Between ideology and institution: The establishment of modern foreign languages in Higher Education in a comparison of Prussia and Zurich

Abstract

This paper examines the different handling of instruction in modern foreign languages in Prussia and Zurich. When drawing the comparison, I proceed contextually in three ways. First, I examine the quantitative significance of instruction in modern foreign languages as compared to other school subjects in the different types of gymnasiums. Second, I set the developments of the types of gymnasiums and their curricula in relation to further, formal organizational elements of the school, such as administration or control. And third, I examine this overall organization of the school in the context of fundamental cultural convictions in the two territories. Beyond the transnational affinities, the contextualization of the overall organization within cultural convictions reveals fundamental differences that become visible precisely when we look at modern foreign languages