More than 2,000 experts to debate "Education in Democracy"

15 March 2010 — 17 March 2010 Universitaet Mainz

Location: Mainz, Germany
Venue: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

"Education in Democracy": This is the main theme of the largest German-language conference on the subject of educational science, i.e. the 22^nd congress of the German Society for Educational Science (DGfE), which is to take place in Mainz, Germany, from March 15-17. At the core of the conference events will be the issue of how education can help sustain democracy in society. Some 2,000 participants are expected to attend, including prominent authorities in the field such as Professor Eckhard Klieme, the new head of the German PISA [Program for International Student Assessment] consortium, and the educational experts Professor Manfred Prenzel and Professor Wolfgang Edelstein. The venue will be at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, media partner of the Association Reading [Stiftung Lesen]. Minister-President Kurt Beck is to attend the opening ceremony, which will take place from 10-12:30 a.m. on Monday, March 15. The opening address will be given by the eminent philosopher and sociologist Professor Oskar Negt.

The draft program offers a diversity unique in the annals of DGfE conferences: More than 140 events are planned involving nearly 1,000 speakers and presenters from Germany and abroad. The conference events include symposia, work groups, research forums, and poster sessions designed to facilitate the rapid and precise exchange of information. Representatives from academic disciplines, sport, and politics will discuss the subject of "Right-wing extremism in the sports stadium." Professor Jürgen Baumert, Director of the Max Planck Insitute for Human Development in Berlin and Coordinator of the first PISA studies, will be debating with sociologist Professor Richard Münch of the University of Bamberg the effects that PISA and the German Excellence Initiatives have had on the education system, taking as their core question "Education under non-democratic pressures?". Interested members of the public who wish to attend will be welcome.

"Educational Science as a discipline is well aware that it has an obligation to promote the democratization of society," explain the Mainz-based educationalists Professor Stefan Aufenanger and Professor Franz Hamburger, speakers of the Organizational Committee, in their introduction to the congress program. They are convinced that the 2010 congress in Mainz will confront this task head on. According to Aufenanger and Hamburger, the central objectives of the conference will be to make apparent the extensive political relevance of the discipline, to undertake a critical assessment of the developments that have taken place in the German education system, and to define suitable academic approaches to these challenges in order to provide a form of policy review. They conclude that it is "undeniable that democracies can only function well if their citizens are able to achieve a high standard of education. Education and democracy are thus inextricably linked."

http://www.dgfe2010.de/