Socialist schools between aspiration and reality. Pedagogical lectures (Pädagogische Lesungen) in the GDR 1950-1980

The project investigates various facets of the education system in the GDR, looking at pedagogical and didactic-methodological professional knowledge, continuing education and the established exchange of experience between educators from all areas of education in the GDR. The project's source material for this is the collection of pedagogical lectures from the GDR. They have been published since the 1950s and have rapidly increased in number since the 1960s. In the lectures, each of which is around 30-50 pages long, school teachers and kindergarten teachers have dealt with various subjects and courses of study, as well as general pedagogical, didactic, or psychological issues. They were each selected in a centrally organised selection process, popularised in pedagogical districts and district cabinets up to central level, and finally inventoried in the Berlin House of the Teacher (Berliner Haus des Lehrers, see Wähler & Hanke, 2018). In total, an extensive collection of around 9,500 pedagogical lectures is now archived at the Research Library for History of Education (Bibliothek für Bildungsgeschichtliche Forschung, BBF) at DIPF in Berlin. A special Pedagogical Lectures Department was set up at the University of Rostock to research the corpus. In addition to an inviting overview exhibition, it offers space for mutual exchange of experiences and forms a starting point for academic study of the readings. An electronic database was created and a research library with contemporary primary and secondary literature was set up.  In order to make the GDR available as a topic in school contexts, the department also produces teaching materials. In this context, several individual booklets with biographical stories were created to encourage students to engage with the everyday lives of various GDR citizens.

Due to the breadth of content within pedagogical lectures, the department’s research does not concentrate on a specific subject but rather facilitates individual studies on various topics of the GDR education system. So far, projects have investigated sports and literature lessons, military training and the treatment of mentally handicapped children in the GDR. The researchers' contributions are published in the Rostock University database RosDok. Research has also been published in the department's series of publications and some have appeared in the book series "Contributions to the History of Pedagogy in the GDR". Three volumes have been published so far: the first volume offers a thematic overview, the second presents the written memory accounts of a total of 23 contemporary witness interviews and the third focuses on the selection and distribution process of individual contributions to pedagogical lectures.

As part of the second phase of research presented here, questions about performance, performance assessment, and assessment skills are being addressed. While in the first phase, pedagogical readings were mainly analysed regarding teachers' perspectives on topics, the aim now is to analyse the real performance of students in graduation exams qualifying for higher education (Abitur) and their assessment by teachers. A worthwhile subject for this, as a core element of the final performance assessment, is Abitur essays from German language learning classes. The material is based on a corpus of around 2,500 essays from two high schools in different districts from the years 1949-1989, compiled in the Pedagogical Lectures Department at the University of Rostock. The analysis focuses on questions about the formative concept of performance, assessment practices and skills, justice in various dimensions (e.g. gender) and possible scope for individualistic performance.