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The 'elastic' borders of Europe and the diversity of its 'educational map'On the base of long discussions the authors of this handbook have decided for an extensive concept. It comprises the education systems, in particular the schools, in Europe in a geographical dimension, whose borders essentially coincide with those uniting the member states of the Council of Europe. The education systems described, with their foci on primary and secondary schools, call attention to a concept of Europe, which is extended from the North Cape to Crete and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Caspian Sea. Therefore it is oriented to the notion of 'elasticity' whose applicability is, in particular, demonstrated by the inclusion of the Transcaucasian republics as well as of the two 'bi-continental' countries: the Russian Federation and Turkey. This 'elasticity' (Fernández-Armesto 2002, p. 13) is reflected by the diversity of the individual country studies with regard to the historical emergence and development of 'national education systems' in their specific political, legal, socioeconomic and cultural frameworks. As regards their structures, significant differences are, above all, typical of both secondary levels of schooling: at the lower level the preference for integration versus vertical (bi-partite or tri-partite) structuring, at he upper level the specific kind of interrelations between institutions of general (liberal) and vocational education. In this context particular mention should be made of the pre-school level inside or outside the legally established 'education systems'. Finally, the mainstream of diversity had its significant impacts on curricula and syllabi, time-tables, examination systems and the ways of instruction and education.Diversity in modern Europe traces back to the emergence of the 'national education systems' with the foundation of schools by absolute princes in Germany in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, gradually expanding all over Europe. England and Wales joined this trend comparatively late, namely in the end of the 19 th and at the beginning of the 20 th centuries. It has been further complicated by the temporal differences concerning the beginning of nation-states and 'national education systems'. It was only in the course of the 20 th century that this process was pushed by the collapse of the multinational and multicultural empires at the end of World War I and the constitution of new nation-states on their former territories, and completed by the collapse of the Soviet-dominated 'Eastern bloc' and Yugoslavia at the beginning of the nineties (Mitter 2004a).Observing comparable features of diversity should not, however, obscure the widespread range of commonalities interlinking the current education systems. First of all in the whole of Europe compulsory school attendance has been enacted, and it is still in the process of expansion. Everywhere schools are horizontally structured by primary, secondary and tertiary levels, regardless of their individual extensions and demarcations. It is true that cu...

The current period signals a shift of paradigm in the relations between the nation-state and the 'national education system' with regard to the educational sovereignty the modern state has held for three hundred years. It is challenged by international und supranational institutions emerging from associations among national member states, such as the European Union. Beyond these 'public' institutions educational sovereignty becomes a target of intervention by the globalising markets, whereby GATS acts as their most influential agent. This observation points the way to the 'pre-history' of educational sovereignty before the rise of the modern state. This topic is discussed with special regard to the relations between the public and non-public sector of education systems in this historical process. Grundlegende FragenWenn wir in Europa das Verhältnis von öffentlichen und nichtöffentlichen Schulen untersuchen, gehen wir in fast allen Staaten von der Voraussetzung aus, dass zum einen die öffentliche Schule die Regelschule darstellt, zum anderen die Schulaufsicht über fast alle Schulen beim Staat liegt, also auch die nichtöffentlichen Schulen einschließt. Diese grundlegende Frage lässt sich daher auf den Begriff der Bildungssouveränität beziehen, der einen Teilbereich von "Souveränität" erfasst. Mit diesem Begriff bezeichnete der bedeutende Staatstheoretiker JEAN BODIN (1530-1596) die dem -in seiner Lebenszeit -entstehenden modernen Staat eigentümliche, nicht abgeleitete, allumfassende und nach außen und innen unabhängige Hoheitsgewalt. "Bildungssouveränität" gründet demzufolge auf dem Anspruch des modernen Staates und des von ihm gesetzten Rechts, "den Untertan in den notwendigen Kulturfertigkeiten zu unterrichten, damit er die Anordnungen der Obrigkeit lesen und sich im Beamtenstaat schriftlich verständigen könne, damit er vor allem in die Lage versetzt würde, durch BuE 59 (2006) 1 5 Brought to you by |

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