Suchergebnisse

History textbooks are sources of collective memory and can thus be read as "autobiographies" of nation-states. History textbooks used to be anchored in national traditions, ultimately legitimizing the rationale of nation-states. In questioning the sole validity of national history, social movements since the 1960s and the process of globalization became the seedbeds for the deconstruction of master narratives. Because of their instrumental character as teaching tools, textbooks in general allow researchers to decipher the normative structures of societies. The information revolution since the 1970s has dethroned textbooks as the sole means of instruction in classrooms, and led to the development of different approaches for the analysis of textbooks. Today's globalizing world demands new reference frames for teaching and learning. In the second part of this article, eight clusters that are pertinent for orientation in the perplexing realities of the present are drafted: challenges resulting from the revolution in information technologies; the changing world of work; contradictory tendencies in globalizing processes; the impact of a new turbo-capitalism with its de-legitimizing impact on political systems; unequal developments leading to an ever increasing inequality on a global as well as on local levels; the increase of worldwide migration and its impact on classrooms; contested memories in societies that reposition themselves in a world that has grown together and re-fragmented at new seams; and finally, the crisis in orientation and values and the personal costs resulting from the perplexities and insecurities of the world.

The globalizing world with its entanglements and multiple interactions, shifting notions of place and time, unifying as well as fragmenting tendencies, new forms of boundary drawing, and old and new lines of conflict, influences our lives and public awareness in the "information age." As far as education is concerned, this situation demands a critical stock taking and new reference frames for understanding this globalizing world, which on the one hand provides great new opportunities and on the other hand generates enormous risks. It requires teachers to offer guidance and teaching materials to provide young people with orientation. Rapidly shifting contexts demand new abilities to act and to maneuver. Collectives and individuals are equally impacted by the uneven processes that are customarily summarized as "globalization." To understand what is happening in this complex world is crucial. From the perspective of old or insuffi cient reference frames, the world will seem erratic, unpredictable, and arbitrary. Schools as the transmitters of knowledge and as socializing agencies play a crucial role in preparing young people for this world of multiple modernities and development. It is their responsibility to provide orientation and guidance. How well they do this depends on any number of factors, and not least on the quality of educational materials. Such materials, however, are frequently more than simply educational media. They are sources via which the societies in which they are produced and put to use may be understood.

Die Diskussion um Welt- oder Globalgeschichte beginnt sich in Deutschland zwar langsam zu entwickeln, aber eine Ausweitung der nationalen Geschichte auf europäische Perspektiven wird nach Ansicht der Autorin den Verwicklungen der Globalisierung und der Komplexität der Gegenwart nicht mehr gerecht. Sie skizziert in ihrem Beitrag die Notwendigkeit neuer Orientierungen, die transnationale und weltgeschichtliche Perspektiven einschließen; sie zeigt, inwiefern sich die neue Weltgeschichte von älteren universalhistorischen Entwürfen unterscheidet und diskutiert nicht nur die Frage, was realhistorisch neu ist, sondern auch, auf welche Weise die Weltgeschichte und neue Globalgeschichte auf diese neuen Phänomene reagieren. Ihre Ausführungen versuchen insgesamt deutlich zu machen, dass Welt- oder Globalgeschichte eine Zeitgeschichte im Sinne eines bewussten Nachdenkens über die eigene Geschichte und eines Neupositionierens im Weltzusammenhang ist. Weltgeschichte ist mithin ganz wesentlich eine Frage der Perspektivierung. (ICI2)

"Der Aufbau bzw. Wiederaufbau der westdeutschen Nachkriegsgesellschaft beruhte auf kollektiven Verdrängungsleistungen und der Re-Institutionalisierung eines 'Normalitätsgefüges'. Dessen prominenteste Zielgruppe waren Frauen. In seinem Buch zeigt Robert Moeller, wie und in welchem Ausmaß die westdeutsche Gesellschaft nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg durch eine gezielte Geschlechterpolitik geprägt worden ist. Das ist ein Aspekt, der bislang wenig Berücksichtigung gefunden hat (auch nicht bei Schildt/Sywottek 1993)." (Autorenreferat)