CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES

Introduction to the Special Section on EuropeanPerspectives on the Role of Education in Increasingly

Diverse European Societies

Johannes Meier

Bertelsmann Foundation

Children grow up in a highly complex context. Aging and global

demographics, climate change, and technological progress are

underlying change trends that cut across nations and traditional

boundaries of governance. A complicating factor is that the speed

of progress in the fields of science and technology is far ahead of

that in the fields of strategy and policymaking.Many assumptions

of continuity and forms of extrapolation simply do not work any

more. As a result, we are faced with a future that is very hard to

predict at all, as has been pointed out by Ketan J. Patel, founder

and former head of the strategy group at Goldman Sachs for

identifying global trends: The unprecedented amount of infor-

mation and communication may lead to an age of freedom and

ideas or an age of confusion and trivial pursuits. The compression

of time and distance may lead to an age of global reach and

empathy or an age of global disruption. The rise in knowledge and

access may result in an age of plenty or an age of structural

differences or rather indifferences between people (Patel, 2005).

I am convinced that the options that will materialize for

individuals and larger societies will depend to a large extent on

the level and type of education available. Thus, most of us tend

to hope for a ‘‘good education’’ for our children to deal

productively with this uncertainty. However, the dynamics of

this modern context of children and the often dismal perfor-

mance of education systems should force us to be more specific

about the goals and effectiveness of the education systems. In

particular, in becoming more specific, Europeans should

acknowledge the profound changes in the fabric of European

societies due to demographic changes, the enlargement of the

European Union, and migration.

As guest editor of Child Development Perspectives (CDP), the

Bertelsmann Foundation asked a number of European experts to

contribute their perspectives on the role of education in the light

of increasingly diverse European societies. Can the tension

between the desire for diversity and the challenges of main-

taining social cohesion be resolved with the help of education?

What role does citizenship education play? How can education

contribute to more social equity and social mobility? How can

the impact of support systems be evaluated?

The authors have taken a wide variety of approaches to

address these issues. Peter Moss presents a visionary approach

to a new public education that reflects the challenges of

globalization by putting an emphasis on critical thinking,

democracy, a relational ethics of care and respect for others,

and creativity in education. Viola Beatrix Georgi points to the

need for a new citizenship education that includes training for

active participation and democratic values in a European

context. Kai Maaz, Ulrich Trautwein, Oliver Ludtke, and Jurgen

Baumert provide an analysis of the strong relationship between

socioeconomic background and academic success and point to

ways toward more social equity. Wolfgang Bottcher and Holger

Ziegler discuss the needs for and challenges in evaluating the

impact of support systems in early childhood in the context

of a fundamental change in the German debate on the role of

the family.

Clearly, these contributions provide only a glimpse into the

overall debate. We hope that taking a look at these European

perspectives across the Atlantic will provide stimulating

thoughts and reference points for the readers of CDP.

REFERENCE

Patel, K. J. (2005). The master strategist. London: Hutchinson.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed toJohannes Meier, Bertelsmann Foundation, Carl Bertelsmann-Strasse 256, 33311 Gutersloh, Germany; e-mail: johannes.meier@bertelsmann.de.

# 2008, Copyright the Author(s)Journal Compilation# 2008, Society for Research in Child Development

Volume 2, Number 2, Page 92