Qualification and selection in the early modern period. A graduate study on pupils from Westphalian high schools 1588-1779.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Stephanie Hellekamps
• Subject Area: General Education and History of Education
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 448579209

It is common knowledge that the early modern period was an era of social inequality. The social structure of society determined the life chances of the individual to a considerable extent. At the same time, the courses and professional careers of individual scholars show that the parentage from unfavorable conditions did not have to exclude a high school and an academic career. However, the connection between social background, educational success and professional career has not yet been sufficiently clarified for the many unknown graduates of early modern education. The project starts here and examines the degree of dependency of school and professional success or failure of Westphalian high school students on their social status. First of all, a repertory of the graduates of the Catholic high schools in Münster and Coesfeld, the Lutheran high schools in Dortmund and Soest and the reformed high schools in Hamm and Steinfurt 1588-1779 will be created.The school is a place where social permeability can be shown, provided that entry into and progress in the education system is no longer based on status and privilege, but rather that entitlements and accesses are linked to the criterion of personal suitability and performance. With the help of our prosopographic data collected in several previous projects, we want to calculate the proportion of resilient students in the classes at the six schools (grades I-V) and in the upper-level courses in philosophy and theology of these high schools (except for Coesfeld, which had no upper level). So the question is asked about those pupils whose unfavorable conditions (due to the poverty and / or lack of education of their parents) would not lead them to expect to go to high school. The reconstruction of the educational courses and careers of the pupils also includes the determination of the professional activities carried out after their school career and / or after their studies. A longitudinal examination of the whereabouts of the pupils should determine the performance of the school for their professional career. The social gradient, which measures the dependence of educational success on social background, is to be comparatively calculated.The empirically supported study should finally provide information about a (possible) modernization of the school system in a society that is not stratified according to the performance principle. It is asked to what extent the performance principle may have gradually come into effect in early modern school. The practices of transfer at the Paulinum grammar school between 1636 and 1647 are examined in a close-up, so to speak, by evaluating the lists of students and grades that were handed down. The extent to which the pupils were assessed and transferred according to their performance will be explained.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Privatdozent Dr. Hans-Ulrich Musolff