Atkins: „American Sixteen- and Seventeen-Year-Olds Are Ready to Vote“ To quote from the abstract: „American 16- and 17-year-olds ought to be allowed to vote in state and national elections. This claim rests upon a line of argument that begins with an exegesis of legal and philosophical notions of citizenship that identify core qualities of citizenship: membership, concern for rights, and participation in society. Each of these qualities is present in rudimentary form in childhood and adolescence. Analyses of national survey data demonstrate that by 16 years of age—but not before— American adolescents manifest levels of development in each quality of citizenship that are approximately the same as those apparent in young American adults who are allowed to vote. The lack of relevant differences in capacities for citizenship between 16- and 17-year-olds and those legally enfranchised makes current laws arbitrary, …“

They argue that by the age of 16 most indicators that stand we use to look on to judge that someone is ready to be a citizen like knowledge about politics, the feeling of political efficacy, the skills needed for political action, the interest in politics and tolerance are comparable to adults or even exceeding some adult groups. Therefore this youth should be given the right to vote. The study is based on a survey conducted by the authors.

In Participatory Niches for Emergent Citizenship in Early Adolescence: An International Perspective Judith Torney-Purta and Jo-Ann Amadeo write about different perspectives and argue that rather then lowering the voting age, campaigns to involve children and youth should be focused on every day participatory niches and that those niches should be expanded: „we argue for promoting “emergent participatory citizenship” during the adolescent years. Directing serious attention to enhancing the politically and civically relevant niches that those between ages 10 and 18 occupy in their everyday lives, in our view, has greater potential for positive effects than does a campaign to lower the voting age worldwide.“ (All the quotes in this section are taken from the article)

The Authors conceptualize the terms as you can see her and try to give us an overview of the factors that help to built citizenship. „The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science“ weiterlesen

Haushaltsausschuss

So seit kurzem bin ich Mitglied im Haushaltsausschuss der PH und der hat dieses Jahr zum ersten mal getagt und wohl auch zum letzten mal, weil es ja dann ab dem 1.4. keine Studiengebühren sondern Qualitätssicherungsmittel gibt und dann dafür eine neuen Ausschuss indem sogar ein Student der Vorsitzende sein wird!

Wir besprachen darin die Mittelverteilung im kommenden Jahr.

Zunächst eine gute Nachricht, das Rektorat schlägt vor, dass in den Überlastfächern zunächst befristete und dann dauerhafte zusätzliche Dozentenstellen geschaffen werden:

„Da auch nach der Umstellung der Lehramtsstudiengänge in einzelnen Fächern auf längere Sicht mit einer deutlichen Überlast in der Lehre, bezogen auf die Personalaus-stattung dieser Fächer, zu rechnen ist, schlägt das Rektorat vor, beim MWK (Ministerium für Kultus, Anmerkung des Atuors) zu beantragen, 4 unbefristete Stellen für Akademische Mitarbeiter in den Fächern
1. Biologie (Auslastung 201%),
2. Geografie (Auslastung 177%),
3. Geschichte (Auslastung 160%) und
4. Mathematik (Auslastung 151%)
aus Qualitätssicherungsmitteln zu finanzieren und im Stellenplan entsprechend auszu-bringen“

Des weiteren will das Rektorat run 150.ooo Euro aus Landesmitteln für die Verbesserung der Labore in der Biologie beantragen, zudem soll Geld aus den zurücksgestellten Studiengebühren in Höhe 350.000 Euro in diese Renovierung fliessen. Um dadurch einene erste Sanierung durchzuführen, will jedoch für den übernächsten Landeshaushalt den Rest des Geldes einfordern. Das dürfte besonders die Biofachschaft freuen, auch gerade nach dem etwas seltsamen Gespräch in dem der Rektor der Meinung war, man könnte die meisten Experimente ja auch daheim mit dem Lehrbuch durchführen.

Wir konnten auch extra kein Benehmen herstellen über die Mittel für die Abteilung Schulpraktische Studien, weil diese nach unserer Meinung unternfinanziert ist, hier wurde gebeten bis zum nächsten Treffen, nochmal Informationen vorzulegen.

Frohe Weihnachten, a merry christmas, slamat natal

Liebe MitmenschenInnen,

ich wünsche frohe Weihnachten / a merry christmas / slamat hari natal

Für alle die es hören wollen hier Ausschnitte aus dem Weihnachtskonzert der Fachschaft Musik, kürzlich im Aufgang der Mensa hier an der PH. Vielen Dank, es sind solche kleinen Gesten die Weihnachten besonders machen.

Stille Nacht mit Chor:

Oh du fröhliche…

Stille Nacht ohne Chor:

Islam and Democracy

Last Monday I moderated the session on „Islam and Democracy“ in the course on political theory here at the University of Education. The entire Seminar is lead by Prof. Dr. Burth.

When I posted on Facebook, about the preparations for the session,  some people already were very passionate about the subject. And it let to a pile of angry and controversial comments. Now as we have done the session and had some very interesting discussions in there as well, I feel I should write a little bit about it here as well.

I don’t think I can claim to speak authoritatively on that subject, as I had just a short glimpse into this area of study. However it was very interesting and I would hope that my fellow students here at the Politics and the new Islamic studies department, will think about it further and more thorough then I could.

For the discussion I prepared a paper wit the following points:

  1. Islam is compatible with democracy as much as Catholicism is compatible with democracy. The Koran can be interpreted so that it reads compatible with democracy or being compatible with a religious dictatorship.
  2. Islam does not equal Islam, there are enormous differences in religious practice, socio-economic Conditions, national background and interpretation of the scripture.
  3. Nation is still a valid framework for interpretation
  4. There are enormous differences in between Islamic, islamist or islam-inspired parties across the board
  5. Islamist is a invalid shortening for grouping parties. As Christiandemocract is a shortening when you look at the CDU, CVP or the American Republican Party.
  6. For us as students of politics and teachers we should try to create a „Islamic democracy pedagogy“

As a conclusion what do I think? Yes Islam is compatible with democracy, if you want that, as Catholicism is compatible with democracy. But as Catholicism it can be used as an ideological framework to justify oppression and authoritarianism; Islam can be used. However we here in the west have to invest much more time and efforts in trying to understand it. The issue will stay with us, especially with the Arab Spring.

„Islam and Democracy“ weiterlesen

KuCa gewinnt Landeslehrpreis

Das KuCa hat den Landeslehrpreis für herausragendes studentisches Engagement 2011 gewonnen.

Das KuCa wurde von den „Freundinnen und Freunden des KuCas“ für den Landeslehrpreis vorgeschlagen. In der Bewerbung heißt es u.a.:

„Das Kulturcafé bietet, wie im Verlauf der Bewerbung ausführlich beschrieben wird, Raum und Fundament für verschiedene Gruppen, Aktivitäten, Ideen, Vernetzung, Veranstaltungen und Diskurse aller Art. Es ermöglicht als selbstverwalteter Freiraum die Verwirklichung eines Studiums – über die Grenzen der Studienordnung hinaus – und trägt zur Attraktivität der Pädagogischen Hochschule Freiburg bei.
Darum soll nicht das KuCa als architektonisches Gebäude vorgeschlagen werden, sondern die dadurch entstehende Gemeinschaft, durch welche das studentische Engagement an der Pädagogischen Hochschule Freiburg maßgeblich getragen wird.“

Bewerbungsvideo zum Landeslehrpreis.

Learning for the exams

Yesterday we had the first meeting of our english state exams learning group. I already started learning and reading the books but of course there is a lot to do and some of the others are even writing their thesis right now! Luckily I wrote my thesis already and now can concentrate on studying.

The topic for the English exam will be:

Cultural Studies: From Churchill to Cameron – Politics in Britain since WW II

And keywords are:

  • Political developments in the UK
  • Britain’s position in the world (wars, in the EU, Commonwealth)
  • Foreign Policy
  • Immigration and Multicultural society
  • Role in the classroom (e.g. ICC, multiculturalism, Britain in the Classroom)

He gave us quite a reading list and some I already studied, thats because I want to present some of the juiciest quotes here:

From „Patriots – National identity in Britain 1940 -2000„ by Richard Weight, p 300: “ Tory MP Bob Bothby, who was then sleeping with Harold Macmillan’s wife, Dorothy, observed: ‚In 1935 we were on top of the world: by 1956 it had all gone. It took the Roman Empire three hundred years of of most enjoyable decadence to achieve that end: all we can do is seek a fraction of that decadence in what we call our permissive society“

At least there is still very pleasant old English tunes, that you get to know when studying about, like Greensleves:

And on the Decline of the Empire and the Profumo affair (p. 269): „Nancy Mitford compared 1960s Britain to Venice in the sevententh century: ‚Perhaps‘, she suggested, ‚masked naked men, orgies and unlimited spying are an accompaniment of maritime powers in decline. Certainly the whole Ward affair comes straight out of Casanova'“

At least learning for the exams with the topic „Britain from Churchill to Cameron“ is at least entertaining.

Much less spicy but easier to read is Andrew Marr’s „A History of Modern Britain„. He is a BBC journalist and produced a TV series on the same topic as well:

„Learning for the exams“ weiterlesen