Gerd LAU: Austria's steps towards intercultural education. In: IAIE Newsletter (International Association for Intercultural Education), 2 (1992), p.6-9.

Was it a jubilee present to minorities, that exactly twenty years after the revolt against bilingual name plates in the Slovenic speaking parts of Carinthia a curriculum for migrant children has recently been passed by parliament in Vienna? Let's see, how far multicultural rights of students and teachers have developed at the very moment, when the "Alpenrepublik" is knocking at the EC's door for membership, expecting to be represented by the 13th star in the yellow-blue flag.

The curriculum has been written, because up to now there had been just provisory regulations for the big number of over 50.000 foreign pupils and students in the regular schools. They got some additional teaching in German in order to join education in regular classes as soon as possible. And the Turkish and (formerly) Yugoslavian children also got 3 to 5 lessons mother-tongue-teaching a week - optionally, of course. This former curriculum had been a result of diplomatic talks with those two countries, from where more than 300.000 migrants had come.

The new regulations consist of three parts:

- Outlines for intercultural learning in mainstream classes ("Unterrichtsprinzip Interkulturelles Lernen").

- Curriculum for German as a second language, age group 6 to 15 ("Lehrplanzusatz Deutsch für Schüler mit nichtdeutscher Muttersprache").

- Curriculum for mother-tongue-teaching ("Muttersprachlicher Unterricht").

Austria has an extremely centralised school administration system, i.e., all curricula have to be passed by parliament; some even need a two-thirds majority. There is a debate about school autonomy now. And the authority of central power is so overhelming, that, not surprisingly, even this debate was started by the Minister for Education...

There are considerably more means for additional teaching migrant children now, but there are hardly any well-trained teachers for that new task. There is much more freedom for decision-making on school board level now, but there is little experience in inviting parents to those talks. There is a large debate in public about migration and refugees now, but the topic at the focus of attention is the sum of 100 Million Dollars a year for more policemen and their outfit - not school books, not adjusted school architecture, not innovation in teachers training.

Let us discuss the curriculum in more detail:

1. Mother-tongue-teaching.

Gero Fischer, professor at the University of Vienna, is the author of the above mentioned curriculum. He is well known as a fighter for minority rights; he conducted a teaching experiment in bilingual reading and writing (German, Turkish); but he had to do this work quite on his own. How come? The philosophy of traditional mother- tongue-teaching (and teachers!) was that of preparing students for re-migration. Teachers were selected by their Turkish and Yugoslav authorities, and many of them were hardly able to communicate in German. Time has changed, it is Austrian authorities now, who can select the teachers themselves. It is a common belief, that really bilingual teachers are employed now, who can help the students to profit from the curriculum: "The achievement of bilingualism is the aim of mother tongue teaching, equal importance should be given to mother tongue and German language."

Student groups can start from a number of 6 applicants, 3 to 6 lessons a week, non compulsory. No fees (like in all Austrian public schools).

2. German as a second language.

There were two teams to write this curriculum, one for primary school and one for secondary school. The "special teaching" ("besonderer Förderunterricht") can take place either integratively (i.e. team teaching), parallel or additional to mainstream teaching. Each school can offer 0.86 additional lessons a week to each migrant newcomer for one year, and another 0.33 lessons during five more years. So that there is a considerably higher budget now to help students more individually.

But: Why is it still not possible to take English as an optional foreign language for migrants into consideration?

But: Why is it still hardly possible to use the migrants' own languages at least partly for general subjects, too?

But: Why is it still not possible to substitute one foreign language by another (e.g. Turkish instead of English or French)?

And, last but not least: Why is there still no place for mother-tongue education, granted by the constitution?

We will find the same answers as in neighbouring countries: Assimilation instead of integration. Austria has not made a very big step forward, but the new curricula are a first step, at least.

Lit.:

Reumüller, Alfred/Seitz, Peter (Hg.): Interkulturelles Lernen. - Der neue Lehrplan; Organisationsregelungen. Übertragung der Schulversuche ins Regelschulwesen ab dem Schuljahr 1992/93. INTERKULTURELLES LERNEN 1 Zentrum für Schulversuche, 1992 Universitätsstraße A-9020 Klagenfurt