Volume 54 No.3 - 2007-09-30

A Study on Class Inequality In German Educational System

德國教育系統中階級 不平等現象之研究

Author：
Hsiao-Wen Yu / 余曉雯
Keyword：
German education, distribution of educational opportunity, class inequality / 德國教育、教育機會分配、階級不平等
  • Summary
  • Chinese Summary
  • Reference
  • Scholarly references
In 2001 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released the results of the first “Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), ” which is a comparative research about the reading, mathematics, and natural science performance of 15 year old students in 32 countries. The result was like a bomb for Germany, not only because the rank of German, was below the average among the OECD, but also because the positive correlation between the performance of the students and the socioeconomic status of their families was the strongest among OECD countries. This means that the higher the social status of the students’ families is, the higher their grades will be. When we survey the German educational history, it is apparent that the issue is not a new one. Darendorf used the “young girls from the working class in the country” as the representative image of inequity in the 1960’s. In the latest results of PISA, the new symbol of inequity is “the Turkish boys from the working class in a troubled community.” After forty years, even the region, religion, race, and the gender of the educationally discriminated groups have changed, the unchanged aspect is the class stamp- the worker. Thus this study will focus on the unfair distribution of educational opportunities among different classes. In order to analyze this issue, we presented the unequal situations of different classes by means of statistical data. In addition, we also explored the relevant reforms undertook by the authority. Finally, we brought up an explaining model combining the characteristics of the German educational system and the relevant sociological explanation, in the hope of deepening the discussions about this topic.
2001 年，經濟合作暨發展組織（Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD）發布了第一屆「國際學生評量計畫」（Program for International Student Assessment, PISA）之結果。這個針對 32 個國家中 15 歲的青少年 所進行的有關閱讀、數學以及自然科學的成就測驗，為德國社會投下了一顆爆破 力驚人的炸彈。令德國社會大眾震驚的，不只是因為其青少年在三個領域中的排 名都遠遠低於 OECD 成員國的平均，更令其難堪的是，德國學生的成績與其社經 背景間的正相關，高居 32 國之首。也就是說，在德國，來自愈高社會階層的孩子， 在測驗中所獲得的分數也就愈高。 面對 PISA 的結果，德國社會除了在政策面向上有各種教育舉措的研商與討 論之外，教育界對於教育與社會平等間之關係的討論，也因為 PISA 而重燃火苗。 翻開德國教育史，這個議題其實不算新，1960 年代，「鄉村天主教工人少女」 標舉出教育中弱勢者的圖像即可看出一二。自 PISA 測驗公布後，新的教育弱勢 族群之代稱改為「來自問題社區的土耳其工人移民子弟」。時序輪轉半世紀，弱勢 族群之區域有異，種族、性別也不同，但不變的是其階級印記：工人。因此，本 研究之主題將聚焦於德國教育系統中的階級不平等現象。 為能較全面地了解此議題，本研究一方面透過實際數據之呈現，指出教育系 統中的階級不平等狀況；另外，亦將從歷史文件分析中，探討有關當局所採行之 相關改革措施；最後，則試圖將德國教育系統特徵與相關社會學之解釋加以結合， 除了提出可能的解釋模式外，並期望藉此能深化對此議題之思考。

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