Inclusive Education in Germany: The Example of Hamburg

Andreas Hinz (Universität Hamburg)

Preface

Whenever I have the chance to talk about the development of Inclusive Education in Germany I like to start with the following text by Haim Ginott:

There is a famous sentence of the German philosopher Theodor Adorno that says: "The main task of education is that there should never again be another Auschwitz." How can we cope with this task? I think, we have to work for a non-selective educational system and for non-selective attitudes - especially in Germany. So let's have a look at Inclusive Education in Germany and especially in Hamburg.

I'm going to show up four points: First, I have to explain the structure of the German educational system - because it's an exotic one in Europe. Secondly, I will say something about the development and the structure of Inclusive Education in Hamburg, and thirdly,about the theoretical background. Finally, I will give an idea of some experiences with new forms of diagnostics.

1. The German Educational System

Federalism

Germany is a federal republic with 16 federal states, named Länder in German. Every Land has a Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs and a school law of its own. The government of the Federal Republic represented by the Ministry of Education and Science plays an important role in the general planning of education and in the promotion of innovation (through the Commission of the Federal Government and the Länder for Educational Planning and Research Promotion).

Among the states there is only a conference of these ministers, which coordinates the development within a common frame. The principle of federalism leads to a wide range of different structures of the school system.

Structure of the Educational System

Germany has one of the most segregated educational systems in Europe - which in fact is a real handicap for the development of Inclusive Education. That's why it is important to get an idea about the educational system in general (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Structure of the Educational System of Germany

In Germany pre-school education includes optional kindergartens for children from three to six years. Even here we have special kindergartens for children with special needs. In some Länder nearly all special kindergartens have been transformed into integrative ones in the last ten years.

Primary school education is four years for children aged six to ten. Most of the children go to the primary school of the area they live in. Children with special needs mostly (about 80%) go to special schools corresponding to their type of disability: Schools for blind, deaf, for mentally handicapped, for physically handicapped, for sick, for students with learning disabilities, for students with behaviour disturbances, for students with impaired vision, for students with impaired hearing, for students with impaired speech and for multiple handicapped (OECD, 1992).

In Secondary school education most children have to change to other schools. There are different school-types: the 'Hauptschule' (grades 5 to 9), the 'Realschule' (grades 5 to 10), the 'Gymnasium' (grades 5 to 13) and the different special schools. Most of the Länder also have comprehensive schools ('Gesamtschulen', grades 5 to 10 or 13) as regular schools or as experimental schools (experiments having started 25 years ago - and still going on!). These schools integrate the formerly mentioned school-types. In some Länder the parents decide which type of secondary school their children go to, in others it depends on the average mark the children get in the primary school.

The different secondary schools lead to different qualifications: The 'Hauptschule' usually leads to further vocational education and training. The 'Gymnasium' leads to the general university entrance qualification. The 'Realschule' is somewhere in between. In the 'Gesamtschule' all these qualifications can be achieved.

Students who leave school after grade 9 or 10 can choose between various types of vocational schools, which last mostly for three years. In the 'dual system' they go to school one day a week, four days they are on practical training, mostly in firms. For juveniles with special needs there are a lot of special institutions for vocational training.

For the demand for inclusive education it is important to keep this structure in mind. If pupils are separated in the different types of secondary schools, it sounds revolutionary to call for inclusive education for all pupils - from the severely-multiple-handicapped to the severely-multiple-gifted pupil. So in Germany we have to fight against a special handicap.

Differences in the Present Stage of Development

Some time ago a report in a TV-show began with the text: "Is there a system of apartheid in Bavaria? Some say yes. Parents of children with special needs who want inclusive education have to emigrate in other Länder of Germany because Bavaria doesn't want Inclusive Education." And it's right, an internal German migration has started: We had some calls from Bavaria and other Länder wanting to know where Inclusive Education is done and where families should move if they wanted to make use of it.

In fact, there are different stages of development: In Bavaria for example, there is an embryonic stage; what they call 'Integration in school' is the permission for pupils to go to the regular school if they are able to follow the normal lessons intellectually and if the special needs are not too extensive. So a lot of pupils with problems of speech and behaviour, with problems of impaired hearing and impaired vision are in regular schools. But there are no pupils with severer intellectual disabilities. An example for the other 'extreme' is Berlin. There parents of children with special needs can choose whether they want regular or special schools for their child. Hamburg is somewhere in the middle between these two examples.

Inclusive Education is a field of policy (maybe one of the less) where one can see big differences between the political parties: Where the Christian Democrats lead the government Inclusive Education has a hard standing, it is rarely supported, parents have to fight hard for it, politically and sometimes even in court. Social Democrat governments (especially in coalitions with the Green Party) support Inclusive Education to a certain extent and put it into the school law. Thus Inclusive Education is becoming a right for children with disabilities.

2. Inclusive Education in Hamburg

History

As in most other Länder of Germany in Hamburg parents started demanding Inclusive Education for their children with and without special needs in the early 80ies. They wanted common life to continue from the kindergarten to the primary school. As in other Länder, many experts at the Ministry of Education and at the Institute of Special Education at the Hamburg University declared these parents mad and asked if they had anything against their children. Some said that these parents were unable to accept the problems of their children and categorized them as people with a 'Syndrom of Digestion'. Nevertheless, in 1983 the first three 'integration classes' were establishes in three schools as an experiment. A scientific research group was engaged.

Every year there were more groups of parents - organized in a pressure-group 'parents for integration' - who wanted these 'integration classes' for their children. So the Ministry of Education established an increasing number of 'integration classes' - in the schools which had them already as well as in new ones. After a big fight - with demonstrations to the Hamburg Government, TV reports, press campaigns - these parents succeeded in extending these classes from the primary to the secondary schools, mostly in Comprehensive Schools up to grade 10. In the last few years even 'integrated vocational classes' have been developed. Students with severe learning problems work and learn together with non-handicapped, for example in a Bistro, in a plant shop or in a shop for second hand toys. Now it is possible to live and learn together from kindergarten through primary and secondary school to vocational training.

In 1991 the politicians themselves - believe it or not - established a second, additional form of Inclusive Education, called the 'integrated regular class', in primary schools. There had been some problems in the 'integration classes': There was always only one 'integration class' in one grade (in Germany there are usually more than one regular class per grade). Furthermore in these classes the children with learning disabilities were under-represented - although they form about 80 % of all the pupils in special schools. And thirdly, apart from the 'officially handicapped' there were a lot of so-called 'non- handicapped' children with special needs in the 'integration classes'. It was the aim of the 'integrated regular classes' to solve these problems.

The 'IR-classes' are different from the 'integration classes'. Here we have no officially 'handicapped' children (with learning, speaking and behaviour problems) and it makes no sense to create a sophisticated diagnosis to separate handicapped from non-handicapped children, because the prognosis of their development is unsure. So the government decided: A primary school can apply for 'IR-Classes' and - if there is money enough - it gets additional means if the school commits itself to include also children with problems of learning, speach and behaviour in all the classes and not to segregate them in specialschools. Thus no child needs to be categorized as 'handicapped' and the ability of a school for inclusion can be made more effective. A lot of schools which started with integration classes now also have 'IR-Classes' so that they are able to include all children of their area. The Ministry of Education wants the schools to build up their own concepts as 'Inclusive Schools' and to use the additional means in a way the social surroundings make it most sensible.

On the other hand there are twice as many children whose parents want Inclusive Education as they can find places in 'integration classes'. And there is still no right for parents for Inclusive Education. At the moment we are facing a situation of growing financial crisis so that the politicians have to decide what they really want. One direction could be the stagnation of Inclusive Education and at the same time special schools so that we would have one more 'ruin of a reform'. The other - correct - direction should be a plan for the whole city for the extension of Inclusive Education and the massive reduction of special schools - at least at primary school level. It's impossible to finance two parallel systems. The second direction would imply that for primary schools parents would have no more choice for segregation.

In secondary schools the situation is much more complicated. We will not be able to change the common school sytem by Inclusive Education. For a long time Inclusive Education will realistically be an optional possibility. But nevertheless - Hamburg is up to now the only one of the German Länder where all parents - if they want - have the chance to continue Inclusive Education in the 'integration classes' of the secondary schools. In the other Länder there is a big - or better: very little - eye of a needle at the transition from primary to secondary schools for included classes.

Basic Principles

What do we mean when we speak about integration or inclusion? For the work in 'integration classes' in Hamburg we have the following basic principles we try to realize (BSJB 1994):

1. Principle of open admission: The children admitted are different in the form and degree of their special needs. There is no segregation of special form or degree of handicap!

2. Principle of multiprofessional work: Common learning and living must be the job of an educational team. Primary school teachers, special education teachers and educators work together in one class. In each lesson two pedagogues are in the same class.

3. Principle of accepting different aims: All children have to learn according to their possibilities. The 'non-handicapped' follow the curriculum of the primary school, for the others the curriculums of special schools can be an additional orientation. What we really aim at is an common curriculum with individualized tasks.

4. Principle of evaluating the individual progress: The progress of all children can be recorded in words instead of marks up to grade 8. For the pupils with special needs this applies also to grades 9 and 10.

5. Principle of voluntariness: The establishment of integration classes has to be based on the consent of the school conference and the parents.

We think that these principles are helpful and correct. Nevertheless, there are some problems: First, there has to be a commission which has to create a helpful situation in the class. Also the commission has to suggest, which of the inscribed children should be included in the class and where the others could go - it's a terrible situation to begin inclusion with exclusion. Secondly the principle of voluntariness is not acceptable on the long run. No teacher is asked whether he or she wants to have a child with a different mother tongue or a Buddhist child or a boy in his or her class. So this principle is a form of 'exotising' and of making of children with special (or better: up to now unmet) needs abnormal. The principle of voluntariness is only important and acceptable for the starting phase of Inclusive Education. Principles 2, 3 and 5 affect the 'IR-Classes', too.

Present Stage (1996/1997)

The present stage of the development of Inclusic Eduacation shows the following figure.

* In some Primary Schools there are Integration Classes and Integrative Regular Classes. In some combined Primary and Secondary Schools there are integrative classes in their Primary and Secondary part.

Fig. 2. Schools and Classes with Inclusive Education in Hamburg 96/97

Hamburg has 223 Primary Schools, so now nearly every fifth primary school has integrated classes. But only every tenth of the 164 secondary schools has them: 15 of the 38 Comprehensive Schools, three of the 56 combined Haupt- and Realschulen - and none at all of the 70 Gymnasiums. And still there are 45 special schools in Hamburg. So it is obvious that Inclusive Educaton is still at an early stage. On the other hand: In 1983 we wouldn't have expected this all in all positive development. Inspite of all financial problems six further primary schools will start with 'integration classes' in summer 97 - this demonstrates the political will.

Forms of Organisation

The next figure gives an overview about the forms of organisation of the different classes in primary and secondary schools.

Fig. 3. Conditions of Inclusive Education in Hamburg (BSJB 1994)

The construction of collaboration of educators and social pedagogues in the teams of integrative classes turns out to be a positive influence for the atmosphere of the school life and the perception of children: It helps to open the look from the progress of intellectual skills to the development of the social and emotional situation of certain children and the whole group.

3. Theoretical Background - Theory of Integrative Processes

Integration is a term which is used in many different ways. Some people say special schools are a form of integration, others say that they are just the opposite: a form of segregation. The variety of the use of the term 'integration' and especially the tendency of using 'integration' for an institutional view of the common education has led to the term 'Inclusive Education', which focuses on the social and psychological but also on the sociological and political aspects. In Germany we have developped a 'Theory of Integrative Processes' which, in my view, is a good and helpful systematic illustration (Reiser 1991, Hinz 1993).

The background of this theory is the dialectics of equality and diversity of all people. As the Italian integration movement said: Tutti iguali - tutti diversi. All are equal, all are different - at the same time. Traditional special education - as many other sciences - always looked at the diversity of people with special needs from the others, the aspects of equality were ignored. If you do that it is logical that you build special institutions - kindergartens, schools, residences, workshops for handicapped, only the special funeral is missing... Exclusion is complete.

If we see people with special needs - as others or better: as all people - as being different and equal, they have to have the possibility to be in the mainstream. A reason for segregation and exclusion has to be given, not for integration and inclusion. Integration from this point of view is not a status, but an always unstable process. A person can feel integrated in a situation, we can create circumstances with the hope of good possibilities of integration, but I can't 'integrate someone else' nor can I be 'fully integrated'. I think that's nonsense, because for this process it needs movements into two opposite directions: approximation and differentiation. If we are all different and equal, we always have aspects of consent and dissent, of proximity and distance, of autonomy and dependency. Both of these two directions are necessary. If we miss equality and proximity, we will become freaks, if we miss distance and diversity, we will become faceless conformist numbers. The aim is to get into a balance between these two poles of diversity and equality and achieve an understanding within the process of approximation and differentiation.

This process can be described on five different levels which work together and influence each other. These levels are: innerpsychological, interactional, actional, institutional and socio-normative.

Fig. 4. Integration as a Process of Understanding between Contradictions (Hinz 1993)

In this sense integration means substantially more than the institutional gathering of children with or without special needs in one class.

On the innerpsychological level of the person integration means the acceptance of the contradictory elements of the own personality. We all have nice, multicolor brilliant elements, shiny pages, our personal profile, our strengths, our gifts. But we all also have the 'dark sides', the sides of being unclear, unsure, scared, helpless, small, of feeling bad. Only if we try to integrate these parts we will be able to develop self-acceptance. And especially as teachers we ourselves should try to do that. One root of segregation is not being able to accept stagnation of the development of children. As teachers we often can't stand it when a child in our class doesn't learn to read and write. And just because we can't stand this situation personally we try to segregate this child in a different institution - for his or her own best, of course.

On the interactional level integration means the dialogue between people recognizing each other's contradictions. Often we have a tendency to keep a distance from people who don't think as we do and we have a tendency to lose distance to people who think as we do. Dialogue will only be possible if we see both, the consent and the dissent, and if we have both, proximity and distance. This is important for every interaction and discussion, especially for discussions in school. Our aim cannot be that all pupils should think as we do (pacifist, fascist, feminist or whatever), but that different people should be able to understand different positions or opinions taking the individual background into consideration - this is empathy! However, this does not mean that we consider any opinion as correct.

On the actional level integration means cooperation. In school we should try to create situations in which the students have the possibility to cooperate without dominating on one hand nor hiding on the other. For the curriculum, this means that all the pupils of a class should have a common curriculum - with a special quality: the quality that everyone of the class can participate in one project or one topic with their own possibilities. This is the new - or is it really so new? - challenge for teachers: the art of working with heterogeneous learner groups - not as a temporary problem but as an accepted and wanted chance.

On the institutional level integration means community without being afraid of segregation and without the pressure of having to adapt. People may be and keep different from each other - it's our human right! This has consequences for the organisation of school, for example for the recording of progress, for the curriculum, in general for the relation between school and pupils: School has to adapt to pupils, not the other way round! School has to become capable for integration, not children! There are no 'un-integratable' children - but still there are a lot of un-integratable schools.

Finally, on the socio-normative level integration means normalization - not in the sense that now everybody has to become normal, maybe cured, but in the sense that we accept a wider range of behaviour, of positions, of individual norms. It's quite normal not to be quite normal! The traditional special education often considered people with special needs as being a sort of aliens, as very exotic phenomena indeed. We should not commit the error to behave like colonialists who decide how one has to act, to speak, to behave and so on (in Sri Lanka for example, children once had to give some Rupiah for every Singhalese word in school!).

In general, we - as teachers or in whatever profession - should learn to accept existing contradictions, we shouldn't claim to have an answer to any question anymore. It can be a relief to live a 'culture of the unperfect' - as life itself. The aims of this theory may sound utopian. I think that we need directing stars on the firmament of education for our next little steps. If we forget these stars we will be routinized teaching machines. On the other hand we have to see the everyday obstacles. If we don't watch them - we will fall and fail - especially as people working at universities. We need both: fundamental ideas and everyday pragmatism.

This theory of integrative processes aims at an education of variety. Neither is it a special theory of Inclusive Education, nor a theory of special education. I myself was very surprised when I found the same arguments and the same theoretical positions in other educational discussions: in the discussion about the multicultural school and the discussion of the coeducation school (Hinz 1993) - maybe this is a special situation in Germany, that these discussions are devided extensively. In all three discussions the aim is to let diversity live, to develop it, well, to even celebrate diversity. So this theory is a theory of general education in the fullest sense of the word.

4. Dialogical Forms of Diagnostics

If we act and think in an integrative or inclusive way we need other methods and strategies of diagnostics. In this case we can't go on the way of testing people by a neutral tester which keeps distance from the proband - naturely without any personal dialogue, concentrated on the standard-items.

One example of an alternative form of diagnostics with a dialogical orientation is the diagnostical mosaic - or maybe better: a diagnostical jigsaw. The contents and the methods are not completely new but the arrangement and the combination of it has a new quality.

From time to time we build up round tables with the person we think about and we talk with (!), maybe - if she or he wants - with his or her parents and with other people the person is expecting help from. So it's no test-situation but a situation of a common reflexion on a person and/or its situation. There is no obligate time or frequence for that round table - it's up to the people who are involved in the situation and who can start that round.

The group doesn't try to figure out the 'real situation', doesn't try to reach objectivity. They speak about their subjective pictures of the situation in a sense of 'inter-subjectivity' in the group. The challenge is not to find out the real structure but to have a flashlight of the present-day situation as the group sees it at this moment. The mosaic consists of five parts (Schley 1988, Boban & Hinz 1996):

- The analysis of the biography focusses on the positive and negative events of someones life. It views the long-term perspective and it becomes evident what all is unknown.

- The analysis of the context shows what the round knows or thinks about the quantity and quality of contacts and relationsships of a person. It may give an idea of the structure and the environment someones lives in - for example whether it is an empty or crowded one, the propotion between men and woman, peers and adults, the importance of payed people like therapistis, doctors etc.

- The analysis of the dynamics of learning can show the influences on and between three poles: self-image, context and abilities. These processes can build positive or negative dynamics in a sense of a self-intensivating circle.

- The analysis of the processes of projection aims at the enlightment of the unconscious roles the adult and the child represent for each other.

- The analysis of the dynamics in a familiy looks for 'sensitive' dates, themes or constellations. It can help to realize 'key-situations', which may be based on the 'history' of the family - for instance suddenly increasing conflicts can be based on the 'heritage' of the role of the 'black sheep'.

At every part all members of the group can bring in their informations, can paint their pictures, maybe with one important sentence, one situation, a symbol (fog, tears, a heart and so on); all informations are collected on a big paper. So everybody can see what is painted or written there and the group can think about a consent what shows up on the paper. It is not completeness what is necessary and helpful, the essentials of the situation should be represented.

Analysis of the Biography		Analysis of the Context
Analysis of the Dynamics of Learning		Analysis of the Processes of Projection
Analysis of the Dynamics in the Family

Fig. 5. The Diagnostic Mosaic (Boban & Hinz 1996)

At the end of the process the group can - or should - reflect how the different parts of the mosaic are connected. Now it is important to think over the hypothesis one has worked with and how it has changed during the process of winning a new view on the person.

There can be different constellations of using this method: The person him- or herself can sit in the round or a pedagogical team reflects the situation of a child together with the parents. There are groups of teachers who use this method as a part of supervision, others in training courses of the 'Beratungszntrum Integration', a counseling and training center for people who are involved in Inclusive Education - teachers, educators, parents, pupils, headmasters, visitors and others. And this method is used in some seminars at university.

The experiences up to now are positive, because this is a method for reflecting the picture of a situation of a person which very often is unreflected in the minds or 'in the bellys' of teachers. Now they have a structure for the reflection in the involved group. Maybe the first moment the mosaic seems to be a very time-intensive method, but it can make problems more relative and it can unburden a person in the reflecting process of the whole team. Many people say that this method changes the view of a person (in both senses) - because of the addition of the different points of view but maybe more because of the consciousness of the background anf the history of this person. And we think that the change of the view is one of the most central and difficult processes in Inclusive Education. We hope that this mosaic can help to one more step in a more inclusive direction.

References

Boban, Ines & Hinz, Andreas (1996). Kinder verstehen - mit Kindern gemeinsam Schritte planen (To understand children - to plan next steps together with children). Hamburg: Unpublished Paper

BSJB (Behörde für Schule, Jugend und Berufsbildung, School Board Hamburg) (1994). Integrationsklassen in Hamburg (Integration Classes in Hamburg). Hamburg: BSJB

Hinz, Andreas (1993). Heterogenität in der Schule (Heterogeniousity in the School). Integration - Interkulturelle Erziehung - Koedukation. Hamburg: Curio

OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) (1992). OECD/CERI-Project: Active Life for Disabled Youth - Integration in the School. Country Report: Federal Republic of Germany.

Schley, Wilfried (1988. Schüler verstehen - Schülern begegnen (To understand pupils - to meet pupils). In: Goetze, Herbert & Neukäter, Heinz (Hrsg./Eds.). Disziplinkonflikte und Verhaltensstörungen in der Schule (Discipline conflicts and behaviour problems in school). Oldenburg: UniversitÄt, 35-41