International relationships - Nederlandse Jenaplan Vereniging (PDF)

Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 1 Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships An Overview – SEPTEMBER 2004 CONTENTS 1. Purpose and scope of this overview 2. Jenaplan – the New Education Fellowship – progressive education 3. Inspiration from England and the USA 4. Educational freedom 5. Beyond dogmatism and relativism 6. International relationships now 6. 1. Europe 6.1.1. Germany 6.1.2. Austria and Italy 6.1.3. Central- and Eastern Europe 6.1.4. United Kingdom 6.1.5. Scandinavia 6.1.6. Belgium 6.1.7. Europe general 6. 2. Outside Europe 6.2.1 USA now 6.2.2. Australia 7. The Netherlands 8. Next steps -Literature -National campaign against test -Basic principles for a good school This updated and elaborated version of an international overview replaces earlier versions. Proposals for improvement and new links are most welcome, like other comments too!! If relevant a new and actualized version of this overview will be produced Spring 2005 This overview is als a part of the website www.jenaplan.nl Kees Both Jenaplan Association of the Netherlands (NJPV) Dedicated to the memory of -Susan Freudenthal from whom I learned to see the Jenaplan in an international perspective; -Jos Elstgeest, whose life was an example o f teaching and learning internationally and who at the same time was interested in what happened on a square meter  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 2 1. Purpose and scope of this overview The Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands are probably one of the biggest organized groups of nongraded multiage schools in the world. One can describe the Dutch Jenaplan -movement as a bottom-up social movement of teachers, schoolteams and parents, a movement that later was acknowledged by the government by being invited to contribute to a new legislature for primary schools. This also could develop on the scale as it did, because of specific characteristics of the schoolsystem of the Netherlands (see below, chapter 5 and Skiera 1). This overview is not a systematic and ‘objectified’ review of the internationa l connections of the Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands, e.g. from a perspective of comparative education or a sociological perspective. It has as a purpose to demonstrate the international orientation of the Jenaplan from the perspective of one nodal poin t in a network and without any doubt the perception from another nodal point partly shows another picture. Not only schools, groups, organizations and networks connected with the name ‘Jenaplan’ are reviewed, but also likeminded networks, etc. I call these ‘allies’ and ‘friends’. I know there are pitfalls in communication between the ‘Pädagogik’ of continental Europe (e.g. German) and the ‘educational’ world of the anglosaxon world. ‘Education’ only deals with schools, while ‘Pädagogik’ has a much broader field of operation. The same kinds of problems arise with other concepts, like ‘Didaktik’ and ‘Methodik’ (= ‘pedagogy’). 2 I hope in this paper there are no problems in this sense. The quality of the English language this overview is written in is not very high, it’s certainly not ‘standard English’, but I guess that there will be no problems in understanding what is meant. If any reader thinks there could be problems in understanding, please let me know. I hope this overview also can serve for bringing e ducational like -minded people together in an age education is threatened by being colonized by a - and anti-educational views on schooling, e.g. speaking about ‘quality’ only in economic terms of ‘effectiveness’, ‘efficiency’ and measurable ‘output’. Learning from each other and supporting each other – that’s the ideal behind this overview, an ideal that also have its roots in the tradition of the ‘new school movement’. 3 2. Jenaplan – the New Education Fellowship – progressive education The Jenaplan was a part of the international ‘new school movement’ after the First World War: the New Education Fellowship (NEF), later World Education Fellowship (Röhrs/ Lenhart, eds, 1995) 4. From 1923 Peter Petersen(1884 - 1952), for the most of his lifetime professor at the education department of the university of Jena (Germany), developed the schoolconcept of what later - from the NEF -conference of Locarno in 1927 - was called the ‘Jenaplan’ 5. One can say safely that the name ‘Jenaplan’ has an anglosaxon origin, as an analogy to the Dalton Plan, Winnetka Plan and other educational ‘plans’ of that time, named 1 See the list of literature at the end of this paper. 2 See Hopmann/ Riquarts (Hrsg.(1995). 3 Howard Gardner speaks about ‘ neo -progressive education’ , which implies those movements today that stress teaching for understanding within and across the disciplines (and then all disciplines, e.g. including the arts), helping children develop as a whole person, in finding their own way in life and also becoming productive (in a broad sense) members of their community (Foreword in: Allen, ed., 1998) 4 Also both volumes of Seyfarth-Stubenrauch /Skiera (1996) are an indispensable source about the development of progressive education in Europe, but they are only in German language. See also Hein, 1975. 5 See Theodor Klaßen – Jena Plan Education in an International Setting, in: Röhrs/ Lenhart, 1985.  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 3 after their place of origin. 6. Petersen established experimental multiage classrooms, did research in these classrooms, which grew out into a school for 4 – 15 year old children/ youngsters, and developed his General Theory of Guidance in Education (‘Führungslehre des Unterrichts’). Before and after the Second Worldwar more Jenaplanschools developed in Germany. Petersens little book about the Jenaplan – ‘Der kleine Jen aplan’- was translated into seven languages, recently also in Czech and Hungarian. 7. The 62th (!) German edition was published in 2001 (P.Petersen, 2001). This concise text is after 65 years still amazingly actual and it’s a pity no English version is avai lable. Other works of Petersen were translated into other languages too, but very little in English and those texts until now could not be found again 8. Petersen travelled a lot 9, gave lectures in London at King’s College (Oct. 1930) and in Edinburgh, Glas gow and Aberdeen (Oct. 1930). In 1928 he made a long trip to the USA, invited by Thomas Alexander of Teachers College / Columbia University in New York, visited schools in a.o. Chicago (the Francis Parker School), Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Winnetka , Iowa City and Cleveland Ohio. He gave lectures (also in English) at many places in the USA, led the Summer School at Peabody College in Nashville (Tenessee), but until now these lectures too could not be found. 10 Foreign students went to Jena to study the re11 and the Jenaplan became wellknown in the worldwide community of progressive educators. 12 In 1949 the experimental school at the university of Jena (Jena belonged to the Sovjet -zone of Germany) was closed down by the Sovjet -authorities. Six years later a Dutch woman – Susan Freudenthal – active in the national and international movement for progressive education, discovered ‘Der kleine Jenaplan’ and became the ‘mother’ of the Jenaplanmovement in the Netherlands, a movement that probably now is the biggest organized group of multiage – nongraded schools in the world. From the 1950’s the Jenaplan inspired people in the Netherlands, especially people around Kees Boeke, founder and long chairman of the Dutch branch of the New (later: World) Education Fellow ship and, together with Jan Ligthart, one of the most important progressive educators of the 20th century in the Netherlands. The most important person in this Jenaplan - movement was Susan Freudenthal. From 1960 Jenaplanschools were established, among the state-governed schools and the private -governed schools (also fully paid by the state, see chapter 4 of this paper). Now there are about 220 primary schools that are member of the Jenaplan Association of the Netherlands (Nederlandse Jenaplanvereniging, NJPV ). Besides this, the Jenaplan -, Montessori-, Dalton-, Freinet-, and Waldorf (Steiner) schools were invited by the government to make contributions to the new Primary Education Act of 1985 and by 6 It was the preparatory committee of the NEF -conference in Locarno – among them Mrs. Sooper and Mrs. Matthews – that attached the name ‘ Jena Plan’ to the workingpaper Peter Petersen wrote for this conference. See King, 1967. 7 In the archive of the Peter Petersen Heritage Organization some of these translations can be found, e.g. those in Spanish, Polish and Swedish. Address: Dr. T. Petersen, Steinenkamp 11, D -51469, Bergisch Gladbach. 8 ‘ Der Ursprung der Pädagogogik’ was partly t ranslated into English – see the overview of translations in P. Petersen, 1972, p. 78. Raymond King (1970, p. 173) writes: ‘ Of his voluminuous writings virtually nothing has appeared in English translation other than a Teachers’ Manual published many years ago by the Froebel Society (in the UK) and long out of print’ . Could this ‘ Teachers’ Manual’ be a part of the ‘ Führungslehre des Unterrichts”? 9 See the overview of lectures abroad, made by Peter Petersen himself: Kluge (1992), p. 405 10 See the overview of the 1928 - trip and the themes of the lectures given, in Kluge (1992), pp. 209 –210 11 Dr. Robert Anderson, who grew up in Wisconsin, told that in Milwaukee and other cities in Wisconsin, where a lot of people with a German origin lived, students went t o Jena, to study there. Hermann Röhrs described the interaction between progressive education in the USA and Europe in the 1920’ s and 1930’ s (Röhrs, 1998). See also Röhrs/Lenhart, 1995, p. 133, etc. In the national Jenaplan -archive in the Netherlands a rep ort is to be found from Dr. Mae O’ Brien, who studied with Petersen at Jena. 12 An important source about the original international orientation of the Jenaplan is the book that was a result of lectures Peter Petersen held in Copenhagen: Die neueuropäische Erziehungsbewegung, Weimar 1926  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 4 that reason they have more influence in the whole school -landscape than their number would suggest. There is also a small, but growing number of secondary schools who are developing towards Jenaplan. The Jenaplan Association of the Netherlands (NJPV), is a lively group of schools and individual people, with a magazi ne, regional groups of schools, a teacher education program organized by different Teacher Training Colleges and leading towards a diploma acknowledged from the government, seeking cooperation with other reform -groups (also internationally), being very cri tical towards what we call ‘the English disease in education’: the centralized and in our eyes devastating way the national curriculum in England worked out, with ‘league tables’ of schools in the newspapers. If we sense such developments in our country, w e take action furiously (see below). Important for the Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands were influences from the UK and the USA too. 3. Inspiration from England and the USA In the 1960’s and 70’s many Jenaplanpeople went to England to visit progressive in fants’ and primary schools in the best Froebel -tradition, in e.g. the Bristol -area, London, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire. We read and discussed publications about ‘family - grouping’, ‘the integrated day’, integration of curriculum, the language experi ence approach in learning to read, etc. Projects like Nuffield Junior Science and Science 5 -13, the Ford Teaching Project and the Collaborative Action Reseach Network 13 (John Elliott, a.o), Place – Time – Society had some influence in the Jenaplanschools i n our country. Authors like Doris Nash, Annabelle Dixon, Michael Armstrong, John Coe, Wynne Harlen, Brian Simon were read and sometimes translations of articles of these authors were published. With many of these people there were also personal contacts. From the USA we were influenced by ‘The non -graded elementary school’ of Goodlad and Anderson (Goodlad/Anderson, 1963), the ‘language experience approach’ to the teaching of reading (Stauffer), the work of the Workshop Center of City College in New York ( the late Lilian Weber, Hubert Dyasi, a.o.), the North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation (Hein, 1986), Linda Darling Hammond – Ann Lieberman – Kathe Jervis, and other people working on ‘authentic evaluation’ from Teachers College/Columbia University New York , David Hawkins and the Elementary Science Study (Hawkins, 1984) and its offspring the African Primary Science Study - especially by the personality and writings of the late Jos Elstgeest (see e.g. Elstgeest, 1971 and 1985), the Open Open Education Program of Education Development Center in Newton (Ma), the work of Patricia Carini and Prospect Center, Deborah Meier and the Coalition of Essential Schools, etc. Many of those relationships still exist, see below. 4. Educational freedom It is not by accident that in the Netherlands there are so many ‘progressive’ schools: Montessorischools, Daltonschools, Freinetschool (called after the French educator Célestin Freinet), Steinerschools, Jenaplanschools. Among these the Jenaplanschool are the biggest group. The Netherlands have a very diverse educational landscape. There are ‘private’schools, governed by private bodies (parents, religious groups, etc.) and schools of the national or local governments. The ‘private’ schools are fully financed by the state, on th e same base as the government -schools. Teachers in both groups of schools have the same salary. All must fullfil the same conditions for quality as the government -schools have to fullfil, conditions that give room to a specific profile for each local schoo l and a specific local school -curriculum. The 13 See: Heer, A. de/ H. van Tienhoven (1985)  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 5 national curriculum -guidelines until now give also plenty room for that. This is the result of a struggle (end 19th and beginning 20th century) of religious organizations and groups of parents against the natio nal school and for freedom of education of their children. Two freedoms were established: -the freedom to found (as many groups of parents did) and mark a school with a particular world -view – freedom to determine the religious or secular ideological basis upon which a school is founded; -the freedom to determine the curriculum -contents and way of instruction and organization in the school. Parents have in most areas a free choice of schools. In such a climate also many schools with some specific education al philosophy could develop, a.o. Jenaplanschools. Jenaplanschools are and can be governement -schools, religious inspired schools (protestant, roman -catholic, ecumenical) or ‘private schools’ on a secular base, mostly founded and governed by parents. In the slipstream of the growing influence of economic ways of thinking about schools and education there are tendencies to undermine these freedoms and developing more external control on schools. 14 This could be dangerous for progressive schools in the Nether lands and the Jenaplanschools are – together with other ‘reformschools’ – very alert. In January 2002 for that reason a Jenaplan -initiated national action was started, supported by all other progressive education groups (Daltonschool, Freinetschools, Waldo rfschools, etc.), against the end-test of the primary school, that is used evermore for ranking schools (Both, 2002a). See also the short article at the end of this overview. The same group is critisizing for the same reasons the new framework for the insp ection of schools the inspectorate is developing. For us contacts about ‘quality of education’ and ‘evaluation’ with likeminded groups and individual educators (a.o. researchers) in the UK, the USA and elsewhere is of vital importance. See about Dutch primary education also the booklet of Boland/ Letschert/ Van Dijk 1999 (order by e-mail: [email protected] .). 5. Beyond dogmatism and relativism The Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands are an undogmatic group of schools, that su cceed rather well in finding a balance between a clear common school -concept and at the other side openness and diversity. All Jenaplanschools share the ‘Basic Principles for a good school’ (see below) and these are discussed and if needed reviewed every t en years, all are working with multiage -groups, have an integrated curriculum with ‘world orientation’ as heart, a rhythmic weekplan with the ‘basic activities’ like dialogue, (a.o. circle -discussions’), play, work and feast/celebration as building -stones. Recently ‘new’ developments like ‘cooperative learning’ en ‘constructivist learning’ are discussed and tried out. There are a lot of problems in the schools, the NJPV is very concerned in stimulating the development of quality and good and appropriate ways of evaluation, it is not an educational heaven on earth, criticism from within and from outsiders is important. But good progressive practices can be found in many schools. 14 An overview was made by Kees Both about ‘ Standards and tests: critical voices from abroad’ , Schagen: Jenaplan Association of the Netherlands (NJPV) – Both (2002b). This text is in Dutch and there is a version in German too (Both, 2004), but the list of - mostly American and British - literature gives clues about what’ s all about. Readers who want to get a copy of this paper can ask the author for it by e -mail.  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 6 6. International relationships now Now a short actual overview (September 20 04) of the development of international relationships from the Dutch Jenaplanschools will follow: 6. 1. Europe 6.1.1. Germany On the European continent interesting developments are going on. In Germany the interest in 'Reformpädagogik' is growing again, but the 'Bundesländer' are differing very much in the possibilities for changing schools in this direction. In Eastern Germany, especially Thuringia (also in Jena!), Sachsen and Brandenburg, interesting Jenaplanschools developed from 1989 on and most of them have some regional and national fame as being groundbreaking schools. In Bayern (Bavavia) is a very active Jenaplan -group - Jenaplan Initiative Bayern - with Hannes Hauptmann as chairman ( [email protected] ) and Oskar Seitz of Nurnberg University ( [email protected] ) as an important cornerstone. In 2003 the first Jenaplanschool in Bavaria opended his doors, in Nurnberg. . They also have a beautiful m agazine - 'Kinderleben' and the first course for the Jenaplancertificate started here (see also 6.1.7). In Thuringia and Nordrhine -Westphalia -especially Cologn and its surroundings - Jenaplan is relatively strong. In the rest of the country Jenaplanschool s are more dispersed, but the interest for the Jenaplan is growing. On the website www.jenaplan.de names and addresses of most Jenaplanschools and Jenaplan -inspired schools in Germany can be found. There is a national Jenaplanorganization - the ‘Gesellschaft für Jenaplanpädagogik in Deutschland’ – with, besides the Bavarian group, also regional groups (‘Landesgruppen’) in Nordrhein -Westphalen and Berlin/ Brandenburg. This ‘Gesellschaft’ can be reached at [email protected] (‘Schriftführerin’ Mrs. Felizitas Liemersdorf) and the president is Tassilo Knauf of Essen University [email protected] . All members of this association g et the magazine 'Kinderleben'. The Dutch Jenaplan -magazine 'Mensen -kinderen' and 'Kinderleben' cooperate in some way and it’s intended to improve this cooperation. Important for us in the Netherlands are connections that were made to the tradition of the pedagogy of the late Martin Wagenschein, the grand old man of science education in Germany and other German -speaking countries, whose pedagogy and the view of education that is the basis of that pedagogy has an impact that reaches far beyond science educat ion. He used socratic dialogues with children connected to first -hand observations of phenomena, telling stories about scientists -in-action and using selected and potentially fruitful examples (‘exemplarisches lernen und lehren’) as a contribution towards teaching for quality, that ‘less is more’ (see about Wagenschein also Both, 1997, p. 159 -160). In “Mensen-kinderen’ a series of articles has been published, edited by Peter Buck from Heidelberg ( buck@ph-heidelber g.de ). The actual synthesis of the Dutch Jenaplan -concept, described some years ago in the book ‘Jenaplan voor de 21 e eeuw’ (‘Jenaplan for the 21th century’) has been published in German under the title: Jenaplan 21. Schulentwicklung als pädagogisch orientierte Konzeptentwicklung’ (Both, 2001, ISBN 3-89676-336-9). A next volume (‘Praxisband’) is in preparation. In 2001 the first courses for a ‘Jenaplan -diploma’ started in Bavaria (see 6.1.7), as a follow -up of the pilot -course in Vienna, Austria (see 6. 1.2.) Very useful is also the website about discovery learning, developed by Freinet -people, among them Karin Ernst in Berlin, who was also inspired by the aforementioned ‘Workshop Center’ in New York City: www.entdeckendes -lernen.de  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 7 6.1.2. Austria and Italy In Austria there are also Jenaplan -developments going on. From 1998 -2000 the first national Jenaplan -course (as pilot for an European course - see 6.1.7) took place in Vienna, with Oskar Seitz, Tom de Boer (from the Netherlands) and Kees Both as tutors. In 2000 the Jenaplan Initiative Austria was founded (e -mail-address: [email protected] . Most Jenaplan- activities take place in and around Graz ( s[email protected] and www.jenaplan.at ) and Vienna ([email protected] ). In 2000 an important book on the Jenaplan had been published in Austria, edited by Harald Eichelberger and Marianne Wilhelm: Der Jenaplan heute - eine Pädagogik für die Schule von morgen (Eichelberger/ Wilhelm, ed, 2000 , ISBN 3-7065-1310- 2). In Italy, in the autonomous region Süd -Tirol, also Jenaplan -inspired developments are taking place. 6.1.3. Central and Eastern Europe In Central and Eastern Europe ( Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia) after 1989 courageous people tried and try to change schools, including the Jenaplan as source of inspiration. Some projects failed because of very difficult circumstances, others survived. In 1995 in Hungary (contactperson prof. Andras Németh: [email protected] ) the ‘Association for Reform-pedagogics - Working-group Jenaplan’ was founded, which coordinates and documents Jenaplan -initiatives. This working -group also supports school- development. Guided by the association these projects are in progress: 1. A school for social disadvantaged children in a ghetto -like area of Bud apest. 2. A village -school with one classroom and one teacher. 3. A village -school with more classrooms, emphasizing cultural identity. 4. A primary school with a calvinistic - reformed religious identity 4. A private school with children of parents that lived for a long time in Western Europe and returned to Hungary. The Workinggroup Jenaplan operates in close cooperation with the Research – and Documentation Department of the professorate for Educational Studies of the Faculty of Education of the Eötvös -Loránd- University in Budapest. In the framework of international projects reseach takes place on the interaction of European Reformpedagogics (‘Reformpädagogik’/ progressive education) – in its historical and actual dimensions / projects – and innovation of schoo ls. In Keshtely, at the Balatonlake, is also a Jenaplanschool for children from 6 -15, also with a Kindergarten. Director is Mrs. Gyongyi Komaromi. In this school there is a strong emphasis on the arts and learning about the cultures of the world. The sch ool has connections to educators in Japan and is looking for connections with Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands too. On their website http://web.axelero.hu/eletfa2/ photos of the school can be viewed. E-mail Mrs. Gyöngyi Komáromi: [email protected] In the Czech Republic some new Jenaplan -life can be discovered. Developments are coordinated from Pardubice University (Karel Rydl and Jan Capec) Contacperson i s prof. Karel Rydl – [email protected]. 6.1.4. United Kingdom In England, as already stated in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century very important for the development of the Dutch Jenaplanschools, the actual situation of prog ressive education is very weak. We still have some contacts in England, but rather few. As far as we can see there are some ‘niches’, where progressive practices are still alive, e.g. in the network of ‘Learning  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 8 Through Landscapes’ ( www.ltl.org.uk ) and the ‘Collaborative Action Research Network’ (www.uea.ac.uk/care/carn ), in isolated schools (e.g. The Coombes School, see www.thecoo mbes.com and Jeffrey/ Wood, 2003) and some universities and Colleges of Education. Very interesting were developments at the Faculty of Education of the University of Cambridge – especially the project ‘Learning without Limits’ - www.educ.cam.ac.uk/lwl/index.html .In close cooperation with a group of experienced teachers reseach took place on about the mindset and pedagogy of teachers who are using a non -deterministic approach of teaching: not thinki ng in terms of predictable and fixed abilities of children, but in terms of ‘transformability’ of actual abilities, working from a pedagogy of hope and high expectations of children, looking for strengths and potentials, in stead of weaknesses that must be repaired. Conventional uses of tests, especially standardized tests - working within a traditional psychometric paradigm of assessment - are being challenged. See about this promising, at the same time very fundamental and practical approach: Hart (1998) and Dixon, a.o. (2002a; a translation into Dutch was published too: Dixon, a.o. 2002b), and the book of Hart, S, a.o., (2004). Important too is the research into the spirituality of children David Hay (at the time at Nottingham university) and Rebecca Nye (Cambridge University) did. Not only because spirituality is a very important facet of the Jenaplan – it could be argued it is one of the central concepts of the Jenaplan, from Peter Petersen onward to our time – but because the phenomenon of spirituality of children they discovered is described as ‘relational consciousness’ (Hay/ Nye, 1998). Jenaplan is a way of learning to live in relationships and learning about relationships, is a ‘relational pedagogy’. David can be reached by e -mail ([email protected] ) and Rebecca too ([email protected] ). We translated and published a paper of David in our magazine ‘Mensen -kinderen. We also have connections with people like John E lliott (University of East Anglia), Michael Fielding (University of Sussex) and other scholars, who are critical about the new ‘managerialism’ and emphasize education in stead of schooling/ training. In November 2000 in Northampton a conference took pla ce about 'Primary Progressivsm: A Way Forward for the 21st Century?', organized by Peter Cunningham of Homerton College, Cambridge, to take stock of the actual situation against a historical background. The papers of this conference have been published in a special edition of the journal History of Education (October or November 2001). There are contacts with the network of 'Human Scale Education' - small schools, very diverse, working outside the public schoolsystem. Contactperson is Fiona Carnie (see Ca rnie, 2001), www.hse.org.uk , [email protected] . This network is also connected to the European Forum for Freedom in Education/ EFFE (see 6.1.7) and has connections with the Coalition of Essential Schools in the USA (see 6.2.1). We hope some day there could be some more and renewed contacts with English people and schools again. In Scotland the situation for 'progressive developments' is somewhat better than in England, but also diff icult. There are contacts here too, especially with Strathclyde University in Glasgow - the people who developed the 'Storyline Approach to Education'. Contactperson is Steve Bell: steve@storyline -scotland.com, website www.storyline -scotland.com 6.1.5. Scandinavia The situation of progessive education in Scandinavia for us still is rather diffuse. Probably in Denmark, Sweden and Finland for us interestin g developments are taking place. In Norway a  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 9 group of people, with Mosse Joergensen as a very central person – ‘Forum Nyskole’ – who after a hard struggle of some years -succeeded in initiating Jenaplan - inspired -developments: in 2004 an independent schoo l opened - see their website www.nyskole.org ; email: [email protected] . 6.1.6. Belgium In Belgium (the Flemish part) a strong progressive movement is that of the 'Experience Oriented Education', based at Leuven -University and directed by Ferre Laevers.Their conception of 'experience' is very close to that of Carl Rogers and many people are attracted by it, also in the Netherlands (including Jenaplanschools) and in their way they are doing very good things. Concepts from this 'Experience Oriented Education' like ‘engagement’ (connected with the concept of ‘flow’), ‘wellbeing’ and ‘enrichment of the environment’ had some influence on the quality -criteria of a modern Jenaplanschool formulated in Jenaplan 21. One of these is: ‘A Jenaplanschool is an experience -oriented school’ (Both, 1997/2001). Information in English is available (email: [email protected] ). In Flanders there are so me Jenaplanschools (contact by e -mail: [email protected] ), these schools choosed to become a Flemish section of the Jenaplan Association in the Netherlands.There are also other signs of some new Jenaplan -inspired activi ties, also as the result of a national course about Jenaplan - education for schoolleaders in the spring of 2002 (email: [email protected] ) . Also at Leuven University is Geert Kelchtermans a professor on educ ational policy and school development. He studied the innovative aspects of the Dutch Jenaplanmovement (in some way building on the study of Skiera, 1982) and discovered the crucial role of autobiographical factors in educational innovative movements, but also in the professional development of teachers and school teams (e.g. Kelchtermans, 1993 and 1999) Email: [email protected] . In the German -speaking part of Belgium Jenaplan has rooted somehow. 6.1.7. Europe general We know little about developments in other countries. We know e.g. that in Switzerland there are small beginnings and we sometimes hear from other countries. Interesting is the development of an Europewide inservice-course for a masters -degree for 'progressive education' (TRADE – Teaching, Reactivating, Progressive eduaction, Accompanying, Developing, Evaluating) - people, schools and movements (for general information about TRADE: [email protected]). The development -phase has been finished - and courses are in preparation or starting in the different countries. In Germany (Nurnberg University) in October 2001 the first inservice ‘Jenaplan -Diplomkurs’ start ed as an initiative of the Jenaplan Initiative Bayern and is also an offspring of TRADE. For more information about this course: www.jenaplan.de and Oskar Seitz: [email protected] -erlangen.de In Munnich a course started too with student -teachers and there is a cooperation between this one and that in Nuernberg in the sense that for all the final part of the course takes place under repsonsiblilty of Nuernberg University. T wo tutors from the Netherlands – Hubert Winters and Freek Velthausz participate in Munnich. In other parts of Germany there is also interest in this course. Within these courses actual developments in multiage - and nongraded education also should be studied. At the moment the language in this network is predominantly German, but English will be the second international language. We need very much educational research - more fundamental and more practice -orientied small-scale research ('action-research'). In Germany the University of Giessen had an important function in stimulating and documenting research, but the 'Jenaplan -  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 10 Forschungsstelle' has been closed down. We hope in the slipstream of TRADE research can be reactivated (teachers -students have to do some research too in this course) and that one or more other universities can take over the function of Giessen. We are for that reason very much interested in research in and about nongraded education worldwide! An potential important organization is the European Forum for Freedom in Education (EFFE), in which also progressive organizations, schools and individual people are participating www.effe -eu.org. A Consortium of Institutes for Development and Research in Education in Europe (CIDREE) published a book that is very important for Jenaplanschools and other progressive movements: Turning the Perspective. New outlooks for education (Bachmann, a.o. 2001 – orders at [email protected]). It contains essays on a.o. ‘school ethos’ (by Luc Stevens), the role of imagination (by Kieran Egan), school improvement as a proces of problem solving (Uwe Hameyer), social learning, value orientation, quality development and a democratic school culture (Heinz Schirp), the integration of internal and external evaluation (Roger Standaert). The new perspective that the title mentions is explained in this way: ‘We look at education from a reversed perspective, focusing on the position of and the significance for the children. Education and development are about children. Systems, subject matter, teaching resources and evaluation instruments are subordinate to the development of children. In our society these attributes have gained such a dominant position that they almost seem to govern the development of the child. When we talk about turning the perspective, we are talking about restoring the central position and responsibility of children in learning and development processes.’ 6.2. Outside of Europe 6.2.1. USA now Some of the relationships we had are still there. Some years ago I made a new link with Robert Anderson, together with John Goodlad author of the book on ‘The nongraded elementary school’. He is president of an organization ‘Pedamorphosis’ 15 in Tampa (Florida), that is concerned with leadership -development and supervision in education. They distribute a magazine – ‘Wingspan’ – with articles and with documentation of publications that came out. Wingspan has readers in about 20 countries. Many is sues of Wingspan can be found in the national Jenaplanlibrary of the Netherlands. Some years ago Bob tried to organize an International Registration of Non Graded Schools (IRONS), but at that time did not succeed in it. Perhaps now there are new possibilli ties for something like that, that can develop from an international overview like this. Together with Barbara Pavan he wrote the book ‘Nongradedness – making it happen’(Anderson/Pavan, 1993). In the Phi Delta Kappan issue of January 2000 he took stock of the actual situation of school in the USA, saying that very little of the ‘big ideas’ for school -change are totally new. We cannot repeat the past, but it is very unwise forgetting the good ideas and experiences from the progressive tradition. We have to evaluate them critically and build on them (Anderson 2000). In January 2002 he visited the Netherlands – meeting Jenaplanpeople, visiting schools - and Germany - meeting Hermann Röhrs and Volker Lenhart in Heidelberg. By reading Wingspan the Australian organization of nongraded schools (see 7.2.2) was discovered. There are plans to publish about the Jenaplan in next issues of Wingspan. 15 The name ‘ Pedamo rphosis’ was taken over from the Dutch Jenaplan -magazine ‘ Pedomorfose’ , the forerunner of the magazine ‘ Mensen -kinderen’ . Bob Anderson was befriended with Susan Freudenthal and other Dutch Jenaplan -people.  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 11 The address of Pedamorphosis is P.O. Box 271669, Tampa FL 33688 -1669, USA, Fax. –1- 8139626598. Email of Robert Anderson: rh [email protected] There are also still contacts with other people and groups mentioned above: -Hubert and Rebecca Dyasi of the Workshop Center of City College, New York – a marvellous learning place for teachers, a ‘mother’ of many of such places in the world (Alberty, a.o. 1981), including ‘Lernwerkstätte’ in Germany (Karin Ernst, u.a., 1996) – ‘Workshops for discovery-learning’ (see under 6.1.1). Email of Hubert Dyasi: [email protected] -Nel Noddings and her pedagogy of care (Teachers College/Columbia University: Noddings, 1992) influenced our thinking about the structure of secondary schools – continuity (in stead of fragmentation) in space, teacher -pupil-relationship, time, but also seeing the cont ents of the curriculum in primary - and secondary schools as fields for learning to live in relationships and learning to think about these relationships. ‘World orientation’ in the Jenaplan has as very central aims learning to live in relationships and lea rning to think about these relationships (see e.g. Both, 2001 for the influence of this pedagogy of care). -The North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation (NDSG) This ‘informal network of people – among them George Hein of Lesley College, Eleanor Duckworth of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (see Duckworth, 2002), Kathe Jervis and Patricia Carini (see below), to mention some of the people who inspired us - who share some of the same values and experiences, linking different progressive education perso ns in the USA, was founded as a reaction on the first beginnings of statewide testing in the 1970’s (Hein, 1986). The initiative came from Vito Perrone, then Dean of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of North Dakota (Grand Forks), late r at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. At the moment Jay and Helen Featherstone are very prominent in the operation of the NDSG.This group also published a series of monographs and almost all of them are part of the Susan Freudenthal Library, the n ational Jenaplan -Library of the Netherlands. A list of these monographs can be obtained from Mrs. Beverley Solseng at the University of North Dakota, email: [email protected] -The network of the Prospect Center (Patricia Carini, a.o.). The first five basic -principles of Jenaplan Education – centred around the acknowledgement of uniqueness, authenticity, relationality, wholeness/ integrity and creativity of the child – are also basic for the w ork of Carini and Prospect. What’s more important: these basic principles are made ‘operational’ by the Prospect -people in procedures of documentation childrens’ development and the ‘Descriptive Review of the Child’. In these well -prepared sessions the participants study one child in depth, searching for the strengths of this child as a central aim. The result of these reviews of individual children is also sensitizing teachers for the capacities of children in general. Children can and do participate in th ese ‘reviews’ and also parents can participate. The whole idea of ‘authentic learning’ and ‘authentic evaluation can be found in the work of Prospect. The recent books ‘From Another Angle. The Prospect Center’s Descriptive Review of the Child’ (Himley/ C arini 2000) and ‘Starting Strong: A Different Look at Children, Schools and Standards (Carini/ Featherstone, 2001) are most welcome! And one is working on some more books, as Carini wrote.  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 12 The organization of Prospect, with emphasizing a network of local groups of teachers, who educate themselves in this kind of child -study, with regional and national conferences and courses is also an inspiring perspective for Jenaplan -people. They also have a newsletter. Website: www.prospectcenter.org. Email: [email protected] . Recently Pat Carini wrote about her experience of the actual educational climate in the USA: ‘….. an era of regressiveness in education across the country on a scale never experienced in my lifetime. How hard it is for teachers to make room for children, their play and learning, when even 5 year olds are denied recess and testing has assumed maniacal intensity. So, of course, this is the time when what Prospect can offer is most needed.’ ……………… ‘What I know is that we who have other visions must both persist and resist -- and continually commit and recommit ourselves to the hard, recursive work of keeping the door ajar so these visions of a humane education do not slip altogether from view and from practice’ (personal communication, December 2001). -Kathe Jervis and other people of the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST) at Teachers College/ Columbia University, that are active in the area of authentic evaluation ([email protected] ). Kathe wrote the book ‘ Eyes on the Child: Three Portfolio Stories’ (Jervis, 1996). She has also a very active role in the North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation and there are close connections with the Prospect Network and the Coalition of Essential Schools (see below). There is is also a link between the work of Kathe Jervis and Germany – the work of Felix Winter at the Bielefeld Univers ity (felix.winter@uni -bielefeld.de and the website www.portfolio -schule.de ) on authentic eval uation / portfolio. -The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), including the famous ‘Central Park East Schools’ in New York City, schools that are very like a Jenaplanschool (Meier,1995, ISBN 0 -8070- 3111-9). See for the ‘common principles’ of the Coaliti on www.essentialschools.org . Kathy Simon summarized for this overview the vision of CES in this way: ‘CES stands for certain essential elements of good practice: Schools and classes have to be small enough so that teachers and kids have warm, trusting relationships and so that instrucion can be personalized. Students should be engaged in autthentic tasks and assessments should be directed at providing information to improve teaching. Schools should work activi ely to redress the inequities that have plagued our educational system’. Features are a.o. connecting (in secondary schools!) a small team of teachers to a small group – e.g. 80 - of pupils (teamteaching, ‘schools into schools’), authentic evaluation 16, pupil- partipation in decisionmaking, etc. A central concept in the Coalition of Essential Schools is ‘Habits of Mind’ – thinking habits like persisting, managing impulsivity, listening with understanding and empathy, questioning and posing problems, creatin g –imagining – innovating, finding humor. In a series of 4 booklets (Costa/ Kallick 2000 a -d) 16 of these types of intelligent behaviour are made acessible to teachers and schools. Most interesting is here the concept of ‘disposition’ that is challenging current notions of intelligence, as “as a pervasive, monolithic mental ability summed up by IQ and Charles Spearman’s “g” factor, a statistical construct representing general intelligence ….” … “High mental ability alone may serve us well when we’re sittin g at a desk …. But good habits of mind keep us going in the rest of the world”. These intelligent behaviours can be learned. Many pupils do not lack intelligence, “but the habits of mind that provide for ongoing 16 See Allen, 1998. In a ‘ companion’ to this book (Blythe, a.o., 1999) assessment strategies are described that can be used by groups of teachers, among them the ‘ Descriptive review of a child’ and some other ways of examine and discuss student work, like the ‘ Tuning Protocol’ and the ‘ Collaborative Asses sment Conference’ .  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 13 alertness to shortfalls in learning”. Import ant is ‘intelligent behaviour in the real world’ (Perkins in the forword of Costa/ Kallick, 2000a; also Perkins, 1995). Here is an interesting link possible with the work of the ‘Learning without Limits’ – project in England (see 7.1.4). The way the ‘Coali tion’ is organized is very interesting for groups of schools who want to organize themselves on a national scale – sharing ‘common principles’ and safeguarding diversity, but also challenging each other. By way of the internet (looking at ‘nongraded; edu cation’ and ‘multiage; education’) other schools, organisations and websites in the USA were discovered that can have potential for us for a fruitful communication. 6.2.2. Australia By way of Wingspan the existence of the Multi Age Association of Queensl and (Australia) was discovered, a sister-organization of the Jenaplan Association of the Netherlands. This group is growing, also beyond Queensland, has an own magazine – Free to Learn - that is published two times a year, organizes a big conference for te achers once a year. In ‘Free to Learn’ of December 2001 the opening address of the Director General of Education of Queensland to the Free to Learn Conference of 2001 is published. Some citations from this address: ‘We all know that different students lea rn in different ways. And so through Queensland State Education 2010 strategies, we are creating pathways for students that are variable and take account of differing starting points and destinations. Part of this work involves supporting and promoting edu cational practices that are innovative and effective in delivering quality outcomes for students, practices such as multiage grouping. Many of you are beware of the New Basics trial currently underway within Education Queensland. I think that this initiat ive holds enormous interest for those of us passionate about finding new and effective ways of learning. We know that we need new skills in our rapidly changing world. The New Basics approach focuses on students developing critical thinking, problem solv ing and lifelong learning skills and applying them to real life tasks and activities. These are obviously concepts that are not new to advocates of multiage….. Increasingly schools are beginning to explore the advantages of nongraded and multiage approach es and it is through conferences such as this one that they are able to gather much valuable information and establish networks for future support and cooperation.’ See their website: www.maaq.org.au . They are now in a proces of changing into an all - Australian Association: The Australian Association of Multiage Education (AAME). At the School of Education of the University of New England in Armidale (New South Wales) Linley Llloyd works as a teacher educator and a re searcher on nongraded and multiage education (Lloyd, 1999). During the summer of 2002 she came to the Netherlands, visited Jenaplanschools and also gave a lecture about multiage education for a group of German teachers from the Jenaplancourse in Nurnberg ( see 6.1.7) who had a weeklong excursion to Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and after her stay in the Netherlands also went to Jena. Her e -mailaddress is [email protected] . 7. Israel, Japan and elsewhere In Israel the development of ’democratic schools’ is interesting and important (see http://www.forward.com/issues/2004/04.01.23/education10.html ). And the same is the interest for  Jenaplanschools in the Netherlands and their international relationships - An Overview - September 2004 14 nongrraded eduaction in Japan. The Japanese government supports research on alternatives in educat...