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By: Mark F. Milotich
At 7:30 a.m., the subway car is filled with students on their way to the Gymnasium. There is a lot of commotion, laughing, and yelling. Many of the boys are standing in the aisle, horsing around. Girls are mostly sitting down chatting with one another or flirting with the boys. Students are dressed in the latest fashion: T-shirts or sweatshirts with English logos, baseball caps worn backwards and jackets from the L. A. Raiders. Most have a well-worn leather school bag at their side.
The subway comes to a stop and the student's pile out, the chatter getting louder. Students break up into small groups along the 5-minute walk from the station to the school. Most reach the school 10 minutes before they need to be in class and use the time to roll a cigarette. There's no smoking inside, but in the schoolyard it seems almost everyone is smoking and talking to friends. A bell rings and the students casually enter the building. A teacher in the doorway urges them in a friendly way to hurry a bit. Suddenly, the yard is empty and quiet. The school day has begun.
Over a period of 3 months, I examined the role of secondary school in the lives of German adolescents. Schools visited included Gymnasien, Hauptschulen, Realschulen, Gesamtschulen and vocational schools. In total, 23 students were interviewed at 12 schools in 3 cities. In addition to the student interviews, the research consisted of interviews with teachers, parents, and principals as well as classroom visits and observations of students in school, at home, and in public. Of the interviews conducted, 17 were at academic high schools (Gymnasien), 11 at vocational high schools (Berufsschulen), and 28 at lower secondary schools (Hauptschule). A total of 30 classroom and general observations were included in the data. Most interviews were held at school in available classrooms or in the principal's office. Several parent and student interviews also took place at the family home or at the workplace. Student interactions with one another and with teachers were noted during class, mostly in mathematics and science. In addition, students were observed in the school hallways, cafeteria, and at informal meeting points before and after school.
I conducted all of the interviews on the topic of adolescents' lives at the primary site, Central City, except for a few interviews at a vocational high school conducted by a German research assistant. Ute Milotich, Mark Ashwill, and William Foraker collected the interview and observation data relevant to the topic of adolescents' lives during their visits to the schools in the secondary sites, East City and South City. Eighteen of the interviews pertaining to this topic were held in East City and 8 in South City. These data were included in the analysis and are reflected in this chapter. Printed information from schools, career-counseling centers, state ministries of education and their affiliated research institutes, and the Conference of Ministers of Education was also integrated into research findings in this chapter.
Most students interviewed were in the 8th and 12th grades. In some cases, students volunteered to be interviewed when I visited their class. However, in many cases it became apparent that the two elected class "speakers" were the first to volunteer themselves. These students, due to their generally outgoing nature, were very forthcoming and probably more forthcoming in their answers than other students would have been. In other cases, the school principal or teachers asked students to participate. Thus, the sample of students was not—and probably could not have been—random. It seems very unlikely that shy students, slow learners, or students with poor social skills would have consented to be interviewed. Somewhat compensating for this problem was the fact that the full range of students were also encountered in observations and informal interactions both at and after school.Parents interviewed were, in many cases, parents of the students interviewed at each school and thus were not a random sample. Often, parents were invited by the school principal to participate in the study because of their active involvement in school activities. Parents showed interest in the study and in the United States educational system in particular as well as in the "researcher from America," as I was often introduced by the principal.
Parents held a wide range of occupations. Most parents were also asked about the occupation of their spouse. Of the men, six were business managers or other professionals (doctor, journalist), four were engineers, three were skilled laborers (electrician, toolmaker, mechanic), one was a semiskilled laborer (airport baggage worker), and one was a civil servant. Over half of the women (10) identified themselves as homemakers (including those who had careers earlier), 2 were teachers, 2 were office assistants, 1 was a business manager, and 1 was a nurse. Fathers of students at the Gymnasium and vocational school were more likely to be employed in business, engineering, or technical fields. Fathers of Haupt/Realschule students were more likely to be in skilled or semiskilled labor professions. Mothers of students at all school types were equally likely to be homemakers.
Although participation was voluntary, in many cases interviewed teachers were selected by the principal and encouraged to take part in this study. These teachers all taught at least one of their major subjects in the natural sciences or mathematics; the most common combination was math and physics. They had an average age of 45–50, and an average of 22 years teaching experience. The large majority of teachers appeared relaxed and enjoyed discussing the role of school in adolescents' lives. Several teachers philosophized about youth, society, and education long after the scheduled interview had ended and the cassette recorder had been turned off. Many were also quite knowledgeable about the United States school system. However, several teachers were critical of the research goals and hesitant in answering questions that I posed.
The primary questions investigated in this study included adolescent time use at school and in other activities, attitudes towards school and education, the transition from secondary school to employment or higher education, and the influence of external factors such as family, peers, and society on adolescent development and school achievement. Under time use, specific topics included school schedule, homework and extracurricular activities, and time spent in leisure activities, with peers or family, or at work. Adolescents' attitudes about education were also examined, in particular, the social role of school, students' motivation to succeed, and their likes and dislikes about school and teachers. The transition from school to work or higher education considered sources of information about careers, vocational decisionmaking, the "dual system" of apprenticeship and study, and university programs. Lastly, I investigated external influences on adolescent development, including parental involvement, peers, the media, unemployment, and violence in society and at school.
[Chapter 4 (Part 2 of 5)]