TEACHERS AND SOCIAL-CHANGE - SELECTED FINDINGS FROM A 1996 SURVEY OF TEACHERS IN BERLIN

In this contribution, the authors reconstruct the public image of the teacher in Germany over the years and hold it up to the mirror of thei r 1996 survey on ''Experiences and Occupational Self-Concept of Teache rs in Berlin'', which was carried out in the framework of the DFG Rese arch Group on ''Schools and Education During the Transformation from S oviet Occupation Zone to German Democratic Republic to New Federal Sta tes''. In comparing teachers from eastern and western Berlin, the auth ors pursued hypotheses of both convergence and divergence. The value o rientation found among teachers in east and west is in many cases simi lar but often quite different. Factor and cluster analyses show these groups to be particularly divided in their attitudes toward integrativ e and selective school models. In the western part of Berlin, it appea rs impossible to reconcile the concepts of integration and selectivity , while in the east they have combined to become part of the standard programme. For the authors, this split reveals a divergence deserving of further study, for it may be a marker to the next stage of research in this area. Finally it is asked whether the implications of the Eas t-West divide can be overcome through research so that we can move on to the question: How and under what circumstances can the experience g ained in the new federal states following unification be transferred t o the states of former West Germany?