International Council on Archives

        Section for Archival Education and Training


First European Conference for Archival Educators and Trainers

Hans Scheurkogel, Archiefschool, Amsterdam
Workshop Curriculum Development

 

1. Introduction

Archivists are professionals and are supposed to be - and indeed generally are - working in a professional environment.

Now, for a number of reasons, we can observe in recent years a shift within professional organisations whereby not so much the knowledge of professionals is valued as well as their competencies. The extremely high speed in developing knowledge and, at the same time, the tremendous increase in the possibilities for diffusion of that knowledge has led to the conviction that knowledge quickly becomes obsolete. For this reason other skills than knowledge in professional activities and functions are increasingly being rewarded: problemsolving skills, organizing skills, recognition of specific learning necessities etc.

In some countries this development has led to the rethinking and reshaping of higher education; the outcome has been the reframing of the curriculum from a (academic) discipline-oriented to a competency-oriented curriculum.

 

The workshop will focus on the implications that such an approach constitutes for archival education. These implications will turn out to be enormous: archival educators who opt for this approach will have to face the rethinking of every aspect of the educational organisation they were accustomed to …..

 

As a starting point, we have been allowed to use the curriculum of our generous host, the Marburg Archivschule. It has an international fame - and rightly so - for educating the highly acclaimed German archivists since 1949

The Archivschule has recently renewed its curriculum following the new Regulation for archival education and examination for Hessen (1997). The actual curriculum in German can be found on the Marburg website www.uni-marburg.de/archivschule/kurrikulumhd2.html

.

A shortened English translation is presented infra. This new curriculum can be defined as the apex of what a modern German archivist has to know to be prepared for the exigencies of a contemporary German archival professional.

 

Question:
What will happen if we turn the clock something like a 180 degrees and apply the competency orientation to its program - or ours?

The workshop will (depending on the time at our disposal …) focus on matters like:

  • what are competencies and how do we establish them
  • what are the advantages of focusing on competencies
  • what implications does it have for curriculum organisation
  • how do we test/validate competencies

2. The Marburg curriculum

Note: only the disciplines were translated in English because those are the ones that matter in this workshop (column 2); in the other columns are presented
Col 1: the course nr.
Col 3: hours per week
Col 4: Theme
Col 5/6/7: lecture hours /week (distribution by trimester)
Col 7/8/9: total of lecture hours per trimester

 

Nr.

Stun-
den

Themen

Veranstal-
tungsform  

Formen für
Teilnehmer-
arbeiten  

Trimester-
wochen-
stunden

Gesamt-
stunden /
Trimester

 

FT/W

St/W

HT/W

17W

14W

15W

Archival science (AW)

 

 

AW1

2

Introduction to arcival Science: terminology; concepts; literature; the international archival scene

Seminar

Referate

2

 

 

34

0

0

AW2

2

Structural analysis of archives: typology; series and records; context

Übung

Einzelne
Analysen
in Gruppen

2

 

 

34

0

0

AW3

2

Appraisal: theory and methods: characteristics of the internatinal discussion (documentation strategy, horizontal vs vertical appraisal, Pivot etc.).

Seminar

Referate

 

2

 

0

28

0

AW4

2

Communication and access: Review of international developments; standards; it-possibilities and internet

Seminar

Referate

 

2

 

0

28

0

AW5

2

Electronic records: Structure, archival processing; influences of ict on archival methods and theory

Seminar mit Vorführungen

Referate

 

 

2

0

0

30

AW6

2

Archives management: from theory to practice (including project management, teambuilding etc).

Kolloquium mit externen Referenten

 

 

 

2

0

0

30

AW7

2

Development and history of archival science, history of archival institutions and the archives landscape, connection between archival history and administrative history

Seminar

Referate

 

2

 

0

28

0

AW8

2

Preservation management.

Vorlesung mit Übung

 

 

2

 

0

28

0

AW9

1

Collection building and access.

Vorlesung

 

 

 

1

0

0

15

Summe

17

 

4

8

5

68

114

75

 

Business administration (VW)

 

 

VW1

1

Introduction to business administration .

Seminar

Präsentationen

1

 

 

17

0

0

VW2

2

Working processes and records creation: Oral and written communication in decision making; internal organisation and external control; comparison of historical and national forms.

Seminar

Referate

 

2

 

0

28

0

VW3

2

Document management systems and electronic or automated record keeping systems.

Seminar mit Vorführungen

 

 

 

2

0

0

30

VW4

1

Medieval and early modern chancery procedures: Origin, development, functioning..

Seminar

Referate

1

 

 

17

0

0

VW5

2

Institutions and their procedures and working processes (19th - 20th century): origins, developments, influences on records creation and management.

Seminar

Gruppenarbeiten

 

2

 

0

28

0

VW6

2

Idem, Focussing on communal institutions .

Seminar

Referate

 

 

2

0

0

30

VW7

2

Financial and personnel (staff) management.

Vorlesung

 

2

 

 

34

0

0

VW8

2

Introduction to Administrative Law: (including introduction to concepts and methods in law).

Vorlesung

Übungen

2

 

 

34

0

0

VW9

2

Statutory basis for public and private archives: key concepts and regulations.

Vorlesung

 

 

2

 

0

28

0

VW10

2

Other legislation relevant for archives: case studies.

Seminar

Referate

 

 

2

0

0

30

VW11

1

French government/institutions in the Revolution era.

Seminar

Übungen

 

1

 

0

14

0

VW12

2

Archival management and management reform.

Vorlesung mit Übung

 

 

2

 

0

28

0

Summe

21

 

6

9

6

102

126

90

 

Auxiliary sciences (HW)

 

 

HW1

1

Basic auxiliary disciplines in archival work (diplomatics, paleography, chronology).

Seminar

Referate

1

 

 

17

0

0

HW2

2

Special auxiliary disciplines (Genealogy Numismatics, Metrology, Heraldry, Sphragistics.

Seminar

Referate

 

2

 

0

28

0

HW3

1

Structures and typology of ecclesiastical charters.

Seminar

Übungen

 

1

 

0

14

0

HW4

2

Idem of secular institutions.

Seminar

Übungen

 

 

2

0

0

30

HW5

1

Registers.

Seminar

Übungen

1

 

 

17

0

0

HW6

2

Techniques of historical editing and presentation.

Seminar

Referate und
Übungen

 

 

2

0

0

30

HW7

2

Typology of files; analytical and genetical diplomatics. .

Vorlesung

Übungen

2

 

 

34

0

0

HW8

1

Structures of 19th-century french files..

Seminar

Übungen

1

 

 

17

0

0

HW9

2

Structures and typology of 17th/18th-century french files..

Seminar

Übungen

 

 

2

0

0

30

Summe

14

 

5

3

6

85

42

90

 

Historical science

 

 

GW1

1

Historiography: Methods and theory of historical research: sources, historical truth, memory and reconstruction.

Kolloquium

Teilnehmer-
präsentationen

1

 

 

17

0

0

GW2

1

Subdisciplines of history: methodology County history, economic and social history.

Seminar

Referate

1

 

 

17

0

0

GW3

2

History of ecclesiastical and secular law: Main archival issues .

Vorlesung

 

2

 

 

34

0

0

GW4

2

Constitutional and institutional history: Medieval and early modern.

Vorlesung

 

2

 

 

34

0

0

GW5

2

Idem: modern.

Seminar

Referate

 

2

 

0

28

0

GW6

1

Idem: 19th century: Decentralisation, local government? developmants, international influences..

Seminar

 

 

1

 

0

14

0

GW7

2

Idem: 20th century: State formation, constitution and forms of dictatorial government..

Vorlesung

 

 

 

2

0

0

30

GW8

2

Idem: contemporary The “Bundesrepublik Deutschland”.

Vorlesung

 

 

 

2

0

0

30

Summe

13

 

6

3

4

102

42

60

 

Practical archival competencies

 

 

FK1

2

Palaographic practice and diplomatic analysis - 16th-20th century.

Übung

in kleinen
Gruppen

2

 

 

34

0

0

FK2

2

Idem, 11th-15th century.

Übung

in kleinen
Gruppen

 

2

 

0

28

0

FK3

1

Language: medieval Latin

Übung

in kleinen
Gruppen

 

1

 

0

14

0

FK4

2

Language: old french (17th-18th century).

Übung

in kleinen
Gruppen

2

 

 

34

0

0

FK5

1

Internet publicationpresentation: Website-building, presenting archives on the Internet.

Übung

in kleinen
Gruppen

 

 

1

0

0

15

FK6

2

Introduction to ICT: System maintenance, software and application management, search engines.

Übung

in kleinen
Gruppen

2

 

 

34

0

0

FK7

1

Legal practice.

Übung

in kleinen
Gruppen

 

 

1

0

0

15

Summe

11

 

6

3

2

102

42

30

Gesamtsumme pro Trimester

27

26

23

459

366

345

Gesamtsumme

1170

URL:http://www.ica-sae.org/mrconfpaper2.html
e-mail to Dr. Karsten Uhde, Date: 14.01.2005