TEACHER ROLE AND TEACHER IDENTITY IN THESE CHANGING TIMES - CHALLENGES AND ISSUES OF CONTINUING TEACHER-EDUCATION IN THE NEW GERMAN STATES

In the context of the radical changes in the new East-German federal states of the reunited Federal Republic, teachers are confronted with role and identity problems connected with loss of orientation, demolition processes, reform and reorganisation, humillation arid insecurity. This contribution attempts to define the problem zones and areas of breakdown responsible for these role and identity changes and to define the implications for the in-trainig of teachers and for school development plans. Using the example of a specific in-trainig project (a postgraduate course in political education in Brandenburg), aspects of personal professional identity and changes in areas of attitudes and opinions are considered, and shown to be partly the result of dialectical process between East and West German pedagogues. An account of the practical work in the project considers the relationship between innovative in-service trainig programmes and mutual processes of irritation and attitude modification occurring in both the East and the West German participants.