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Transnational German Education and Comparative Education Systems: Research and Practice (2020), edited by Benjamin Nickl, Stefan Popenici and Deane Blackler, is part of a series entitled Global Germany in Transnational Dialogues. The series takes a broad scope targeted at expanding interdisciplinary dialogue and advancing the goal to provide a renewed glance at Germany’s relations to other countries since the turn of the century. The editors explicitly invite readers to apply the conversations to other transnational contexts, and that is exactly where I see one of the primary values in this compilation.
This book review advances questions about the application of German transnational education projects as they relate to internationalization for society. Suggestions for further editions in the series include incorporating research from the host countries impacted by German TNE and German citizens’ concerns about the societal relevance of German TNE. I have two goals for this book review: first, I aim to link the themes presented in the book to the current state of international higher education amid the challenges and changes that have been sped up by the global pandemic. Then, I will present an overview of each chapter in the book and end with closing thoughts about opportunities for development.
Internationalization for society: A German blueprint?
With the emergence of the global pandemic came the igniting and revival of discussions about internationalization of higher education for society, internationalization at home and green international education. As universities consider alternative plans to maintain or save enrollment, now is the time to look towards successful models of sustainable educational import and export. Germany’s approach is one model from which higher education institutions and systems can derive inspiration and leadership. Transnational Education (TNE) will be pivotal in charting the path for the future of international higher education (IHE), and this book helps readers envision how the future of internationalization can be more sustainable, inclusive, and socially responsible using the example of German TNE projects. Considering pressing global issues, mutually beneficial internationalization must take the front seat if international educators want to achieve the goal of forging closer ties between people at all levels of society, and between people in partnering and host societies. Germany’s TNE efforts are helping bridge gaps in access, quality of education, labor market applicability and societal relevance, both at home and abroad. Although the German approach is far from perfect, it offers a smorgasbord of encouragement for an alternative to the primarily profit-driven, competitive TNE that currently dominates the landscape. I am not arguing that this collection of research studies offers explicit answers to the challenges higher education was facing pre-COVID, is facing now, or will face in the coming years. Rather, I believe it offers timely, important contributions that can guide discussions on how to cultivate sustainable, responsible, and socially relevant internationalization.
An exhibition of German transnational education
The book comprises nine chapters written by over a dozen scholars, practitioners and educators, focusing on various aspects of German TNE in the broadest sense. The editors organize it into three sections: Positioning Transnational Education in Germany; Teaching Transnational German Studies Across the Globe; and Comparative Perspectives on Education Policy and Strategies. Peppered with interviews, commentaries, and position statements from relevant stakeholders in German transnational education, it is an interactive, engaging read.
The first section opens with the chapter Germany’s road towards transnational provision of higher education and its footprint in China and Turkey, by Susanne Kammüller, Susanne Otte, and Wiebke Bachmann. It lays significant groundwork for framing Germany’s role in developing joint universities abroad, focusing specifically on the cases of China and Turkey to illustrate German TNE provision. It summarizes developments in German transnational education and international program and provider mobility (TNE-IPPM), including concise statistics of activity in the sector. For practitioners or scholars unfamiliar with Germany’s approach to TNE-IPPM, including its work in creating international joint/binational universities, this chapter provides an excellent starting point. The profiled countries highlight joint university initiatives between Germany and the respective nation-states, and how the projects relate to the host countries’ own internationalization strategies. Germany’s role in collaborative TNE has become something of a brand marker; its projects are mostly known for being mutually beneficial yet geared towards advancing its own strategic national internationalization and diplomacy objectives, but not at the expense of host country development. Rather, as outlined in this chapter, Germany has proven that both its goals as a TNE provider and those of the TNE host countries can be achieved concurrently.
The second chapter, Transnational education in the 21st century and its quality assurance from a German perspective, by Katrin Mayer-Lantermann, head of legal and international affairs at the German Accreditation Council, offers a systemic overview of the legal framework and regulations that German TNE projects are governed by and have to adhere to. It is accompanied by a discussion of the challenges and hurdles regarding quality assurance in TNE that differ from national programs.
In the third chapter, The emergence of transnationalisation of higher education of German universities, Nadin Fromm and Alexander Raev apply a policy analysis approach to understanding German TNE as a nation-state policy instrument, using the most important actors involved in TNE policy-making and provision. As they point out, the Anglo-Saxon model of TNE has dominated the scene for decades, but some nation-states have turned towards a collaborative model, intent on advancing agendas beyond generating profit. An explanation of Germany’s nation-state behavior is used to increase understanding of its TNE model. The authors center the piece on a historical synopsis of the origins and evolution of German TNE projects. A survey of the various actors that define and shape German TNE cumulates in a better understanding of the new, fragmented policy-making taking place in German TNE. By doing so, they both advance and highlight a research gap in nation-state centered approaches of TNE. They argue that German TNE projects deviate away from classical domestic higher education policies into an inherently political territory with its own objectives and aims. Beyond its use in the German context, this article can serve as a framework for researchers interested in investigating other countries involved in nation-state driven collaborative TNE from the policy perspective.
The second section, Teaching Transnational German Studies Across the Globe, begins with the chapter Outside the nation: Taking stock of a sense of duty and diversity in German Studies abroad. In it, Benjamin Nickl explores Germany’s tradition of a nation-centered approach in German Studies and profiles the three main organizations responsible for cultural and science diplomacy: the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH), and the German Research Association (DFG). He profiles several projects and initiatives outside of Germany that advance a more socially just and moral German Studies adaptable to the local context in which they teach it. Examples include Georgetown University’s Department of German Curriculum Revision Project; Women in German; and the Diversity, Decolonization and the German Curriculum project.
In The state of diversity and decolonization in North American German Studies, Ervin Malakaj offers a systematic overview and impulses for practical directions aimed at increasing diversity and decolonizing the field of German Studies in North America. The article discusses dwindling interest in German Studies at the university level, instrumentalization of German language studies, and the concerning lack of under-represented persons studying and teaching German Studies. Budget downsizing in the United States and Canada has led to cutting foreign-language programs, and this has motivated language departments and the Goethe Institute to revamp communication about the value of German language education, narrowing in on its economic value. Malakaj argues that the two concurrent developments in German Studies, a model for diversity/decolonization and a model for instrumentalization of German Studies, are incompatible.
Irina Herrschner’s chapter, The language-culture nexus: German teaching in a culturally rich environment as part of the German model of cultural diplomacy, rounds out the second section by offering insight into the role of German language teachers abroad. It presents the results of a study of Goethe Institute German teachers in Germany and abroad, with results highlighting powerful insight into how the German language teachers negotiate and shape the curriculum to fit the cultural context in which they teach. It also raises essential—and I would argue pressing—questions about Goethe Institute’s teaching materials, which can end up reinforcing comfortable stereotypes of Germany instead of accurately displaying the multicultural, complicated picture of a country amid societal development.
The third section, Comparative Perspectives on Education Policy and Strategies, is populated by three diverse topics: bilingual German childhood education, overseas pre-service teaching experiences, and a case study of a binational university. For someone unfamiliar with bilingual German childhood education, the first chapter in this section, Bilingual German childhood education and school transition: Literature review and policy suggestions for Australia, by Ivy Zhou, provides an excellent overview of efforts within Germany for bilingual children and for German children abroad. Zhou presents the benefits of such programs as policy recommendations for the Australian government, but the findings are equally interesting for any society faced with the challenge of educating youngsters in their mother tongue and the country’s majority spoken language.
The next chapter, Juggling selves: Navigating pre-service teaching experiences in overseas contexts, by Michiko Weinmann, Rod Neilsen and Isabel Martin, presents a comparative case study of two overseas teaching programs, a German-led initiative bringing students to Laos, and an Australian-led initiative heading to Chile. In both cases, the authors draw on two qualitative small-scale case studies to dissect the sense-making of students’ transitions both to the host countries and re-entry to the sending country. A critical eye on implications of overseas pre-service teaching programs leaves the reader with a sense of the complex arrangement necessary to balance the benefits and drawbacks of such programs.
Another look at German-backed bilateral university projects is offered by Ann Vogel in the last chapter of the book, Transnational institutions of higher education and their contribution to the national innovation system: The case of the German University of Technology in Oman. The author outlines and analyzes the German University of Technology in Oman through the perspective of its contribution to Oman’s national innovation system and encourages a more robust analysis of the involved advantages for national actors. This chapter illustrates the mutually beneficial partnership that can come from joint higher education institutions and offers ideas for further research on the complications of such institutional models, nation-state involvement and engagement of individuals. German-backed universities are concentrated in the MENA region (Jordan, Egypt, Oman, Turkey), with new additions to the (primarily) binational university family planned for Kenya and Egypt. For this reason, this article also serves as a starting point for further investigation into German joint/binational university projects.
Missing impact research
The book’s major strength comes from the kaleidoscope of topics covered, encompassing the spectrum of German TNE from elementary education to higher education. It encourages limiting silo studies, and by doing so contributes to connecting the dots among education levels and their accompanying societal reverberations. It offers a reminder that higher education does not exist on its own and cannot solve all of society’s challenges without efficient and effective educational foundations. The primary–secondary–higher education connection interwoven throughout this book is timely and deserves more attention by higher education scholars. However, the lack of a summarizing conclusion forces the reader to connect the dots between the diverse range of topics independently.
For further editions in the series I would like to suggest a few areas for development. Despite the wide variety of topics presented in the book, there is an almost ubiquitous focus from the provider (vs. host) perspective. There has been little investigation from the host country stakeholder perspective, such as from the governments partnering with Germany to create joint universities; perspectives and experiences of students taking part in German TNE abroad; or German students taking part in German TNE abroad. Furthermore, it becomes clear that Germany is working hard to attract international talent, but students’ success and struggles once they are “won over” are not explored in this compilation. At the same time, behind closed apartment doors in Germany, citizens increasingly wonder why they pay for international students to get a free education in Germany—especially when nearly half of those graduates leave Germany. The editors voice an understandable dissent towards commercialization and neoliberalism, but addressing hard yet societally relevant questions like these will be necessary to build bridges within polarized domestic communities disenchanted by globalization and its offshoots—such as taxpayer-funded international and transnational education. You cannot have impactful internationalization for society without a society that values, supports and sees the benefit of internationalization. This book is almost entirely devoid of the perspectives of those affected directly by German TNE, including German taxpayers. Where are their voices?
Overall, the robust impression of Germany’s transnational education provision from bilingual elementary schools to bilateral universities is a rich contribution that not only scholars of international and comparative education can enjoy. This book opens a range of viewpoints from which other countries’ TNE provision can be explored and investigated. For readers solely interested in higher education, the book’s three chapters on the under-researched topic of joint/binational universities are gems, specifically because they provide historical background and context in English.
The Germans are on to something—and I hope international education practitioners and scholars read this book and allow it to provide them with thought-provoking impulses for their own institutional, national, and societal contexts.