We are happy to share the abstracts for the conference What citizenship education for what democracy? Transnational Perspectives from the 19th to the 21st Century.

Marxism, Dialectic and Conflict Management. West German Business Responses to the International Politicization of Education and Training after ‘1968’

Franziska Rehlinghaus

1. ‘1968’ and a transnational paradigm shift in educational policy

According to Marcel van der Linden, the transnational, left-wing protests of various actors around 1968 had three main reasons: the decolonisation processes, the economic downturn in 1966/67, and the expansion of education. Especially the last two factors had an enormous influence on the politicisation of educational issues in a transnational perspective. After World War II, American human capital theories were widespread and became influential for educational policy inside the OECD. The member states accepted the theory that economic growth could be fostered by investment in education which – as an important side effect – would lead to prosperity and social justice.