Reinforcement of differences in educational systems and school curricula may be expected in Europe due to societal crises and transformations. Thus, it is likely that cultural “variants of a capitalist spirit” and different concepts of economic education will become evident in a corresponding curriculum analysis. In this study, we focused on cultures of economic education at the level of grammar school curricula in a federal, multilingual context. We aimed to compare subject content in curricula and identify structural characteristics (e.g. regional language, graduation rates, and cantonal university) associated with differences in subject content. Taking Switzerland as an example, we compiled a representative dataset with 47 curricula and qualitatively analyzed subject content. The results showed that subject content clearly differs in terms of curriculum language, but no clear pattern was found regarding other structural characteristics. We concluded that cultural “variants of a capitalist spirit” are present differently across language regions. This perspective on local differences may help us to understand conflicting goals and measures when facing economic crises on a global level.

No abstract

No abstract

Internationalisation as a factor in the impetus for and establishment of education statistics is analysed, taking the example of Switzerland in a long-term perspective. The case of Switzerland shows that historically, international comparisons depended on the nationalisation of statistics' responsibility. This nationalisation of education statistics' authority was itself closely connected with the demand for the domestic availability of statistics from the sub-central regions. This demand was in turn coupled with the structural challenges in the education system caused by its expansion and the heterogeneous degrees of institutionalisation of education statistics.

No abstract