Personality or science-based?

The paper deals with two questions that focus on changes to the final examination of elementary teacher education. Cases of contested selection criteria are especially taken into consideration in order to ask the following questions: To what extent did the actors involved show instrumental, collective and individual readings of the examination process with regard to objectivity? Under which institutionally different circumstances, habits established practices and constraints could examination standards be counteracted? In order to answer these questions, the paper will look at the change and refinement of examination regulations. Furthermore, interventions of the examiners will be depicted based on archival documents. It turns out that the examiners' attempts to evade rationalisation pressure can be understood as obstinate interpretations of present sets of rules induced by specific teacher training cultures.