Diversity as a New Moral Value in the Education Plan of Baden-Wuerttemberg after the Introduction of BTV as Guiding Perspective

Abstract

With the introduction of the guiding perspectives to the Baden-Wuerttemberg-curriculum, the concepts of diversity and variety is becoming more central to teaching. The article undertakes a discourse analysis of documents related to the introduction of the guiding perspective BTV (= Education for Tolerance and Acceptance of Diversity). The term diversity is analysed for its use and definition, whereby its shortening to the topics of “cultural difference” and “disability” is noted. In this context, the term diversity is no longer used to describe social facts, but ascriptively in the sense of a moral stance, with the promise of solving social ills in the school system, such as educational inequality. The discourse thereby shifts the responsibility for redeeming this metagood to the individual, especially the teachers.