Institutional change and path dependencies. Determinants of structural-reform processes in Germany's eastern Laender

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Rita Nikolai
• Subject Area: General Education and History of Education
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 255412489

In the course of the reunification of Germany, the East German states implemented different secondary school systems in 1991. So far, there is a lack of theory-guided analysis that could disclose the determinants of these reforms or explain differences between the states` reform bills. By adopting a historical-institutionalist perspective, this study aims to investigate and to compare the decision-making processes in the reform of school structures in the Eastern German states in the years 1990 to 1991. Operating within a framework of path dependence, the project examines which mechanism could explain differences in secondary school systems. The study assumes that an interaction of utilitarian, functional, power-based, and legitimation-based mechanisms explains the diversity of school structures. These mechanisms are the sources of inertia and drivers of change in secondary school systems. Despite all of the changes in the new school structures, a number of continuities with the GDR school system exist. For the empirical reconstruction of the event sequences the study carry out qualitative content analyses (Mayring, 2010) of parliamentary and non-parliamentary documents and semi-structured interviews. This study reveals how historical institutional concepts can be used in the analysis of persistence and change in educational institutions. The analysis of historical development dynamics reveals conditions for the change potentials of school systems and may explain current reform process in school structures.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants