Newly immigrated pupils usually attend special classes in secondary schools to learn German before moving on to a mainstream class. This article examines the organisation of this transition in three secondary schools on the basis of ethnographic research. It asks how the transition can be organised taking into account the goals and approaches of inclusive school development. The focus is on the organisational level of the individual school. On the one hand, the results point to the room for manoeuvre of individual schools and, on the other hand, provide information on the structural limits of an inclusion-oriented organisation of the transition of new immigrants from preparatory to regular classes.
To date, no comparative analyses have been conducted on the legal regulations governing the assignment of grades or the type and frequency of alternative forms of assessment in elementary schools. This article first outlines key research findings and considerations regarding grades and alternative assessment methods before presenting and analyzing the relevant state-specific legal regulations. It shows which foundational statements are established, from which grade-level grades may or must be assigned, and which individual school committees make these decisions. We found significant differences among the federal states and unclear terminology.
As a consequence of the teacher shortage, schools are increasingly hiring substitute teachers without formal teaching qualifications. This raises concerns about the quality of teaching and the reputation of schools and the teaching profession. Because recruitment is carried out directly by the schools, this raises the question regarding which criteria head teachers apply when deciding whether to hire individuals without formal teaching qualifications and how they assess their competence. A qualitative analysis of 35 interviews with head teachers shows that criteria related to professional competence are not always the guiding principles, and that they come under pressure when the job market is precarious.
As school-initiated tasks, which are to be completed by students outside of the classroom, homework potentially involves the home environment and its actors in the completion process. From a practice-theoretical perspective, this article focuses on how differences between school and the home environment are produced through homework and what significance this has for the (re)production of inequality. The reconstruction of two ethnographic observation protocols on homework practice in the classroom illustrates how fundamentally exclusive and firmly established scholastic order is. The connection to the techniques and learning content of the school is assumed to be the only possible framework for the organization of homework practices in the home environment. Rather, homework has effects on inequality when it leads to the de/construction of the home environment as a place of education and determines the availability of learning opportunities.
