Since 1975, I have accepted invitations to lecture and training trips on all five continents and have used every trip to observe lessons in the visiting country. I have taught in Switzerland and Austria, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Finland, Greenland, Russia (Yaroslavl), Ukraine (Kiev), Turkey (Istanbul), Israel, Brazil (Santos and Salvador da Bahia), Bolivia (St. Cruz, La Paz and El Alto) and Paraguay. Cruz, La Paz and El Alto) and in Paraguay (Filadelfia), in the USA (Washington/DC and Tuczon/Arizona), in San Salvador (City) and Guatemala (City), in Egypt (Cairo) and Ghana (Alavanyo), in China (on a total of eight trips to a dozen schools) and in Japan (in Kumamoto) and in 2005 also in New Zealand (on Stewart Island). The world map shows the places I visited:

I took a thick notebook with me on each of these trips and kept a diary. These diaries are the basis for my report.

German schools abroad: Many of my trips were at the invitation of a German school abroad or school abroad: e.g. in Paris, in Kiev (three times), in Istanbul, in La Paz/Bolivia, in Santa Cruz/Bolivia, in Asuncion/Paraguay, in San Salvador, in Guatemala City, in Washington/DC.

The overall impression on five continents was more positive than negative. A lot has been set in motion in kindergartens, pre-schools and schools around the world! And there is no return to barracks-style education, but almost everywhere there are trends towards respectful interaction, more individualisation of learning processes and more pupil participation - even if frontal teaching still dominates in most cases.

As a scientist, I ask myself whether I am too naive in my assessment of the global situation of schools and teacher training institutions. That may be the case. We have to assume that in most cases we have visited model schools and have been shown what our academic hosts and the school administrators involved consider to be "good teaching". However, I have also visited schools in Denmark, Yaroslavl (north of Moscow) and New Zealand "just like that" and observed lessons that were not organised for visitors. This brings me to my initial hypothesis.

I will now provide a summarised overview, not following a systematic approach, but rather the chronology of my training and visiting trips.

(1) Israel (1999) - Inclusion and a high level of internal differentiation

I am a member of a delegation of Oldenburg school headmasters visiting the district of Mateh Asher in the north of Israel, right on the Lebanese border. We are visiting half a dozen different kibbutz schools. They were under considerable pressure in 1999, and probably still are today, because the socialist idea of the kibbutz is slowly crumbling. One of the consequences: Kibbutz members are trying to set up flagship schools to which pupils* are sent from the surrounding area in return for school fees. Here are a few impressions:

Regba School: The pupils - guided by their teachers, of course - have built their own school museum with an ecological and archaeological focus, to which school classes travel by bus from far and wide. A dozen specially trained guides lead us through the museum in English. The pupils are visibly proud of the experiments they have devised and the exhibits they have procured themselves.

Elementary School "Ma'ayanot" in Kibbutz Cabri: The school has a sophisticated individualisation concept and works inclusively.

The teacher gives re-registration on the individual work result.

A large area in the schoolyard is reserved for a "scrapyard" where pupils can climb, do handicrafts and play. We ask ourselves: Why can't this be done in Germany? Our Israeli host Arnon Rafaely says: "German school law is a via dolorosa!"

A first interim conclusion: Nowhere else have I experienced such great differences in the organisation of lessons and the desired level of self-regulated learning in two schools that are only 8 km apart and have reasonably comparable spatial and financial facilities as in these two schools. I conclude from this:

In the evening, the headmaster invites us to his home. He has slaughtered a mutton especially for us, which is delicious.

(2) Bolivia (2001) - Teaching in one of the poorest countries in the world

Together with Volker Wendt (Oldenburg), I visit the special needs teacher Barbara Heiß, then one of my Oldenburg doctoral students, who works in Bolivia in school inclusion projects with indigenous people and has arranged an invitation from the German School La Paz.

Further education at the German School La Paz: a dozen individual buildings spread over a large campus with lots of trees, paths, sports facilities etc. at an altitude of 3700 metres. The composition of the student body is similar to a large German comprehensive school with an Abitur level. Four fifths of the teachers are Bolivian.

The headteacher asks me to offer a workshop on the topic of "educational neglect" in addition to the all-day training programme (on the topics of "teaching quality" and "diversity of methods"). The reason: more and more pupils of German descent are losing all respect for teachers and police officers.[1]

I speak to the head of the kindergarten at the German school. She has a Diplom in psychology from the USA. She is totally fit and, during the discussions on our training day, she puts many secondary school teachers "in her pocket" with her clever suggestions.

Visit to the primaria "Mariscal Braun" in El Alto: Barbara Heiß, Volker Wendt and I visit a UNESCO school in El Alto at an altitude of 4100 metres (above La Paz), which offers free education for the former "underdogs" of Bolivian society, the Quechua Indians.[2]

In the eighth grade, we attend an advanced course.

The pupils tell us what career aspirations they have. Many want to become doctors, pilots and lawyers. But the chances of this happening are zero given the level of qualification they can achieve.

Frontal teaching: The entire lesson that we observe for one morning consists of frontal teaching.

Teachers' salaries: Barbara Heiß introduces me to a good personal acquaintance - a Quechua woman. She is a teacher at the Primaria. She had a baby a week ago and seven days later she is already back at school. I ask her why she has returned to work so quickly. Her answer: "If I don't work, it will be deducted from my salary. And I simply can't afford that. My whole family lives off my wages."

"Bolivia is over-aided"? There are many representatives of national and international development aid projects in Bolivia. Also in the school sector. We visited a superbly equipped school in La Paz run by Bavarian Catholic nuns. But all this aid also causes problems. Barbara Heiß's husband, a development aid worker who has stopped receiving alimentation from Germany and founded an agricultural cooperative with indigenous people, explains to us: "Bolivia is over-aided! The national and local decision-makers don't even start working if they haven't first found a sponsor from Europe or the USA. That paralyses all initiative."

A second interim conclusion: what our Bolivian colleagues are achieving under the poorest of conditions is more than impressive and deserves all our respect! We live in indescribable luxury in Germany. It is then much easier to create the framework conditions for open lessons with a high degree of self-regulation and extensive use of media!

(3) New Zealand (2005) - successful integration

My twin brother and I, my sister-in-law and my wife take a private trip "down under". On Stewart Island (at the southernmost tip of the South Island - only Antarctica comes after that! - we visit a small village school with 17 pupils and discover state-of-the-art departmental teaching in a class with years 0 to 7.

We are impressed by the integration of the village's Maori children. The little girl in the photo is the leader in her department. The older pupils in her class also do what she says.

In 1979, Greenland (with a population of just 55,000) was granted domestic self-government by the mother country Denmark. One of the first decisions taken by the new government concerned language regulations in schools: From now on, only the most important Inuit language was to be taught, which was already very difficult because there are almost a dozen different Inuit languages that are not understood by each other. After 7 years, the language experiment was cancelled because the Inuit pupils were now only learning a little Danish and no English at all. As a result, they could not even access the internet. Since then, these cohorts have been referred to as the "lost generation".

My interim conclusion: in the globalised world community, it is impossible to avoid the "lingua franca" of English without suffering massive disadvantages. The Chinese have also realised this. Every pupil here learns English from primary school onwards.

(5) Paraguay (2013) - Lessons with the Mennonites of German origin

The Mennonites, founded 500 years ago in Zurich as a reformed revivalist movement, were on the run for 450 years because they strictly refused any military service. In Paraguay, they found a new home by special decree in the north of the country (in the Gran Chaco, a shrub desert almost as large as Germany, with little water and a lot of salty soil). Today they live from cattle farming and peanut cultivation. And for the second time in their history, they are doing well economically.[4]

The local Mennonite congregations are also the school authorities. Once a year, they decide how much salary the teachers will receive. As there is a shortage of money, a third of the teachers have taken to raising their own livestock. This often earns them twice as much money as the teaching profession.

Teaching is largely, but not always, at a high didactic level. This is also helped by the fact that the teacher training institute ensures that all student teachers do an internship at a German school. The trained teachers also maintain close contact with Germany, as well as with the large Mennonite communities in Canada.

Primary school lessons: Domenika Eitzen, our host, teaches in class 2 at Johann Cornies Elementary School.[5]

Teacher training institute: The Mennonite colonies in the Gran Chaco have set up a small teacher training institute with 50 students. The former director, Jakob Warkentin, completed his doctorate under Wolfgang Klafki.

My interim conclusion: where there is a lively pedagogical exchange, "open lessons" are more likely to be practised and there is a higher level of individualisation of learning.

(6) Ghana (2013) - A lesson in respect

At the invitation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ghana, my wife and I visit the church university in Ho for a week and take part in a training programme with the professors on the subject of "Teaching Methods":

After visiting Ho, we move on to the Vocational Institute in Alavanyo - a large vocational school that is strongly supported by the EKD (Evangelical Church of Germany).

A committed, very student-centred headmaster. Many dedicated, warm-hearted teachers, but also a surprise:

English lesson - with a stick in my hand: I arrive in the English classroom twenty minutes after the start of the lesson, as announced. An 18-year-old pupil is kneeling on the floor. I am irritated and ask my host why. His answer: "That's a young English teacher. He still has to earn respect." The sugar cane stick lying on his desk, which he repeatedly picks up, fits in with this.

It should be noted that corporal punishment was officially abolished by decree in Ghana 25 years ago. Seven years later, it was admitted again because teaching had more or less collapsed in many school classes.

But we should not become arrogant! In Germany, corporal punishment was only banned in the 1960s. During my first school placement in East Frisia in 1962, it had just been abolished by the newly appointed teacher and the pupils, who had previously been taught by the teacher with the nickname "spanking fisherman", had a hard time realising that not being spanked did not mean that they had done everything right.

I was impressed bythe fee for the two-day training course in Alavanyo: it consisted of a large bunch of plantains and a bucket full of palm oil seeds.

My conclusion: Respect is a central didactic category demanded worldwide (Sennett 2004). It creates the basis for a working alliance between teachers and pupils. - But what exactly is meant by this is interpreted very differently depending on the socio-cultural level of development.

(7) China (206-2019) - Saying goodbye to clichés

I have now visited a good dozen Chinese kindergartens and schools and seen many lessons. Teaching is much more teacher-centred than in Germany - but at a high professional and didactic level.[6]

"Kindergarten" at the East China Normal University in Shanghai. It is located on the university campus. Around 500 children attend it. There is a precisely formulated curriculum. There are also specialised rooms for science lessons, project work and calligraphy. The children are lively and cheerful.

Lessons in a primary school in Fenhu (near Shanghai): The pupils do a little concentration exercise during the maths lesson and rub their noses and close their eyes.

Inclusion in a primary school in Shanghai: We visit the Tian Elementary School in Shanghai in 2016. The school works inclusively and is proud of it. It is supported by the Shanghai municipality and academics. We see a maths lesson in Year 5, including a severely autistic child called Tong Tong. He can only articulate himself to a very limited extent at the level of a two-year-old. Tong Tong has just learnt to use the word "I" correctly. However, he is strong in maths and plays the piano brilliantly.[7] The two girls to the right and left of his seat actively support him. In the follow-up conversation, I ask: "How many children with special educational needs are there in this class?" The answer: "Only one, Tong Tong!" The next question: "How did Tong Tong end up at this school?" The answer: "His parents are rich. They paid a lot for it."

My interim conclusion: it is not only between poor and rich nations that there is a lack of educational equality (see Bolivia). It is also often unfair within individual nations. However, this is the subject of heated debate in China, particularly with regard to the lack of educational equality between urban and rural children (see Ye Xuping 2017).

Secondary school lessons in Ma'Anshan: In September 2019, I watched a lesson on the topic of "Should students wear school uniforms?" in Year 11 English lessons at Ma'Anshan High School No. 2 in the city of Ma'Anshan in Anhui Province (west of Shanghai). The school has 3,000 pupils in years 10 to 12 and 230 teachers. School uniforms are compulsory on Mondays to Thursdays, but on Fridays the students can decide for themselves. The lesson was prepared by the teaching staff.

Sixty pupils sit in a screening room.[8] Two students are not in uniform, even though it is a Wednesday. The young teacher, Mrs Ji Ke, speaks perfect English. She is wearing a microphone so that she can also be heard in the back rows. The work assignments are given verbally, but also appear on the whiteboard. The lesson begins with a round of whispering to familiarise students with the topic. Groups of three and four are then formed and given the task of clarifying their answer to the controversial question and then writing it down in three points. The teacher goes round and looks at the interim results.

30 minutes after the start of the lesson, the evaluation begins. The group spokespersons are called to the front individually. They present the group's opinion in fluent English. The teacher notes on the board whether they voted in favour or against. She also specifically calls groups of opponents to the front. However, due to time constraints, not all but only eight groups can present. In the end, there are six votes in favour and two against. One pro vote: "We should wear uniforms to show respect to our school." A second pro vote: "Rich parents can pay for expensive clothes. And that's not good for the classroom climate." A contra voice: "We all have a different personality. Having our own clothes, makes us happier." The teacher summarises the results in a final statement and praises the pupils.

My interim conclusion: there is not only a lack of educational equality between poor and rich nations (see Bolivia). It is also unfair within individual nations. In China, this is the subject of heated debate among educationalists, particularly with regard to rural-urban differences (see Ye Xuping 2017). I have not noticed any discussions about the unequal treatment of Uyghurs.

(8) Summary

I summarise my diverse observations of everyday school life on five continents in a few generalising conclusions:

(1) The similarities in classroom management are far greater in the various nations and on all continents than the differences.

(2) Frontal teaching dominates worldwide - even in Europe.

(3) Open lessons with strong internal differentiation and a high degree of self-regulation are rather rare. I have seen it in kibbutz schools in Israel, on a small island school in New Zealand, but also among the Mennonites of German origin in Paraguay and in a primary school in China. We do not have exact figures, but the proportion of open classes worldwide is probably between 0 and 2 per cent and does not exceed 10 per cent in any nation.

(4) The framework conditions for teaching vary greatly. In Europe, compared to nations such as Bolivia, San Salvador or Ghana, we live in great material wealth. This makes it easier to create the didactic and methodological conditions for opening up teaching (small classes, flexible use of space, use of media, whiteboards, etc.). But the example of Israel shows that sufficient resources are not enough. Teachers and educational administrators must also be mentally open to these significantly more demanding teaching concepts.

(5) In some nations, such as New Zealand, there are mixed-age and inclusive classes 'against their will' because declining pupil numbers force the use of departmentalised teaching or because there are no special schools.

(6) With a few exceptions, teachers and students treated each other with respect in the schools I visited. However, the understanding of respect varies greatly. In countries such as China and Japan, the respect to be shown to the teacher is already taught in family socialisation before starting school, so that it can easily be taken for granted in the classroom. This is not the case in countries such as Ghana and Bolivia.

(7) English is becoming the first foreign language worldwide. Where attempts were made to introduce English teaching at the same time as school autonomy (e.g. in Greenland in 1979), this experiment was soon abandoned.

(8) School buildings are similar all over the world, as are the schoolyards, corridors and classroom facilities. Very often, the seating arrangement in classrooms is "bus-shaped" or, at best, U-shaped. Kibbutz schools in Israel and wealthy public schools, e.g. the German schools in La Paz/Bolivia, in San Salvador, in Washington/DC can afford a campus system with many individual buildings, specialised rooms, a canteen, etc.

(9) There are state curricular requirements everywhere, although these are dealt with differently. In Brazil, Paraguay or Bolivia, many school headmasters assume that paper is patient, so that nothing has to be implemented as specified. In China and Germany, they at least endeavour to take the guidelines seriously. But the law of recontextualisation of administrative guidelines formulated by Helmut Fend (2006) obviously applies worldwide, even if the Chinese headteachers I interviewed - unlike those in Brazil - stated that they strictly adhere to the guidelines.

(10) The further development of teaching towards greater pupil participation is much easier to realise in rich countries than in poor countries.

Many of the schools I visited were German schools abroad with a rather privileged status. However, they are obviously important and successful cultural institutions in their host countries. Germany has around 141 such schools, Switzerland 18, Austria 8. They build up national educational networks. They are involved in teacher training, they help national schools with the German Language Diploma (DSD) or the International Baccalaureate. Working at German schools abroad is not all plain sailing. The school boards, which are often made up of large landowners of German descent, can make the headteacher's job difficult. Corruption and the level of crime in many countries mean that you always have to be vigilant about your own safety. The coronavirus pandemic has caused extreme hardship for some schools, almost all of which charge school fees to pay the staff. Some have been closed.

I have experienced near-civil war conditions in several nations: in San Salvador, in Guatemala and in a province in Ghana. On the day I arrived at the German School in San Salvador (2015), a Sunday, there was a new sad record: 51 murders in one day in the country's capital. The background: two large gangs are fighting over protection money zones, drug trafficking etc. and have been fighting each other for decades.

The photo (2015) from San Salvador is staged. I engaged the two military police officers in a conversation in 2015 when they had to keep an eye on US Americans at a tourist hotspot.

My conclusion: schools based on the European model have triumphed worldwide - and not only in those parts of the world where European colonial powers held sway from the 18th to the 20th century, but also in Arab countries and in Central and South America. Christel Adick (1992; 2003; 2017) has analysed these processes, asked about the causes and has good news to report overall. For example, the number of children who not only go to school by law, but actually go to school, has multiplied. The number of illiterate people has been falling for decades. But there is still a lot to do.

Then it will also be easier to develop a school landscape that teachers in many nations can only dream of.

Literature:

Adick, Christel (1992). The universalisation of the modern school. Paderborn: Schöningh.

Adick, Christel (2003): Global trends in worldwide school development: Empirical findings and theoretical explanations. In: Journal for Educational Science, 6th Vol. H. 2/2016, pp. 173-187.

Adick, Christel (2017): International education transfer in the name of diplomacy: The foreign cultural and educational policy of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Journal for Pedagogy. Vol. 63, H. 3, pp. 341-361.

Fend, Helmut (2006): New theory of the school. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

Ye, Xuping (2017). A comparative study on the understanding of teaching quality in Chinese and German didactic textbooks. Oldenburg: BIS-Verlag.

Status: July 2022