Hilda Amsing

Crossing borders in educational innovation: Framing foreign examples in discussing comprehensive education in the Netherlands, 1969–1979

In the Netherlands, crossing borders to study comprehensive schools was an important strategy in the 1970s, a decisive period for the start and the end of the innovation. According to policy-borrowing theory, actors that engage in debating educational issues are framing foreign examples of comprehensive schooling to convince their audiences. Framing therefore became the leading concept behind our study of the intellectual debate, examined through the leading Dutch scientific journal Pedagogische Studiën (Educational Studies), and the public debate, examined through recordings of television programmes. Assuming that those debates were influential in the political middle school process, our analyses show that foreign examples indeed functioned as a framing device in the form of legitimisation, glorification, sensationalisation and caution. However, the impact of framing differed. In the phase of cross-national attraction, the reform-minded perspective in the scholarly debate had a stimulating effect on the development of the plans, but little influence on the governmental decision-making process. This contrasts with the frames that were brought forward by television programmes. Although the negative frames, such as “a factory-made sausage”, were rejected by the programmes, such frames could linger in people’s minds as a means to interpret ideas about middle schools. At the end of the 1970s, the middle school was reduced to a minor feature of educational policy and, eventually, the middle school experiments were brought to a close. As a result, the foreign solution of introducing comprehensive education was never transferred to the Netherlands.

Comprehensive education: lost in the mi(d)st of a debate. Dutch politicians on equal opportunity in secondary schooling (1965–1979)

This paper addresses the question of whether the political debate concerning comprehensive schooling in the Netherlands between 1965 and 1979 was obscured by incompatible meanings of the concept of ‘equal opportunity’. On the basis of an analysis of ministerial plans and parliamentary debates the conclusion is drawn that Dutch politicians were using different but not incompatible meanings of this concept. The debate shows a remarkable continuity, with the meritocratic meaning of ‘equal opportunity’ unceasingly dominating the debate, while an egalitarian meaning remained unused. The analysis, moreover, shows that in the polarised political climate of the 1970s right-wing liberal opponents of comprehensive schooling created a mist by accusing their social-democratic adversaries of relying on an egalitarian meaning of the concept. This strategy appealed to the denominational parties, and may therefore have influenced the outcome of the debate with the consequence of comprehensive schooling being removed from the political agenda.

The struggle for comprehensive education in the Netherlands: the representation of secondary school innovation in Dutch newspaper articles in the 1970s

This article focuses on how Dutch newspapers represented the debate in the Netherlands in the 1970s on comprehensive education and thus influenced the Dutch Middle School experiment. Wiborg’s identification of key factors of success in Scandinavia was used as a point of reference. The article shows that these key factors did not exist in the Netherlands because of the polarisation of liberals and social democrats. Furthermore, the article shows how newspapers played different roles, varying from disseminators of new ideas to sparking debate and from communicators of political views to a barometer, consequently influencing the political strategies chosen.

Discovering social inequality : Dutch educational research in the post-war era

Between the 1940s and 1960s across Western Europe a spirit of reform along comprehensive lines manifested itself in secondary education, aiming at a reduction of the existing social inequality of educational chances. These reforms are said to be rooted in new policies and in new approaches in educational studies. This article explores the relationship between educational reform and educational science in a country, the Netherlands, which did not “go comprehensive”. Though, by the late 1950s, social inequality of educational chances, the waste of working-class talent, and the impossibility of a fair selection at the age of 12 had been discovered by Dutch educationists, equal chances were not mentioned as a target in the new Secondary Education Act (1963). Its focus was directed at the development of individual talent, regardless of class, and selection continued to be applied at a very early age. This policy was even approved of by the social democrats, who elsewhere acted as protagonists of comprehensive schooling. They held on to the deeply rooted idea of two different, class-bound kinds of pupils with different educational needs, the “intellectuals” and the “manuals”, a message that had been spread for a long time by educational researchers themselves.

Selecting children with mental disabilities: a Dutch conflict over the demarcation of expertise in the 1950s

In the mid‐1950s the head of the Dutch Provincial Psychiatric Service of Groningen, Dr H. Kuipers, became involved in a fierce dispute with Mr J.J. Zuidema, the headmaster of the local school for children with mental disabilities. Both the psychiatrist and the headmaster claimed authority over the testing of children’s intelligence as part of the school’s admission procedure. When the dispute escalated the headmaster withdrew and the tests were suspended until an alternative solution was found. The present article analyses this conflict over the demarcation of expertise in terms of a broader debate occurring in the first half of the twentieth century between advocates of pedagogisation and medicalisation. At the time, establishing the intelligence of children had originally been a task for physicians; however, on the basis of a developing pedagogical awareness the procedure became a pedagogical practice during the second half of the century. This development is in accordance with the concept of pedagogisation. In contrast, in the dispute described in this paper, the psychiatrist attempted to expand his influence by controlling the most important aspect of the admission procedure, a move that is in accord with the concept of medicalisation. While the struggle in Groningen can thus be understood as a clash between these two processes of medicalisation and pedagogisation, ultimately neither the psychiatrist nor the headmaster triumphed and it was a third party, the school psychologist, who eventually became responsible for administering the intelligence test. This sub‐discipline of psychology was strongly influenced by pedagogical concepts. Testing intelligence became subject of the debate between academic pedagogues and psychologists.

Het Pedagogisch quotiënt.

We kennen sinds vele jaren het intelligentiequotient (IQ) als maat voor intelligentie. Dit is een weinig omstreden maat, omdat er in de wetenschap en praktijk veel overeenstemming bestaat over theorieen rond intelligentie. Van recentere datum is het EQ – het emotioneel quotient –, een begrip dat veel minder is uitgewerkt dan het IQ. En dan nu het PQ, het pedagogisch quotient. Het idee achter dit boek is om, vanuit verschillende invalshoeken, historische en theoretische achtergronden van en praktische kennis over, het begrip pedagogische kwaliteit te beschrijven. Dit moet leiden tot een antwoord op de vraag of het mogelijk is een index voor pedagogische kwaliteit te ontwikkelen. Genoemde invalshoeken hebben betrekking op vier domeinen: opvoeding, hulpverlening, onderwijs en educatie. Deze vier domeinen vormen de structuur van het boek. In deze vier domeinen komen verschillende perspectieven op het vraagstuk van pedagogische kwaliteit aan bod, namelijk een algemeen pedagogisch perspectief, een orthopedagogisch perspectief, een onderwijskundig perspectief en een andragogisch perspectief.

Hans Hulshof, Erik Kwakernaak en Frans Wilhelm, Geschiedenis van het talenonderwijs in Nederland. Onderwijs in de moderne talen van 1500 tot heden

Hans Hulshof, Erik Kwakernaak en Frans Wilhelm, Geschiedenis van het talenonderwijs in Nederland. Onderwijs in de moderne talen van 1500 tot heden (Groningen: Passage, 2015, 468 pp., isbn 978 90 5452 315 4).

Rise and fall of the comprehensive school idea in the Netherlands.: Political and educational debates on the Middle School project (1969-1993)

Dutch comprehensive education eventually failed on a political level, despite support from many politicians, labour unions and branches in the educational practice. In the early 1970s denominational political parties strove for a Middle School to provide equal opportunities of all children by postponing school choice. From 1973 onwards, however, the Middle School was given a socialist appeal, which led to strong critique from both the right-wing Liberal Party and teachers in higher secondary education united in The Dutch Association of Teachers. By resisting, the right-wing Liberals struck a chord with the denominational parties over their fear of indoctrination and the threatening of the constitutional freedom of education. The many proponents, including those from the field of education, tried to influence the political debate by publishing their ideas on the Middle School, but their efforts were to no avail. The outcome, therefore, was that in 1993 there were to be no Middle Schools, only the realisation of a common curriculum for the first phase of secondary education.

Champion in Coeducation: The Netherlands

“Recently,” wrote the Dutch Minister of Internal Affairs to the governors of the Dutch provinces in 1827, “some complaints have been heard about the lack of qualified girls’ schools and about the neglect of their education.” Therefore, he asked His Majesty’s governors to investigate the state of the art regarding girls’ schools in their regions and the training of women teachers. This seems to be the first time in Dutch history that the national government expressed any special concern for the education of its girls. Except for providing ten grants to prepare girls for teaching by attending an excellent secondary girls’ boarding school; however, nothing actually changed.

Adaptief onderwijs als cyclus

Leerlingen verschillen van elkaar in interesses en mogelijkheden. In groep 3 van basisschool Het Hofje zitten een paar kinderen die moeite hebben met rekenen. De juf geeft hen extra instructie aan de zogenaamde instructietafel. Terwijl iedereen druk aan de slag is in het rekenwerkboek, nodigt de juf kinderen die dat willen uit om met haar de sommen te bespreken. Hiermee doet de juf recht aan de verschillen in rekenvaardigheid en dit onderwijs noemen we daarom adaptief. De onderliggende gedachte van adaptief onderwijs is dat alle leerlingen op verschillende manieren en in verschillend tempo leren. Deze verschillen vereisen dat er in het onderwijs gezorgd wordt voor een varieteit in leertijd, instructie en aanbod (Hofman & Vonkeman, 1995; Reezigt, 2000). Er is de laatste jaren een breed scala aan publicaties over vormgeving en effecten van adaptief onderwijs verschenen (zie o.a. Blok & Breetvelt, 2004; Hofman & Bosker, 1999; Hofman, Guldemond & Hovius, 2003; Houtveen, 2004; Houtveen & Reezigt, 2000; Meijer, 2004; Peschar & Meijer, 1997; Reezigt, Houtveen & Van de Grift, 2002). De studies maken duidelijk dat basisscholen maar langzaam vorderen in de realisatie van adaptief onderwijs, maar ook dat adaptieve basisscholen slechts bescheiden effecten behalen bij leerlingen (Inspectie van het onderwijs, 2001; Reezigt et al., 2002). Zo concluderen Blok en Breetvelt (2004) in hun reviewstudie van onderzoek naar adaptief onderwijs dat de evidentie dat dit onderwijs een gunstig effect heeft op de kwaliteit van het basisonderwijs gering is. Toch kunnen we op basis van een dergelijk review niet concluderen dat we dan maar net zo goed kunnen stoppen met adaptief onderwijs. De in de review bestudeerde onderzoeken betreffen meestal surveyonderzoek, dus onderzoek met een grote steekproef waarbij getracht wordt houdingen, meningen en voorkeuren in kaart te brengen, waarbij gebruik wordt gemaakt van vragenlijsten. Deze onderzoeken richten zich op bivariate verbanden, bijvoorbeeld naar het verband tussen samenwerken en leerresultaten. Hierbij wordt steeds een element van adaptief onderwijs onder de loep genomen. Deze onderzoeken besteden nauwelijks aandacht aan het vergelijken van typen of varianten van adaptief onderwijs, terwijl juist het samengaan van bepaalde kenmerken, in een bepaalde configuratie, het verschil zou kunnen maken. Bepaalde varianten, die voldoen aan bepaalde kenmerken, zouden wel eens succesvoller kunnen zijn dan andere.