Part IV The German-Speaking Countries

Germany

AustriaSwitzerland

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Map IV.1 The Ge rman-speaking countries

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Germany, Austria and Switzerland share a number of features: they are federal states, 1 German is a main language 2 and in the school system children are placed according to academic abilities at an early age. This means that most academically gifted students are likely to be found in a particular type of school, for example, Gymnasium in Germany (European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education 2009 , p. 20).

In all countries, provisions are present for talented and gifted children in primary and secondary education. These provisions have a long tradition: according to German professor Albert Ziegler et al. ( 2013 ), measures to support talented and gifted children have been in place since the late eighteenth century. 3 These measures can be found inside but especially outside the school system. Associations like Jugend forscht in Germany and Switzerland and the Deutsche Schüler/JuniorAkademie challenge children in summer camps and other meetings. Youth can also get acquainted with the university early on, for example, through the KinderUni and Schüler/innen an die Hochschulen programs in Austria.

Another feature found throughout the German-speaking countries is the role of private foundations in sponsoring both individual talented youngsters and programs for this group. These foundations can be neutral, but are often based on an ideology or related to a church. Particularly in Germany, these foundations play an important role in providing opportunities for excellent students (independent from the univer-sities), both fi nancially and as a network opportunity. Some foundations also work across country borders, such as the WiWi talents program that is open to all German- speaking students in economics 4 and the business-sponsored German-language e-fellows network that brings together talented students from different countries and focuses on career development. 5

Experts on gifted education from the three countries have been working together in the International Panel of Experts on Gifted Education (iPEGE, see www.ipege.net and iPEGE 2009 ) to promote the dissemination of knowledge about gifted edu-cation and provide tools for teacher training. 6

Apart from the similarities and cooperation efforts, there are also differences between and within the countries. While honors programs have been developed in Germany and Austria, they are still absent in Switzerland. Within Germany, the state of Bavaria focuses heavily on talent development and has more programs and other facilities than other states.

1 Germany and Austria are federal states, Switzerland is a confederation. 2 In Switzerland, four offi cial languages are spoken: apart from German, these are French, Italian and Romansh. 3 The authors provide a historic overview of the development of gifted education in the German- speaking countries. 4 See www.wiwi-online.de 5 See www.e-fellows.net 6 At the time of writing iPEGE has published four brochures. One of these, called Professional Promotion of the Gifted and Talented – Recommendations for the Qualifi cation of Experts in Gifted Education is also published in English (iPEGE 2009 ).

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We have focused mostly on universities in our search for honors programs. This is partly because in the German tradition, there is quite a big difference between universities and universities of applied sciences ( Fachhochschulen ), and most talent programs are expected to be found at the university level. The focus on universities is also due to a practical reason. In Germany, there are over 100 universities. In addi-tion, there are over 200 Fachhochschulen. Contact was made with an organization of these institutions at the national level: the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz. 7 They did not know about any programs fi tting our description of honors programs, but could not be sure there are none and recommended us to contact the institutions individually. This was unfortunately not possible in the time frame of this research project.

In the next chapters, similarities and differences in the development of honors programs among the German-speaking countries will be discussed in detail.

Literature

European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. (2009). Gifted Learners – A sur-vey of educational policy and provision . Retrieved from: www.pef.uni-lj.si/fi leadmin/Datoteke/CRSN/branje/Gifted_Learners_A_Survey_of_Educational_Policy_and_Provision__2009_.pdf . 24 Jan 2014.

iPEGE (International Panel of Experts for Gifted Education). (2009). Professional promotion of the gifted and talented. Recommendations for the qualifi cation of experts in gifted education . Salzburg: iPEGE. Retrieved from: www.oezbf.net/cms/tl_fi les/Publikationen/Veroeffentlichungen/iPEGE_1_english.pdf . 3 Sept 2014.

Ziegler, A., Stoeger, H., Harder, B., & Balestrini, D. P. (2013). Gifted education in German- speaking Europe. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 36 (3), 384–411.

7 See www.hrk.de

IV The German-Speaking Countries