Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1906, No.18 
Peter Gstettner, Dietmar Larcher, UDC 376.744(436.6=863) 
Vladimir Wakounig, 
University of Klagenfurt, 
Celovec, Austria 
EXPERIMENTAL SCHOOLING WITHIN THE CARINTHIAN MINORITY SCHOOL 
SYSTEM* 
The project has been arranged and organized by a group of 
committed teachers from the bilingual area and has been 
supervised by professors of education from the University of 
Klagenfurt. 
The Austrian minority school system is a product of the 
reconstruction after the Second World War, based on the idea of 
reconciliation, appeasement and international understanding. The 
fact that this Austrian type of school with an underlying notion 
of social integration (that is, the opportunity for children 
belonging to different ethnic groups to share in school the 
experiences of living and learning) actually exists, has 
apparently been forgotten. For more than ten years educational 
reforms have been based on concepts other than those of 
socialization at school and "peace instruction". The concept of 
academic achievement has become all-important. 
In Carinthia there have been for some time now many attempts to 
separate pupils according to their.ethnic origin and native 
language in order to teach them in segregated classes. This 
demand, brought forward with vehemence by "German-Carinthians" 
(that is especially from people belonging to the political party 
FPO) in order to segregate Slovene-speaking children and to put 
them together in their own classes, is now often disguised as the 
educational reform (with relation to external differentiation and 
separated advancement). As a result of the intentional 
misrepresentation of the "parental right", a wave of propaganda 
has been started which provokes parents to insist that "German- 
Carinthian" children should be taught exclusively by "German- 
Carinthian" teachers. The fact that a dangerous form of apartheid 
is spreading and encouraging racist and hostile tendencies 
directed at ethnic minorities has induced a group of committed 
pedagogues of the bilingual educational system and the university 
to develop structural improvements both in the social climate and 
in the school for minorities. The provision for experimental 
schooling (according to Art. 7 of the Austrian Education Act) is 
the essential point of the proposed improvements. In addition, 
the following points are recommended: 
- to reject all of the hitherto proposed educational measures 
which show a segregational quality, and to replace them by 
integrating measures. It is within this framework that the 
efforts at an intercultural education and a collective 
advancement of mixed ethnic groups has to be seen. 
  
* Original: German 
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Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.19 
& to enlarge and improve all hitherto existing educational 
institutions of integrating quality to such an extent that 
intercultural education can actually be guaranteed. For this 
reason the reforms proposed here are to be extended to the 
domains of nursery schools, preparatory schools, Hauptschulen 
(modern secondary schools) and vocational-training 
establishments. 
- together with the reform-accompanying measures in the form of 
intensified information, advice and scientific clarification 
shall be undertaken and made available to all ethnic groups. Only 
a sound basis of information and a broad public discussion can 
guarantee the effective utilization of the basic rights of self- 
and co-determination. In this connection "parental right" should 
carry more weight. Parents should be able to formulate and make 
the demand that: 
- all relevant information about the learning process of their 
children be available to them; and that 
- there be a multitude of concrete possibilities for them to 
observe the learning events taking place at school, to discuss 
them with the teacher, and to ameliorate them through a joint 
effort. 
Educational reform and “parental right" must not be played off 
against one another nor shall they hinder each other. Therefore 
"parental right" can only be enlarged and established in a way 
that transforms it into an instrument of internal school 
democracy. The project initiators are at the moment working on an 
educational experiment based on these principles; they are 
discussing its programme on a broad basis at conferences, 
meetings and seminars. The experimental programme is composed of 
individual "projects," which will be more clearly outlined during 
this "phase of development." Classes, respectively individual 
teachers and teaching staffs will then be free to "apply for" 
projects and arrange them according to their own needs and local 
requirements. The sites of the educational experiment should be 
allocated in such a way that - as far as possible - eventually 
both communities with a German-speaking majority population and 
communities with a Slovene-speaking majority population are 
involved in the experiment. 
The following project possibilities formed the basis for further 
considerations as to what the now aspired experiments could be: 
— à trial run of a 
. € material-s i iation and 
individualization 
in bi SETAE RATER lingual classes; 
— a trial run of language games - 
“ " . + “ i le 
of instruction (from the first gra Po 
Se eee 
de onwards); 
— à trial run 
improve the 
language; 
roti nee ar ious optional and compulsory measures to 
proficiency in the native language or in the second 
= à trial ru 
differentiat 
forms 
of co 
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ion in language-t 
“Operation with 
-methods in teamwork (e.g. flexible 
eaching using two teachers) and new 
Pedagogues who are specialized in 
396

Razprave in gradivo, Ljubljana, March 1986, No.18 
other fields (e.g. nursery school teachers, play-group 
therapists, experts on language didactics, and so on); 
- a trial run of more intensive forms of parental participation 
and the integration of the educational system into the public 
culture; 
- a trial run of different methods aiming to improve the 
atmosphere within the educational system and the areas of social 
relations (by means of bilingual and multidisciplinary projects 
with the social network). 
The priority of a collective education which excludes any form of 
segregated advancement (that is, not even in individual subjects) 
is the fundamental principle of all these project proposals. 
All classes taking part in the project (and of course any others) 
may in addition take part in the so-called S7-experiments 
("SCHOG", the Austrian Education Act, 1962). These experiments 
allow, among other things, the substitution of verbal reports for 
marks. With them the current practice of assessment, to use the 
same marks for linguistic performances in both German and Slovene 
(a fact which all teachers consider pedagogically senseless), 
could be improved in the course of a differentiated text- 
evaluation. 
The scientific supervision of the educational experiments (by the 
centre for experimental schooling and the university) would not 
only cover their evaluation (trial and guidance of the didactic 
innovations), but also offer advice and assistance in connection 
with all related problems (such as parental participation, public 
relations, documentation). 
At the present stage (April 1985) three different projects for 
possible educational experiments are being favoured. These 
projects have been formulated as “rough drafts" after various 
meetings and conferences and have been under discussion during 
numerous informative talks, with the participation of the 
Landesschulrat (The Carinthian Education Authority), the 
Department of Education, the school inspectors, the centre for 
experimental schooling and the teachers’ organizations. 
The three domains in which the experiments are to be put into use 
are as follows: 
- team-teaching system for the collective language classes 
- internal differentiation in heterogeneous small groups 
- intercultural project-teaching and opening-up of the school to 
the community. 
The educational experiments proposed here correspond with the 
previous international experience whereby “parental right" and 
educational reform could be brought into harmony in such a manner 
as to comply with the principle of integration (or the principle 
of non-segregation): in all the subjects the concept of 
collective learning and advancement is maintained so that the 
teacher's difficult didactic work is supported by the programme 
of educational experiment. 
397